Project Description

Across the vast brickfields of Bangladesh, tall chimneys stand as silent witnesses to labor. For decades, they marked the skyline with smoke — symbols of production, endurance, and survival. Beneath them, families molded clay into the bricks that built the nation’s cities. Yet while these chimneys constructed homes for others, they rarely created space for the dreams of the workers’ own children.

Bangladesh operates more than 7,000 brick kilns nationwide, according to the Department of Environment (2023). With stricter environmental regulations phasing out traditional Fixed Chimney Kilns, an estimated 1,000–1,500 chimneys now stand inactive or seasonally abandoned.  They are rarely demolished because dismantling tall masonry stacks is costly, structurally risky, and economically unjustifiable. As a result, these vertical relics remain — unused, but embedded in the landscape. 

This project asks: What if one abandoned chimney could change its purpose?

In a country facing severe land scarcity and accelerating urban pressure, expanding outward is no longer viable. Instead of occupying new ground, this proposal reclaims an existing vertical structure and inserts a compact 10 cubic meter learning capsule within its cylindrical shell. The intervention alone respects the 10m³ constraint; the chimney becomes context, memory, and climatic envelope.

The project explores spatial intelligence within strict limits. The circular geometry of the chimney guides the interior organization: curved wooden shelving and curved seating that follow the brick perimeter. The preserved masonry acts as thermal mass. A circular skylight crowns the top, transforming the former smoke outlet into a calibrated light source. The intervention explores compression, height, and vertical aspiration within a minimal volume. The transformation is symbolic as much as physical. This is not demolition; it is reinterpretation. Bricks that once endured fire now hold books. A shaft that expelled smoke now draws daylight. The entrance threshold invites a subtle bow — a symbolic shift from labor to learning. The chimney becomes a monument not of industry, but of possibility. Where smoke once rose, stories now ascend.

The proposal operates as an adaptive micro-hub. The system is replicable across multiple abandoned kilns nationwide, converting industrial remnants into educational nodes without consuming additional land. In a climate-vulnerable region, reusing existing mass reduces embodied carbon and construction impact.

The design is not just architectural — it is social. It creates a safe, quiet refuge for children who grow up surrounded by industrial landscapes. Safety measures, including a structurally independent structure, controlled entry access, and protective skylight detailing, ensure that the space is secure and child-friendly. The entrance threshold is intentionally modest, encouraging a subtle pause before entering — a moment of transition from labor to learning.

This proposal does not seek to build more. It seeks to build differently. By reusing an abandoned chimney rather than constructing a new, the project challenges conventional notions of development. It shows that vertical remnants of industry can become vertical catalysts for education. In doing so, it transforms scarcity into intelligence and memory into momentum. Where smoke once darkened the sky, stories now rise.