Authored by architect and urbanist Kazi Kahlled Ashraf, with contributions by architects committed to a better prospect for Dhaka, Designing Dhaka promises to be a landmark publication. With original and provocative ideas assembled from Bangladesh and other parts of the world, the book may be a recipe for an organized transformation of a complex city. In the author’s own words “Various architectural institution are adopting Dhaka as a laboratory for urban thinking. This is critical: Dhaka is not just a premonition for catastrophes but an urban theorem in the context of climate change, rapid development, imbalanced ecologies and hydrological landscape. Even though exercise conducted at those institutions are  hypothetical and speculative, they combine a broader history of design of cities with extensive analyses of the particularities of Dhaka city… it is important that such ideas and propositions infiltrate the collective imagination so that they may become fodders for public pressure and civic activism, and even perhaps policy making. It is with that intention of affecting the public discourse that we present this tract, Designing Dhaka”.