Architects Design Studio · Dhaka · 2019–2021

JTI Canteen
and Mosque

Japan Tobacco International Competition Win Civic · Industrial Built Full Lifecycle Delivery

The most complete project in the professional record. Won through open competition, developed through design development, delivered through construction supervision, and handed over to the client. Every stage of the architectural lifecycle, end to end.

JTI required a canteen and mosque for its Tongi factory campus: a facility serving the daily needs of workers and their right to prayer. The brief was civic in its demands: welcoming, dignified, functional. The architecture responds to the industrial context without adopting its vocabulary.

Two buildings. One shared material: exposed grey concrete block. Two opposed geometries: the canteen extending as a long barrel-vaulted hall with curtain glazing; the mosque gathering inward as a circular volume, its skin pierced by a lattice of varying-density block voids that filter light into the ablution corridor and prayer hall. Linear and centripetal. Transparent and opaque. Secular and sacred.

Additional scope included truck parking, gatehouse, and public toilet block: modest programmes delivered with the same care as the primary building.

Client Japan Tobacco International

Location Tongi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Firm Architects Design Studio
Principal: Ar. Sayeedul Hasan Rana

Role Design · Design Development
Construction Supervision · Handover

Scope Canteen · Mosque · Truck Parking
Gatehouse · Public Toilet

Status · Year Built · 2019–2021

Ground floor plan and Section A: dining hall, kitchen, mosque, ablution space

Top view (roof plan) and Section B: barrel vault and mosque dome in longitudinal section

JTI campus aerial overview: canteen and mosque together on the factory site

Canteen exterior: barrel-vaulted roof and glazed facade, day view

The Canteen

A barrel-vaulted span accommodates a dining hall for over 700 workers in a single open room. The vault, in pre-coated steel deck, rises toward the entrance end where it curves upward to form a glazed clerestory. Concrete block base; a rhythm of slender columns with full-height glazing between. Stepped entry terraces extend the building into its setting; an outdoor eating terrace along the perimeter wall is lit from below at night.

Canteen exterior at night: glazed facade illuminated from within

Outdoor terrace at night: perimeter seating with ground uplighting

Canteen interior: dining hall with barrel vault, turquoise floor and timber chairs

Canteen interior: view from service counter toward dining hall

Canteen roof structure: barrel vault steel frame with translucent deck panels

The Mosque

A circular plan holds the prayer hall at its centre, surrounded by an annular ring housing the ablution facilities. The outer skin is a concrete block wall with a random-density lattice void pattern: open blocks set in varying concentrations across the curved surface. Between inner wall and outer screen, a curved corridor receives light filtered and dappled through the lattice. The step from factory floor to prayer hall is registered spatially before it is registered spiritually. A strip skylight above the Mihrab draws direct light toward the Qibla wall.

Mosque at night: lattice screen glows as light filters from within

Mosque ablution corridor: curved wall with lattice block casting dappled light patterns

Mosque prayer hall interior: Qibla wall with Mihrab, strip skylight, lattice screens

Truck Parking & Gatehouse

The gatehouse manages the truck entry sequence with a two-storey reception-and-office building. The same lattice block appears as a skin element here, maintaining material continuity across the campus. A covered pedestrian waiting area and planted forecourt complete the entry sequence for the factory's fleet of delivery vehicles.