Place · modernist parliament complex · Bangladesh
Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban
Also known as National Parliament House, Dhaka, Jātīya Saṃsad Bhaban, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar capitol
The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar is the parliament of Bangladesh, designed by Louis Kahn after Ayub Khan declared Dhaka Pakistan's second capital and ordered a National Assembly building there. Kahn was brought in by the architect Muzharul Islam, his former student at Yale, after Alvar Aalto and Le Corbusier proved unavailable. Begun in 1964 and halted by the 1971 war, it was completed in 1982 on a site of about 840,000 square metres.
- Date
- 1964–1982
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.762, 90.379
Worth knowing
Construction resumed in 1974 without changes to the design, and when Kahn died with the work about three-quarters done, his associate David Wisdom finished it. An artificial lake wraps three sides of the main building to evoke Bangladesh's rivers.
About the place
Placed at the coordinates given on the Wikipedia article.
Connections (3)
- Site withinDhaka
The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban stands at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka, a 210-acre complex with lawns, an artificial lake on three sides of the main building and hostels for members of parliament. Wikipedia's Dhaka article calls it the city's most prominent architectural landmark. Parliaments have sat in it since 1982, and on 5 August 2024 it was stormed and badly damaged during the mass uprising demanding Sheikh Hasina's resignation.
- AnalogueIIM Ahmedabad campus
Louis Kahn's two great South Asian works were commissioned in the same years: the Indian Institute of Management campus at Ahmedabad, listed among his works from 1961, and the National Assembly at Dhaka, for which he submitted a preliminary design in 1960 before construction began in 1964. Kahn's palette ran to textured brick and bare concrete; at Dhaka the huge walls are cut by deep porticoes and large openings of regular geometric shape, and the building, about three-quarters complete at Kahn's death, was finished in 1982 by his associate David Wisdom.
- Contemporary capital withIslamabad
After seizing power in a military coup, Ayub Khan declared Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, the country's second capital and decided to build the National Assembly there, hoping a modern legislative complex would placate the eastern wing. In the same years a commission chose the site of Islamabad, and the new administrative capital rose below the Margalla Hills. The Dhaka assembly, begun in 1964, was halted by the war of 1971 and completed in 1982 as the parliament of Bangladesh.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban", "Louis Kahn".
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