Shuvo Datta is a Research Assistant of the Green Infrastructure Landscape Lab (GILL) at Texas Tech University, developing and evaluating sustainable urban water management innovations at multiple scales. Along with GILL, He is pursuing his Master’s in Landscape Architecture and is expecting to graduate in June 2022.
Shuvo is fueled by His passion for injecting small, simple, but significant change to make a space more inclusive and equitable to a more substantial number of people in the urban realm. So, He focused His interest on water urbanism and landscape design from mainstream Architecture (building design) after completing His Bachelor’s in Architecture from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology in 2017. He was eager to build his academic foundations in landscape architecture and stay in tune with the latest design practice and technologies through continued coursework and professional development.
His desire for knowledge and determination to accept challenges and transform them into strategic solutions has contributed to his recent success stories like the construction of ‘Historic Preservation of Old Dhaka Central Jail Museum and Urban Design Development’ with Form.3 Architects in Bangladesh, construction of ‘Low-Cost Housing for Poor’ with Onushongo Bangladesh, and recommendation award from Institute of Architects Bangladesh in the Research Category for publishing a paper which proposed water urbanism as the core solution for achieving resiliency in Dhaka.
Shuvo is a collaborator, and his leadership skills opt for the greater good for people and the environment.
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, US, Research Assistant
Green Infrastructure Landscape Lab (GILL) is focused on developing and evaluating innovations in sustainable urban water management at multiple scales—from the gutter to the watershed. We employ evidence-based design processes to inform the design of various nature-based interventions for watershed health in semi-arid environments.
As a graduate student working with the GILL lab, I had the opportunities to combine my design skills with the rigorous methods of science and consider how site-scale insights can be upscaled to city-wide impacts. We have built our capacity for design research by participating in various lab and field-based water quality monitoring, computer simulations of urban hydrology, and GI performance using the latest modeling tools, and getting ourselves experienced with pilot-scale green infrastructure interventions in partnership with local stakeholders.
Onushongo Bangladesh, Dhaka, BD, Head of Research & Development
When I started my job as an Architect back in 2016, I realized that somehow I was missing the humanitarian purpose of architecture. After several attempts, I co-founded a team named ‘Onushongo Bangladesh’ [OB] in October 2018. OB is a group of architects currently working on ‘Community Based Synchronized Slum Upgradation in Bangladesh to avoid Gentrification’. We provide affordable housing solutions to urban poor with financial affiliation from investors or banks. OB also achieved the ‘Urban Innovation Challenge Award 2018’ from BRAC and working hard to build two prototypes now.
Form.3 Architects, Dhaka, BD, Associate Architect
I joined ‘FORM.3 Architects’; a progressive post-modernist architectural consultancy firm from April 2018. I got involved with this firm as an Associate Architect from my interest in urban design and to work in a very special award-winning National project; ‘Historic Preservation of Old Dhaka Central Jail and Redevelopment its surrounding area’. As the former jail being shifted elsewhere, the abandoned premise had the opportunity to serve for common good. With a team of 25 Architects, we documented the 29-acre area including 36 old jail buildings, its history, used elements, and all the alterations are done in its 400 years of use. Furthermore, my prior job shifted to redesign the surrounding dense urban area including the 7.45-meter-high wall of the jail with required urban amenities. My work also leads a team directly, to evoke the emotional responses of the inmates inside the dedicated jail area.
Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka, BD, Associate Architect
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, BD, BArch, Architecture
