Mediating Grounds in Chittagong

The project is concerned about dualities and paired terms, problematizing how this type of ordering forms how we conceive and look at the world. More specifically, the division between rural and urban, production and domesticity are in focus. Two concepts — that of the salon and the garden — are being recognized as liminal and in-between spaces, mediating between constructed dualities. They are used as programmatic frames for two sites in Chittagong, Bangladesh; forming ground for two interventions.

The interventions are a small-scale production of ceramic water filter and a seed library. The project concerns the everyday life of the people involved, residing in practices of washing, cleaning, sowing, cultivating, giving dimension, understanding and marvel to these routines and customs. The soil, the clay and in extension the ceramic element is what on a very elemental level joins the garden and the salon. They are also joined on a conceptual level by both being sites for production and sharing of knowledge, each with their own architectural articulation. They are rooted in the scale of the community, where participation is a keystone, and the architecture and its artefacts can be adjusted and modified according to the needs and creativity of its users.