Designed by Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA, the low-cost Friendship Hospital delivers essential healthcare services to the local communities of Satkhira in the southern region of Bangladesh, providing a lifeline for thousands of people in an area of the coast that was heavily affected by a major cyclone in 2007. Social purpose organisation Friendship commissioned the hospital as part of its mission to strengthen and empower remote rural areas. Lauded for the care and humanity at the heart of its design, the building responds innovatively to the challenging environmental conditions of the Bengal, directly impacted through rising sea levels.

Over time, the rising sea water has seen former agricultural land converted into shrimp fisheries. The architects therefore wanted to use water as a central theme of the hospital’s design scheme, and this is embodied by a canal cutting through the length of the site, separating the inpatients and outpatients. Rainwater from all areas of the complex is drained and stored in a newly built tank – an essential resource to prevent water logging, as draining is needed from increasingly incessant rains. This water channel also helps with micro climatic cooling during the sweltering summer heat, avoiding the need for high energy consuming air-conditioning. 

The design is said to create an uplifting and inviting experience for visitors, patients and healthcare professionals, and a peaceful environment attuned to health and healing. Intimate courtyards bring light and natural ventilation to the wards, providing spaces for patients and visitors to rest with views of the natural surroundings. Sensitive areas of the hospital are protected from direct tropical light through shielded corridors and double-layered arches. Built for longevity, the hospital campus is crafted in local brickwork chosen for its resilient qualities and low cost, with openings in the brickwork offering private shaded areas and natural cooling.

“An architecture of humanity and protection”

Chair of the RIBA International Prize Grand Jury Odile Decq, the world-renowned multidisciplinary French architect and urban planner, described the hospital as an embodiment of “an architecture of humanity and protection” that reflects Friendship’s philanthropic mission.

“The hospital is relevant to critical global challenges, such as unequal access to healthcare and the crushing impact of climate breakdown on vulnerable communities,” she said. “It’s a demonstration of how beautiful architecture can be achieved through good design when working with a relatively modest budget and with difficult contextual constraints. This hospital is a celebration of a building dedicated to humans.”

RIBA president Simon Allford praised the project as “an exemplar of thoughtful and creative design of a building of great importance and scale, built within a modest budget, and crafted with the local community and its natural surroundings in mind”.

He added: “Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA has created innovative, clear, refined, economical and delightful architecture with social impact – providing essential healthcare services in the rural area and addressing the increasing effects of the climate emergency. I’m delighted that it’s being celebrated as the International Prize 2021 winner.”

Kashef Chowdhury thanked RIBA and the jurors for recognising a project “from the global periphery to bring to the centre of architectural discourse”.

He continued: “I’m encouraged that this may inspire more of us to commit, not in spite of but because of limitations of resources and means, to an architecture of care both for humanity and for nature, to rise collectively to the urgencies that we face today on a planetary scale.”

Runa Khan, founder and executive director of Friendship, said: “Having worked with communities most impacted by climate change over the last 20 years, I have seen, time and time again, proof of my belief that ‘the poor cannot afford poor solutions’.

“With the interplay of light, clay, air and water, Friendship Hospital Shyamnagar comes more alive in beauty with the purpose it serves. It brings new hope of a better tomorrow to some of the most climate-impacted people on this planet.”

Friendship Hospital was selected as the winner of the RIBA International Prize 2021 from a shortlist of three, beating the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin, designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin; and the Lille Langebro bridge in Copenhagen, by WilkinsonEyre with Urban Agency.