Layer 01 of 10 · The Ten Contextual Layers
Who a place is for — its communities, people and ways of life.
The social layer asks who a place belongs to and how it is lived. It attends to community structures, demographics and lifestyles (Reza 2025): the networks, routines and forms of collective life through which people inhabit, share and contest space.
In New Contextualist writing the social layer is bound to equity. Design ‘must protect the “right to the city,”’ ensuring that no project strips away people’s access to space, belonging or shared resources (Reza and Nitu 2025). The same essay identifies social fragmentation (gentrification, high-rise isolation and the privatisation of public space) as one of the crises that contemporary practice has failed to address (Reza and Nitu 2025).
Key research questions
Editorial summary Awaiting the founder’s approval Questions proposed by the editors
Editorial diagram Interpretation Relations proposed by the editors
Livelihoods and affordability decide who can remain in a place, and so whom it is for. Example drawn from Reza and Nitu 2025.
Governance determines whose needs are recognised and who keeps access to shared space. Example drawn from Reza and Nitu 2025.
Collective memory binds communities to places; losing a place can mean losing part of a shared origin. Example drawn from Reza 2025.
Shared practices, rituals and everyday routines are how communities sustain their culture in space.
Streets, courtyards and public spaces can gather people, or keep them apart. Example drawn from Reza and Nitu 2025.
Mohammad Habib Reza, Athena Rahman Esempi di Architettura
Mohammad Habib Reza, Upama Das Nitu Context BD
Mohammad Habib Reza The Daily Star
Mohammad Habib Reza The Business Standard
Md Samiur Rahman Bhuiyan Workshop ‘Exploring New Contextualism: An Approach to Architecture and Urban Design’
Mohammad Habib Reza Re-Imagining Bengal: Architecture, Built Environment and Cultural Heritage
Nandini Awal, Mohammad Habib Reza WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment
Conceptual proposalUndergraduate thesis
Panatirtha, Jadukata riverfront, Sunamganj, Bangladesh · 2023
Reimagines a riverside pilgrimage site, traditionally visited once a year for ritual bathing, as a civic landscape alive in daily life as well as in ritual moments.
Conceptual proposalUndergraduate thesis
Kallyanpur canal, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Documented 2025
Frames a neglected urban canal as a civic spine, combining flood management, community access and boat transit within a transit-oriented development.
Conceptual proposalThesis and studio project
Chawk Bazar, Old Dhaka, Bangladesh · Documented 2023
Reimagines Old Dhaka’s historic Chawk Bazar as a layered spatial narrative, merging memory, commerce and community.
Conceptual proposalUndergraduate thesis
Jamuna Future Park, Dhaka, Bangladesh · 2022
Reimagines a large commercial complex as a civic hub, opening its spaces to pedestrian networks, green corridors and social programmes.
Conceptual proposalAcademic design proposal
Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh · Documented 2025
Envisions a traditional rural settlement celebrated for its Alpana art as a sustainable, community-managed tourism destination.
Ongoing researchResearch programme
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Documented 2024
The further development of the approach at BRAC University, with greater emphasis on sustainability frameworks, nature-inspired design and proactive resilience.
Ongoing researchTeaching and thesis supervision
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Documented 2023
The use of a ten-layer reading of context in design and thesis studios at BRAC University, from which most documented applications of the approach have emerged.
