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Bangladesh

Moja Kori design festival

Machan, Dhaka's first community-run cultural centre in Korail © Korail youth Robiul/jony/Munia and Goethe-Institut Bangladesh

Korail, where one can find people from across Bangladesh. Countless stories of life and resilience are woven daily here. Three years ago, Paraa Bangladesh, supported by the Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, began working in Korail to explore ways to establish a cultural center. Over a decade, Paraa has focused on research-based architecture, and this project aimed to create a hub for culture and capacity building that connects Korail residents with the city.

The Moja-Kori Design Festival marked the opening of Machan, Dhaka’s first community-driven cultural center. This four-day celebration, held across December 6, 7, 13, and 14, featured exhibitions, workshops, performances, games, and discussions, showcasing design’s role in fostering cultural connections. Workshops covered skills like upcycling, natural dyeing, and photography, while talks on experience sharing by residents and youth along with theatre and musical performances brought the people of Korail together. The festival’s concept - ‘Moja-Kori’ - translated to English as ‘let’s have fun’, is pushing the boundaries of design’s role in place-making.

KORAIL Residency Program

Earlier in 2024, the Korail: City of Culture project hosted an artist residency program with nine residents whose works were displayed at the Moja Kori Festival.  With these initiatives, Machan began its journey as a hub for culture, skill exchange, and storytelling, aiming to connect Karail’s community with the wider world.
Korail Residents meet and greet

Korail Residents meet and greet | © Rydwan



To know more about the residents

Moja Kori Map

Korail, with its fascinating maze-like layout, inspired us to create a map to help our guests and visitors navigate the community with ease.
Moja Kori Map

Moja Kori Map | © Paraa, Goethe-Institut Bangladesh

Programmes Under the Festival

   

Exhibitions

Talks

Workshops

Performances

Machaan

The Korail City of Culture initiative started with a community survey to understand what kind of cultural hub Korail residents wanted. Incorporating their input, Paraa developed a model cultural center, which has now taken shape in Ershad Field. Named “Machan,” meaning a stage or elevated platform, it symbolizes a platform for the community to share their stories with the outside world and work for the greater good. To ensure the center’s sustainability, Paraa has formed a caretaker team consisting of local youth and residents to manage its operations and nurture future leadership.
Machan, Dhaka’s first community-driven cultural center at Korail

Machan, Dhaka’s first community-driven cultural center at Korail | © Nasib, Paraa

Project partners

Federal Foreign Office

The 'Korail- City of Culture' project is funded by the Creative Economy Programme of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The program is an evolving concept that builds on the interplay between human creativity and ideas and intellectual property, knowledge, and technology.

Federal Foreign Office © Federal Foreign Office © Federal Foreign Office

Paraa

Paraa is a design workshop and architectural firm for critical design and research with a focus on the advancement of spaces in close collaboration with the respective local communities through multidisciplinary practice. Paraa’s work in Bangladesh as well as abroad includes the following central building blocks: A ‘school of thoughts’ of ongoing practice and research; responding through research to the rights and aspirations of the respective communities, Gaining and sharing knowledge about the built and natural environment in Bangladesh by connecting communities in developed as well as evolving societal contexts, promoting knowledge sharing through the development of innovative and participatory methods of participation.

Paraa © Paraa © Paraa

Floating Berlin

Floating University is a nature-culture learning site where practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds meet to investigate alternative, biodiverse forms of co-habitation in a partially contaminated rainwater basin, part of the former Tempelhof airport. Initiated as a temporary project in 2018 by architecture group Raumlabor, since 2019 the association has continued the experiment: to open, maintain, and take care of this unique site while bringing non-disciplinary, radical, and collaborative programs to the public. In other words, it is a place to learn to engage, to embrace the complexity, navigate the entanglements of the world, to imagine and create different forms of living.

Floating Berlin © Floating Berlin © Floating Berlin

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