Book Talk on City of Desire: Biography of the Largest Informal Settlement in Bangladesh

Speaker: Tanzil Shafique, Associate Professor, University of Sheffield, School of Architecture and Landscape.

Abstract

City of Desire by Tanzil Shafique is a portrait of the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh. It seeks to develop a Southern perspective on urban slums, challenging mainstream Western discourses.
Shafique's approach is rooted in a personal and thematic exploration of slum dwellers' lived experiences, proposing new ways of understanding their struggles, aspirations, and how they have managed to design and build a city of 300,000.

The book talk will provide an overview of the content, but also, will elaborate the experience of navigating the publication journey as an early career researcher.

About the speaker

Tanzil Shafique is an Associate Professor of Urban Design at The University of Sheffield School of Architecture. Previously, he taught at the University of Melbourne, Australia and the University of Arkansas, USA. Tanzil’s research looks at southern urbanism, pluriversal architectural practice and informal planning, particularly by climate change-impacted communities. He founded a think-tank called Next50, which works as a global knowledge exchange hub for diaspora communities looking to contribute locally towards justice-led transformations with local activists and citizens. Tanzil’s recent books include Atlas of Informal Settlements (Bloomsbury, 2024).