KUET students reimagine local tea stalls for international design competition

Claymire, a Bangladeshi creative collective, organised an international competition called "Designing The Stall", which solely focused on designing tea stalls where the participants could reimagine the establishments with their creativity while keeping things like the stall's sustainability, aesthetic principles, functionality, and social impact in mind.

"A Tea Stall in North Bengal" following the story of Champa Rani Dey, won the best award for "Community Impact" in the competition. Team members in this project included Shuvro Kumar Ghosh and Atiqur Rahman Atique – two students from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET). Shuvro is currently in his third year while Atique is in his fourth. Both of them are pursuing their B.Arch degrees at the Department of Architecture, KUET.

Both distinguished teams were duly honored, and their projects were showcased at Alliance Française de Dhaka. The Director of Alliance Française de Dhaka, François Grosjean, graced the event with his presence, thereby enriching the proceedings. Photo shows Atiqur Rahman Atique receiving the award.

Shuvro and Atique basically tried to preserve the traditional mud houses located in the Barendra region, contextualised within a fictional narrative centred on Champa Rani Dey. In this era of brick and glass, mud houses are something that must be preserved to showcase the community. For their project, the team chose the location near Paharpur Buddhist Vihara. As per the project description, domestic and foreign tourists frequent the place. According to Shuvro and Atique, "Being able to see the reflection of domestic culture and tradition through drinking tea is a unique dimension for a tea shop. We want domestic tradition and culture to survive for ages through many such stories of cups of tea." 

Another team, also from the Department of Architecture, comprising Md Rifat Mahmud and Fardin Islam, had their project "CommuniTea" listed as one of the Top 30 entries with their project. The main idea of their project was to integrate the "Bondhu Chula" – a traditional stove used in Bangladesh – with "Nakshi Kantha" – a traditional hand-woven textile – to enhance the stall's aesthetics. Rifat and Fardin are currently in the final stages of completing their undergraduate degrees.

Abrar Hossain Rohid is a Campus Ambassador for the Daily Star from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology.