Mukta Dinwiddie MacLaren (MDM) Architects Transforming Lives Through Sustainable And Eco-Friendly Infrastructure

Bangladesh is widely known as the Land of Six Seasons. Due to its geographical location and socioeconomic conditions, the country is vulnerable to cyclones and other natural calamities. With hundreds of rivers across the country and its low-lying flat topography in the Bengal Delta River, severe flooding is a recurring scene every monsoon period.

With the history of natural calamities that hit the country, the London-based architectural firm Mukta Dinwiddie MacLaren (MDM) Architects established its branch in Bangladesh with its mission to transform lives through building sustainable housing and buildings in the community for its people. The co-founder, Ahmed Mukta said, "We wanted to give back to the people and make a better way of building infrastructure that is sustainable and eco-friendly with high-quality outcomes." 

Staying true to its core values in sustainability, MDM Architects only uses eco-friendly raw materials in building its design and infrastructure. They have established strong partnerships with governments, embassies, sponsors, and investors. They were able to acquire projects in building multipurpose buildings, low-cost housing, the biggest refugee settlement in the world, blood bank buildings, and creating a sustainable drinking water source for the projects in the country.

One of its biggest projects to date is the Majher Chor (Village Transformation Project), in partnership with the British Business Group. The vision was to build better housing for 164 families on the village island of Majher Chor. After the devastating cyclone Sidr in 2007 hit the country, the island village of Majher Chor took the biggest hit. It was recorded that 16 ft high waves swept the entire village and washed away all the housing and livelihood of the people on the island. The island was left with destroyed root crops and no supply of fresh drinking water source.

The materials used in building the house walls were sand-cement hollow blocks strengthened by incorporating reinforcing bars. Ferro-cement sheets were used for the roof, the raw materials were cast on-site using stone dust, sand, cement, and wire mesh. They have also established a sustainable source of drinking water through rain harvesting systems and installed solar panels for an eco-friendly power source.

Each house is built with individual provision of a rainwater harvesting system; a system that MDM Architects have developed to harvest rainwater by collecting run-off water in 1,000 liter plastic tanks. The solar panels installed in each house supply 40 watts of electricity with a life span of 20 years. The firm concluded the project in 2008 with a huge success. It has transformed the lives of the people who didn't have suitable access to reliable drinking water and electricity even before the cyclone hit.

Witnessing the quality of the houses that were built, MDM Architects has obtained another partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies  (IFRC) to build core residential housing in other parts of the country that were affected by Cyclone Sidr. Over 1,250 shelters were constructed in the affected areas of four districts in southern Bangladesh and organized into 12 clusters.

The concept of the unique residential shelter is to endure cyclonic weather. The strength and endurance of the shelters were tested during Cyclone Aila in 2009 and found that they could withstand any severe natural calamities.

The two major successful projects caught the attention of both local and international media. One of the highlights of these successes is when a local 13-year-old girl was interviewed and asked what kind of difference the project made in her life, she answered "I was able to read at night." 

"People tend to forget to appreciate the things and resources they have until they lose it. The communities we helped had lost almost everything. Changing the lives of these communities is what the company is all about," Mukta said. 

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