Friday 17 August 2012

National Assembly building Dhaka by Louis Kahn

Reminded by the announcement for an exhibition in the Netherlands Architecture Institute on the architect Louis Kahn, I realised I've been meaning to write a post about this beautiful building he realised in Bangladesh. This is probably the place to explain to you that I have a MA in cultural studies, specialised in architecture. I've worked several years as a researcher for an architect's office deeply involved in reuse of Modern Architecture. So when we went to Dhaka I was exited to be able to visit this relatively unknown and even less visited building. After all Bangladesh is not a very probable holiday destination for most tourists.

When I saw the invitation for the opening of this exhibition I was surprised to see Dhaka's parliament buildings mentioned as one of his most important works. Unlike India, Bangladesh doesn't have a strong tradition in Modern Architecture and is not often mentioned in architectural history (even though it does definitely have a very interesting and endangered heritage, but I will write about that later).

The parliament buildings (Jatiya Sangsad) are something special, in several ways. It has taken more than 20 years to construct them (1961-1982). Trying to gain entrance to them was a special experience to say the least. Let's just suffice to mention the sometimes hilarious bureaucracy and the fact that our Bengali is not what it should be. But with some help of a friend who sent someone with us we finally managed to get in. We were guided by a very friendly employee and a very curious security guard, unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside.



















The building was very impressive. I'm not often impressed by architecture built with the goal to do so, but this was beautiful. The scale is just immense and hard to imagine. There was street lanterns placed in the interior 'streets'.

























The light in this building is extraordinary, you can see how this has been a very important aspect in the design. Specifically in the domed parliament chamber where the daylight reflected in walls surrounding the dome. The complex also houses a mosque, where we were allowed to take some photos, just before prayer started.
















There was one realisation though that crept up on me. This immense complex that uses a huge amount of space in the far too densely populated mega-city Dhaka has cost an extreme amount of money for Bangladesh. I don't know if it is worth the space and money it takes and has taken, but it is of a great beauty and lots of Bangladeshi are very proud of it.




1 comment: