<span style="color: #222222;">Floating school project in Bangladesh wins Aga Khan Architecture Award.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Bangladesh is a land of water. A large part of its landscape remains submerged under water during the monsoon months. When Razia Alam came back from England after retirement as teacher, she wanted to build a school for children which is spacious, modern and healthy for learning. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">She also wanted it to be built at a land which was under water for about six months of the year during monsoon period. She contacted the internationally renowned architect of Bangladesh Saif Ul Haque to design the school. He took up the project and came with a school which has won many prestigious awards including the Aga Khan award. It is a floating school named 'The Arcadia Education Project'.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">'The Arcadia Education Project' in South Kanarchor of Bangladesh is an innovative concept. It is an amphibious school built with local material and expertise near the capital city Dhaka. The floating school is unique in its design and novel in its concept. The school also serves as a shelter, a day care centre and a vocational training centre for the local people.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The project involved construction of a school in an area which is under water during the monsoon months. The architect of the project Saif Ul Haque designed a school which remains on the ground during dry season and floats on water when the area is submerged in water during monsoon. He utilised only the local material-bamboo, used tyres and steel drums for constructing the amphibious structure for school. The workforce and artisans for the project were also drawn locally.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The project has been lauded for its contribution to improve the lives of rural students coming from poor families. The school provides an open, connected space to provide a conducive atmosphere for the children.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Aga Khan Foundation in its citation lauded the project for its contribution to improve people's lives, social and economic development, access to education in rural communities and global issues like rising water levels.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The architect of the project Saif Ul Haque is credited with many remarkable architectural works in Bangladesh. BRAC Training Center in Faridpur, Banchte Shekha Center in Jessore, Camp house for French Archaeological Mission in Bogra and Govinda Gunalanker Hostel in Chittagong are some of his important works. He has delivered lectures and taught in various course at Dhaka, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and University of Pennsylvania, USA.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">His writings on architecture and city have been published in Bangladesh and abroad. His books include Pundranagar to Sherebanglanagar: Architecture in Bangladesh (1997) and Sherebanglanagar: Louis I. Kahn and the making of a Capital Complex (2002). </span><br />''  <br />