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Marina Tabassum

Untitled, 2025

Etching on Paper
50 x 35.5 cm 
Edition run of 120 + 2 AP’s
£300 (incl. VAT) 

Due to the nature of the three plate etching process each print varies slightly and contains slight imperfections due to the beautiful bespoke printing method. This in turn makes each print slightly unique in its detailing. 

Released on the occasion of Marina Tabassum’s Serpentine Pavilion 2025 A Capsule in Time at Serpentine South, this three-plate colour etching echoes the capsule-like forms that are present in the Pavilion itself.  Compressed in composition, the print depicts two perspectives of the sculptural and geometric qualities of the Pavilion: from ground level and above. 

For centuries, architects have grappled with the temporalities and relationship between architecture and time. A Capsule in Time, reflects on this notion and aims to evoke a meaningful dialogue between the permanent and ephemeral nature of the commission. The Pavilion considers this transience and connects it to parallels found within the dynamic nature of the Bengal Delta: a vast terrain located in the Indian subcontinent that sees land and water in constant flux and where architecture is also ephemeral, or adaptable to the extremities of weather. Populated by audiences over five months and used in a variety of ways, the Pavilion is then disassembled. In Tabassum’s words, ‘architecture becomes memories of lived spaces’.

Positioned along the north-south axis of the park, A Capsule in Time features an elongated capsule-like form with a central court that aligns with Serpentine South’s bell tower. Inspired by summer park-going and arched garden canopies that filter soft daylight through green foliage, the structure is comprised of four wooden sculptural forms with a translucent façade that diffuses and dapples light as it enters the space. Integral to Tabassum’s design is a kinetic element that allows one capsule form to move, transforming the space into a new configuration. This movement is similarly felt in the print’s two perspectives.

 

© 2025 Photo: readsreads.info

Marina Tabassum

See more products by   Marina Tabassum

Marina Tabassum (b. 1969, Dhaka, Bangladesh) is an acclaimed architect and educator who has received numerous international recognitions for her contributions in the field of architecture. She graduated in 1995 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Prior to founding Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) in 2005, Tabassum was a founding partner of the Dhaka-based firm URBANA between 1995 and 2005 with Kashef Chowdhury. In 1997, URBANA won the national competition to design the Independence Monument of Bangladesh and the Museum of Independence under the Public Works Department and the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs. Tabassum’s practice remains consciously contained in size — prioritising climate, context, culture and history — undertaking a limited number of projects per year.

Tabassum is a Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She held the Norman Foster Chair at Yale University in 2023 and has taught as a visiting professor at numerous universities, including the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, USA; the University of Toronto, Canada; and BRAC University, Bangladesh. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and served as academic director at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements between 2015 and 2021.

Tabassum’s pursuit for the ‘architecture of relevance’ has won her numerous awards including the Soane Medal from the United Kingdom; Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture; and the Jameel Prize from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 for the Bait ur Rouf Mosque and has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga KhanAwards for Architecture from 2017 to 2022 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). In 2024, Tabassum was included in TIME Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’.

Tabassum chairs the Executive Board of Prokritee, a fair-trade organisation that promotes crafts and provides livelihood to thousands of women artisans of Bangladesh. She is the founding chairperson of the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (F.A.C.E), a non-for-profit organisation that focuses on climate adaption and architecture’s agency and responsibility in providing dignified living conditions for marginalised populations. F.A.C.E is currently working with communities to build mobile modular housing (known as Khudi Bari) in various geographically and climatically challenged locations in Bangladesh.

Tabassum’s work is currently the subject of a travelling exhibition organised by Architektur Museum der TUM, Munich, showing in Lisbon and Delft. She has previously presented work at Whitechapel Gallery, London (with Rana Begum, 2019); Sharjah Architecture Triennale (2019); and Venice Architecture Biennale (2018). Her work has been published by ArchiTangle; Harvard Graduate School of Design; ORO Editions; and Lars Müller Publishers among others.

 

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