LISBON.- Architect, researcher and educator Marina Tabassum wins the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 6th edition, dedicated to Terra.

«Marina Tabassum’s unique practice touches on the spiritual fundamentals of architecture, without losing sight of its responsibilities and potential impact. Her projects demonstrate both a strong, clear ethical position and delicate, sophisticated design, being uncompromisingly innovative even with limited resources and budget constraints. Always driven by specific cultural and geographical contexts, her work addresses pressing contemporary issues, being particularly mindful of local communities and their environment and history. Marina Tabassum's bold step forward, transforming architecture’s role from a passive-commission model into an active-initiative one, keeps showing us the way towards how architects can challenge the climate crisis and bring about social change in an experimental, respectful and inspiring manner», highlighted the jury members (Cristina Veríssimo, Diogo Burnay, N’Goné Fall, Yael Reisner and Zhang Ke).

This edition's Début Award shortlist is: Atelier Tiago Antero – ATA (Portugal); Atelier Tropical – Valerie Mavoungou (Congo); Ben-Avid (Argentina); messina | rivas architectures (Brazil); Nana Zaalishvili (Georgia); Rohan Chavan (India); Valeria Savinova (Russia); Spatial Anatomy (Singapore); vão (Brazil); Vertebral (Mexico).

The same jury stated «If the first projects of any architect indicate their future path, from the ten Début practices shortlisted it is possible to imagine the future work of an entire generation. There is much that can be learned from these young architects, hailing from different continents, about emerging standpoints on sustainability, social equity and community inclusiveness. The Début finalists prove once again what architecture can do, but, more importantly, what it should do in the present and at the service of our time.»

The trilogy of Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards – Lifetime Achievement, Début and Universities – aims to promote groundbreaking world architecture by recognising those who make it. We will unveil all winners at the Triennale 2022 opening on a live conference where they will present us their contributions to the future of architecture.

Born in Dhaka in 1968, in a family of muslim immigrants from India, Marina Tabassum lives and works in this metropolis with over 20 million inhabitants. Founder and head of Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) for the past 17 years, her work consistently pays careful attention to each specific context, climate and inhabitants, by combining simple easily available materials and common traditional techniques with contemporary and innovative designs. An example of this commitment is Tabassum’s recent work with Rohingya migrants in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, building housing, shelters, distribution centres and collective facilities, or with displaced low-income communities of Bangladesh's coastal regions directly affected by climate change.