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Mixed Use Tourism Center, Khurushkul, Cox's Bazar — view across the central lake to the convention block and elevated plaza

Indigenous Architects · Cox's Bazar · 2021

Mixed Use
Tourism Center

Khurushkul Mixed-Use Tourism Hotel · Condominium · Resort Convention + Commercial Bakkhali River Site

A waterfront island parcel on the Bakkhali River, minutes from Cox's Bazar Airport and the long beach. The brief asked for a self-contained tourism centre: hotel, condominium, convention and commercial space, and a low-rise resort, gathered into one composition without losing the porosity of a seaside town.

The plan reads as a ring. Private programmes—hotel and condominium towers, resort villas—occupy the perimeter where the views are widest. Public programmes—convention hall, commercial frontage, information and reception—face the road and the bridge approach. Between them sits a central courtyard organised around a lake: an elevated plaza for arrival, then water, then a green podium that knits the two halves together. The lake is engineered as a tidal basin, drawing the river into the heart of the complex.

The site sits inside a coastal pattern of fish farms, salt pans and tidal channels. The masterplan accepts that pattern rather than flattening it: water is brought inside, planted edges absorb the seasonal flood, and the elevated plaza keeps the public programmes above the high-water line. The convention block crowns the composition, its triangular roof oriented towards the bridge so that arrival reads as a single architectural gesture from the Cox's Bazar – Chittagong highway.

Programme Hotel · Condominium
Convention + Commercial
Resort · Plaza · Lake
Site Khurushkul Island
Bakkhali River, Cox's Bazar
Context Adjacent to Cox's Bazar Airport, Kasturi Ghat and the Bakkhali Bridge
Firm Indigenous Architects
Principal: Ar. Sayeed Ahmed
Role Design Development · Master Planning · 3D Visualisations
Year 2021
Status Client Presentation Stage

Area Context

The site reads against a triangle of regional landmarks: Cox's Bazar Airport to the west, Kalatuli Beach and the Bay of Bengal to the south-west, and the Bakkhali Bridge to the east. Kasturi Ghat, the historic jetty on the Bakkhali River, sits immediately west, with the future development zone laid out across the river to the north.

Regional context map: Khurushkul site outlined in red, with Bakkhali River, Bakkhali Bridge, Kasturi Ghat, Cox's Bazar Airport, Bay of Bengal and Kalatuli Beach annotated Regional Context · Bakkhali River, Cox's Bazar Airport and the Bay of Bengal

Site

An island within the Bakkhali estuary, accessed by the new bridge and ringed by tidal channels, fish farms and salt pans. The site is low and exposed: any ground intervention had to negotiate seasonal flooding and the asymmetric relationship between the road edge (urban, hard) and the water edges (soft, tidal). The masterplan keeps the public ground level above the high-water mark and lets the lake do the work of buffering the rest.

Aerial photograph of the existing Khurushkul site, outlined in red, showing the surrounding tidal channels, fish farms, the Bakkhali Bridge under construction and reclaimed land beyond Existing Site Condition · Tidal Island within the Bakkhali Estuary

The Design

Parti diagram in nine vignettes: site, central focus, earth and water, four-lane highway and main access, public functions, peripheral roads and access, private functions, walks and playgrounds, master plan — with a final diagram showing private functions, central courtyard, and public functions as a vertical sequence Parti Diagram · Public and Private Bound Through a Central Courtyard
Master plan drawing of the Mixed Use Tourism Center showing condominium and hotel blocks to the west, elevated plaza, central lake with island, convention centre to the north, resort complex to the east, surface parking, promenades and the Lazim Ghat connection — with a numbered legend at right Master Plan · Nineteen Elements Organised Around the Central Lake
Functional zoning plan with seven colour-coded categories: elevated plaza, hotel, commercial space, information and reception, convention hall, condominium and resort, distributed around the central lake and bordered by the Bakkhali River Functional Zoning · Seven Bands Around the Lake

Visualisations

View from the Bakkhali Bridge approach: convention complex on the left, hotel and condominium towers on the right, low information pavilion in the centre and the highway in the foreground Bridge Bay · View from the Highway Approach
The inclusive ground plaza at the entry to the convention and commercial complex: angled white volume with perforated screen, glass walkway and a wide brick-paved circle Inclusive Ground Plaza · Entry to Convention + Commercial
Pedestrian promenade along the canal cut between the commercial block and the elevated plaza, with a parachute drifting overhead Lakefront Promenade · Soft Connection to the Plaza
Approach across the central park lawn towards the convention complex, with the residential block to the left and a planted edge and brick path leading forward Central Park Approach · Connecting Court to Plaza
View of the ground plaza of the central park: brick paving, scattered cafe seating, mature trees and the surrounding hotel and condominium volumes Central Park · Ground Plaza Looking Through the Trees
The lake brings tranquillity to the environment: people relaxing on stairs and shaded decks above the water, with the convention complex and hotel beyond, sailing boats on the lake Lake Courtyard · Tranquillity at the Heart of the Complex
Aerial view of the project from the rear: hotel and condominium towers to the left, central lake island, low resort villas in the centre and the convention complex to the right Aerial · Rear View Over Resort and Lake
Aerial of the project showing the Bakkhali Bridge to the upper right, the full ring of buildings around the lake island, with the Bakkhali River wrapping the site on all sides Aerial · Project, Bridge and River
Aerial view towards Cox's Bazar Airport and the city beyond, with the project's hotel and resort blocks in the foreground above the surrounding farmland Aerial · Project and Cox's Bazar Airport Context
Distant aerial view across the river estuary and fishing fleet to the project: hotel and condominium towers rising above a low ring of resort and commercial buildings, with the new bridge connecting to the highway Aerial · Regional Reading from the Estuary
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