Two Bangladeshi projects have won this year’s Aga Khan Award for Architecture.  

The projects are a mosque in Dhaka and a community centre in Gaibandha.  

Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, chairman of Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport of the United Arab Emirates announced the winners’ name at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Architect Marina Tabassum won the award for designing Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka and architect Kashef Chowdhury for Chowdhury Friendship Centre in Gaibandha.  

The $1 million prize is awarded every three years to honour architectural projects that address the needs of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The mosque in Dhaka's Faridabad won recognition for pushing the boundaries of what a traditional religious space should look like, award director Farrokh Derakhshani said.

Local children are encouraged to play on the building’s bare modernist space, unusual for a mosque, as shifting sunlight splashes patterns onto the dark interior floor.