Adaptive Deltaic Resilience: An Architectural Framework for Disaster Resilience in the Deltaic Landscape of the Sundarbans

Project idea

Bangladesh's coastal delta is one of the most climatically vulnerable landscapes on earth. The Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, has evolved over millennia into a precise adaptive system: its root networks dissipate storm surge, its canopy modulates wind, its ecology regenerates through disturbance rather than resisting it. Yet the built environment immediately adjacent to this landscape operates on an entirely opposite logic, static, flood-vulnerable, and structurally isolated from the intelligence the forest has already developed.
This project proposes a replicable architectural framework that reverses this separation. The premise is direct: the foundational failure of climate-responsive architecture in Bangladesh's coastal delta is the persistent division between everyday infrastructure and disaster infrastructure. Buildings serve one or the other, never both. The framework dissolves that boundary by translating the adaptive logic of the Sundarbans into spatial systems capable of transforming between daily use and emergency function.
The framework is a set of five operative principles derived from ecological observation incorporated with architectural design logic: Climate-Responsive Form Generation, Adaptive Massing, Regenerative Material Strategy, Ecological Defense, and Dual-Use Spatial Programming. These principles are demonstrated through a prototype building: the Mangrove Adaptation and Learning Center (MAKC), sited at Koyra, Khulna. This is a site on the delta's edge, positioned at the convergence of local community, recurring cyclone paths and the Sundarbans boundary.

Project description

The MAKC functions simultaneously as a community learning center and a cyclone preparedness facility. This duality is not achieved through redundant construction, it is built into the spatial logic of the building itself, making Dual-Use Spatial Programming the governing principle of the entire framework.
The building's form is generated directly from site-specific climatic data and assessed with CFD simulation. Prevailing wind direction, storm surge trajectory, and solar orientation together shape a massing that is aerodynamically tuned, a curved roof profile that deflects lateral wind pressure rather than resisting it frontally, drawing on the aerodynamic logic of traditional deltaic roofing.
Adaptive massing governs the building's capacity to shift between operational states. Core spaces, the multipurpose hall, labs, workshop areas, and community gathering spaces, are designed with flexible spatial programming and elevated floor plates that allow rapid reconfiguration into emergency shelter, medical triage support, or relief distribution points. The elevated plinth addresses both functional flood resilience and the thermal comfort requirements of a coastal climate.
The material strategy integrates vernacular and contemporary technologies without treating them as opposites. Golpata thatch forms the primary roof cladding, providing passive thermal insulation suited to the humid coastal climate and embedding local material knowledge into the building's maintenance cycle. Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) form the primary wall structure, minimizing embodied carbon and keeping the construction within the skill set of local builders. Glulam structural members span the larger public spaces, providing the load capacity that vernacular construction alone cannot achieve at this scale. Together, these form a near net-zero material strategy that is replicable across similar delta settlements without dependence on carbon-heavy construction practices.
Ecological defense operates at the site boundary. The building is positioned and oriented to work with a four-zone landscape buffer, embankment, saline-to-moderate zone, high tide zone, and low tide zone, each planted with salinity-tolerant vegetation that mirrors the edge condition of the Sundarbans and attenuates storm surge and wind before loads reach the structure. The building does not sit against the landscape; it is embedded within a continuous ecological defense system.

Technical information

Structural performance was verified through parametric analysis using Karamba3D. Under simulated cyclonic wind loading conditions corresponding to BNBC 2020 requirements, the structure recorded a maximum resultant displacement of 11.37mm against a permissible limit of 19mm (H/500, for a building height of 9.5m). It shoes the structural adequacy while validating the efficiency of the hybrid Glulam frame system.
Wind performance was tested through Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation using SimScale, under both regular wind flow (8–15 km/h) and cyclonic conditions (100–110 km/h). The curved, aerodynamically shaped roof and building orientation achieve a peak wind pressure reduction of 32–45% compared to a baseline orthogonal massing of equivalent floor area. This reduction directly lowers lateral load demand on the structure and reduces vulnerability during cyclone events, the primary climatic threat at the site.
The material assembly is organized around three criteria: local availability, construction transferability, and lifecycle carbon. Golpata (Nipa Palm) grows within the Sundarbans delta and requires no industrial processing. Using Golpata as roof thatch s also a vernacular and local practice. Compressed Earth Block (CEB) walls use stabilized earth sourced on or near the site, eliminating the transport and firing energy of conventional brick, the dominant wall material in Bangladesh. Glulam structural members and recycled certified timbers can be pre-engineered but fabricated at regional timber yards, keeping the supply chain within the delta region. Reinforced concrete is used selectively, for the pedestal and footing only. Together, this hybrid assembly produces a structure whose embodied carbon is substantially lower than conventional reinforced concrete construction of comparable performance, a near net-zero material strategy.
The framework's replicability is its primary technical contribution. Each of the five principles is documented as a transferable design framework, not tied to the specific geometry of MAKC, but applicable to any community building program across the deltaic coastal zone: primary schools, health centers, training institutes, civic buildings. The MAKC at Koyra is the first prototype of that framework. This architectural framework is the proposition. The building is the evidence.

Documentation

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