Baitur Rauf Mosque
The Bait Ur Rouf Mosque is a distinctive urban mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Designed by Marina Tabassum and completed in 2012, it stands out for its calm use of light rather than traditional mosque symbols like domes and minarets. The prayer hall is supported by eight outer columns and has no internal pillars, while dozens of circular openings in the ceiling and walls let daylight move across the space.
The building sits in a flood-prone area and is raised on a plinth with a cylinder inside a square, so the hall faces the Qibla at a 13-degree angle. Its walls are handmade terracotta bricks that provide natural ventilation and help keep the interior cool.
Funding came from the community. A widow, Sufia Khatun, donated part of her land after the loss of two daughters and asked her granddaughter, Marina Tabassum, to design the mosque in 2005. Construction took about five years and finished in 2012, with many local donors contributing.
The mosque has a small footprint and no domes, minarets, or decorative panels. It fits into its poor neighborhood and is intended for more than prayer: spaces around and inside the mosque encourage social activities, play for children, and conversations for people of all ages.
Bait Ur Rouf has received international recognition: it was a winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 and won the Jameel Prize from the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2018. It is one of the few mosques in Bangladesh designed by a woman and is celebrated for redefining how a mosque can look and feel.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:24 (CET).