- Disasters are on the rise in one of the world’s most climate-sensitive deltas. The need for resilient housing is a major concern in Bangladesh.
- Amid various challenges, building models that promote sustainable building materials are emerging.
- Experts recommend having separate regional building codes for areas prone to certain climate changes.
See all ideas that matter
Bangladesh’s river network, which intersects low-lying areas, is subject to frequent floods, storm surges, river erosion, and frequent cyclones, making it vulnerable to climate change-related damage.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that caused large-scale displacement between 2008 and 2024, including approximately 11.3 million people who experienced pre-emptive evacuation during cyclones.
IDMC assessed that although many such movements last only for short periods of time, there are still tens of thousands of people who have no hope of returning to their homes immediately following a disaster each year.
In this context, safe housing is not just an infrastructure demand, but a survival need. However, the concept of safe and sustainable housing for disaster survivors remains donor-funded, as the use of climate- and disaster-resilient building plans and materials is not common in Bangladesh.
“Sustainable and safe housing is the first line of defense in disaster preparedness,” said Mohammad Abu Sadeq, executive director of the Housing and Building Research Center (HBRC), a private research center focused on creating sustainable, affordable and climate-resilient housing solutions.
Sadeq observes that conventional housing, especially in rural and low-income areas of Bangladesh, often lacks structural safety and durability against cyclones, storm surges, riverbank erosion, floods, flash floods, salt intrusion, earthquakes, and heat stress.
According to the government’s disaster-related statistics for 2021, more than half of domestic households are built in non-concrete housing.
Millions of families living in fragile buildings with tin roofs and mud walls are exposed to increasing climate change.
Sadeq, an advocate of climate- and disaster-resilient housing, says such housing reduces mortality and injury, protects assets and savings, minimizes displacement, and reduces long-term recovery costs for both victim families and the state.
“Resilient housing is not just a construction issue; it is a social protection mechanism, a climate adaptation strategy and a pathway to sustainable national development,” he says.
He recommended that sustainable construction materials in Bangladesh should meet five criteria: It is structural safety against cyclones, floods and earthquakes. Durability in humid and salty atmospheres. Low maintenance and long service life. Cost-effectiveness of multifamily housing. The impact on the environment is also reduced.
Self-sufficient and resilient housing built by HBRC. Image provided by: HBRC
New model of low-cost, highly elastic housing
In December 2025, 690 climate-resilient low-cost housing units for urban poor communities were completed in Chandpur, Kushtia, Noakhali and Gopalganj districts.
The Bangladesh Government’s Local Government Department implemented the housing project with support from the UK Government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Bangladeshi architecture firm Onushongo designed the construction plan.
Onushongo architect Moinul Alam says, “We did not use any traditional brick walls. The structure was built with hollow blocks and the pillars were made of stone chip casting.”
For doors and windows, the construction company avoided relatively expensive materials. In low-cost homes, clean cement-finish floors were used instead of tiled floors.
Planning affordable and durable housing is the architecture firm’s first objective.
“When we talk about affordable climate-resilient housing, we tend to think about only one component: construction materials. There’s planning, design and construction. In fact, you can save money right from the planning stage,” Moinul says.
The company was assigned to plan 30 square meters (320 square feet) of housing units, but initially only 14.8 square meters (160 square feet) could accommodate a family.
However, the company reconfigured the flow lines and stair layout to minimize these costs while maximizing living space to 220 to 250 square feet (20.4 to 23.2 square meters).
Using this model, building such a 30 square meter housing unit in a high-rise building would cost between $5,000 and $6,500, Moinul said.
Low cost housing units in Kushtia. Image courtesy of Onushongo, Bangladesh.
Resilience of concrete in coastal Bangladesh
BRAC, a Bangladesh-based international development NGO, has constructed 35 climate-resilient two-storey buildings on 65.7 square meters (708 square feet) of land each in the coastal Barguna, Satkhira, Bhola and Patuakhali districts.
Additionally, two more buildings were piloted in Khulna and Cox’s Bazar districts under the Nationally Determined Contribution Action Project of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
“We call these buildings mini-cyclone shelters,” said Abu Sadat Moniruzzaman Khan, head of BRAC’s climate change program.
Designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 280 kilometers per hour (174 miles per hour) and the highest storm surges recorded in the last 50 years, the high-rise structure can protect up to 40 people and their livestock in the event of a disaster.
The building is constructed primarily of ceramics and refractory bricks treated according to indigenous knowledge, with wooden doors and windows installed to prevent rust from salt.
Each building costs about $10,000, Sadat said.
“BRAC has set an example for its neighbors in the community to emulate,” Sadat said. “The optimization of self-invested labor and locally processed materials allows us to further minimize costs.”
The BRAC climate-resilient housing model won the Aga Khan Architecture Award in 2022.
Climate-resilient buildings by BRAC. Image courtesy of BRAC.
Replace fire-burnt bricks with ferrous concrete
HBRC campaigns against traditional fired clay brick manufacturing, which continues to degrade the environment and contributes to deforestation, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and promotes ferrocement-based lightweight systems, flood-resistant stilt housing and low-carbon building technologies.
The Northeast Flood Rehabilitation Project (under UNDP-HBRC), portable housing for Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, and an energy-efficient rural housing model are among HBRC’s major projects.
HBRC’s Sadek says, “We recommend ferrocement systems, engineered lightweight concrete blocks, compacted stabilized earth blocks, and elevated structural systems as viable options for building resilient homes.”
HBRC’s field lab in Dhaka’s Purbachal district has built self-sufficient coastal model houses that are climate-resilient, sustainable, and energy efficient.
According to HBRC, it costs $3,200 to build a home on a 32.5 square meter (350 square foot) lot.
A visitor to the HBRC field laboratory in Purbachal, Dhaka. Image courtesy of HBRC.
Local Building Code Challenges and Urgent Needs
Although there are alternatives to traditional building materials, “cultural and market inertia” have slowed their adoption, Sadek said.
“Baked clay bricks and traditional reinforced concrete remain deeply ingrained in people’s minds. There is a perception that heavier means stronger,” he observes.
He added that engineers and contractors often lack practical training in alternative construction materials, and universities provide limited research.
A 2025 study found that Bangladesh has the lowest penetration of the use of local sustainable construction materials.
It also revealed that only 28% of survey respondents, including engineers, builders, architects, planners, community members, and policy makers from government and non-government organizations, had a “high awareness” of climate-resilient building practices.
Mohammad Jasuddin Haider, director of the state-run Home Building Research Institute (HBRI), points to another barrier: weak promotion of sustainable construction materials.
“HBRI has developed sustainable materials, but the institute lacks staff for promotion and feedback analysis,” he said, adding that a lack of skilled masons trained in alternative materials is hampering further expansion.
Experts understand that perhaps the most important gap in promoting sustainable materials is regulation.
Currently, national building codes primarily apply to urban areas, but exclude rural areas, where many of the people most vulnerable to climate change live.
BRAC’s Abu Sadat said, “Specific housing construction guidelines are needed in certain climate-prone areas,” while Moinul of Onushongo, Bangladesh, added, “Regional building and material standards need to be set separately depending on the type of housing.”
HBRI’s efforts to ask another state-run Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) to standardize sustainable construction materials also proved futile, Jasuddin said.
“However, HBRI plans to develop rural housing construction guidelines with the support of foreign development partners,” he says.
Banner image: Bilal Hossain collects bricks to demolish his house and resettle elsewhere after a flood in Shariatpur district in 2018. Image by Moniruzzaman Sazal/Climate Visuals Countdown.
Study links growing dengue fever epidemic in Bangladesh to climate change
Quote:
Hoque, M.Z., Nath, P.K., Hossain, F., Kallal, K.R.I. (2025). Research on climate resilient construction in Bangladesh: Building a safer future. International Journal of Creative Research Thought, 13(12), g599–g608. Retrieved from: http://www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2512739.pdf
feedback: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you would like to post a public comment, you can do so at the bottom of the page.
