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Travel Stories
>> Asia >> Louis Khan in Bangladesh
LOUIS KHAN IN BANGLADESH…
“Hey, we’ve been invited
next Sunday to visit the Parliament Building downtown,” exclaimed
Roger with a certain degree of excitement. A parliament building? I
thought privately, since neither my husband nor I have any particular
interest in Asian architecture regardless of the period I had to wonder
what else was involved here.
In his new job here in Bangladesh, Roger deals with a good number of
financial and legal professionals and in an effort to improve the policy
environment for small businesses, he and his project component are in
the throes of drafting a law. Some weeks ago, he met Professor Ali Ashraf,
a Member of Parliament from a thana (district) outside of Dhaka city
who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
Professor Ashraf invited some of the project team members (and lucky
for me, spouses) to take an insiders tour of the parliament building
in downtown Dhaka.
Faisal, Roger and I climbed into Mintu’s car and off through the
traffic clogged dirty streets of Dhaka we inched our way down to the
center of the city. Called the Sangsad Bhavan complex by the Bengalis,
“It was designed and built by a famous American architect named
Louis Khan”, pronounced Allen (one of the other project team members
who were with us). American? Who was this Louis Khan and how did he
come to produce this magnificent set of structures – so incongruously
set amidst the sweat and dust of Dhaka.
Louis Isadore Khan (1901-1974) was born in Estonia and brought to the
US when he was four. A professor at Yale School of Architecture by 1947,
and an important influence in urban architecture, Khan’s focus
was apparently much more on architectural theory rather than its practical
application. As such, much of his work was not actually brought to life
until he was in his 50s, and much of what he designed in his lifetime
was never built. He developed what is called a “classically romantic”
style, in which functional areas such as stairwells and air ducts feature
prominently, often as towerlike structures surrounding the main living
and working areas. Much like what we saw in the Assembly Buildings in
downtown Dhaka, many of Khan's most famous projects tended to utilize
concrete and brick in an unorthodox manner. Some examples of this style
include the Yale Art Gallery (1953), the Richards Medical Research Building,
University of Pennsylvania, (1957–61), and the Centre for British
Art and Studies at Yale University (1969–74).
Although he completed the designs for the Jewish
Agency for Palestine Emergency Housing in 1949, and the United
States Consulate in Luanda, Angola in 1959, the first actual building
of one of his overseas designs was the
Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India which was begun
in 1962 and completed in 1974.
Credited with having said, “Structure is the giver of light,”
Khan was well known for his use of and control of natural light. His
approach to the issues of light here in Dhaka resulted in an incredibly
heavy, geometrically chunky building but one that gives the soft impression
of air and light via the positioning of windows and large open geometrical
openings in walls, ceilings and partitions.
Apparently when Khan was nominated (posthumously) for an Aga Khan Award
for these National Assembly Buildings in 1986, the jury chose not to
honor him even though the complex had long been internationally acclaimed
as a “masterwork”. The jurors felt that, “[the buildings]
had acoustical and ventilation problems; its materials and design were
inappropriate for the climate; in a city of small-scale, mostly open
structures, its solidly imposing, complex scheme disoriented visitors
and isolated employees from the outdoors; and, finally, for such a poor
nation, it was enormously costly to construct and continued to be extremely
expensive to maintain.” [ Metropolis Magazine, Sept 1997, http://www.metropolismag.com/sept97/islamic/islamic.html
]
As we approached this expanse of land, water and buildings we were all
taken somewhat aback by the complexity of the structures and their sheer
geometric beauty. Sitting on 200 acres of land, the “Sangsad Bhaban”
sits brilliantly in an enormous pool of water – which gives the
whole complex the look of a post-modern castle complete with moat. The
buildings do not just include the Parliament itself but also the members’
residences and spaces for housing other functionaries and dignitaries.
What was striking for those of us who had never experienced anything
but hypercrowds, noise, traffic and filth in Dhaka, was that this complex
sat peacefully amidst a beautiful expanse of green fields and lining
the grounds was a forest of trees.
Professor Ashraf very kindly served us tea and cake and explained at
some length what some of the dimensions of these complexes were. We
were not able to enter the House (Assembly Room) but he showed us a
picture of this incredible nest where laws are debated, rejected or
passed. As the country was preparing for the large familial Eid feasts,
the members of Parliament were at home with their constituents, and
the building was remarkably empty as Professor Ashraf led us on our
tour.
As we were not permitted to take pictures (national security issues?)
we had to soak in all that we saw as we walked around and around inside
the main structure…. 9 story atriums bordered by offices hidden
behind huge walls of raw, gray concrete lined with white marble and
cut with enormous geometric openings. It seemed to me that Khan had
taken university dining hall glasses, and used those and the various
triangular shapes from the tools used by young architects – drawn
hundred of these shapes one over the other until the page was full…
then looked at it and exclaimed, “and now…. to make it three
dimensional!”
As the sun set fuschia in the filthy Dhaka sky we finished our interior
tour and the good Professor (who was going off to pray) left us with
a companion to assist us in finishing our walk about. We were so grateful
for the generosity of his time, and as we parted he insisted on our
responses to his invitations to come out and visit his thana (district)
to see what kind of work he has been doing there.
In my research about Louis Khan and
this particular design of him, I found this website: http://www.parliamentofbangladesh.org/general-18.htm
(it is one of the best that accurately describes the building we visited.
The time of day and weather did not permit us to take successful outside
photos and the government policy did not permit any inside photos. It
was difficult to find any decent pictures of this structure in my research
on-line, but these sites provide thumbnails:
http://www.parliamentofbangladesh.org/english.html
http://w3.whosea.org/tcg/dhaka/dhaka.html
http://www.upenn.edu/gsfa/archives/majorcollections/kahn/likdacca.html
There are even a couple of poorly taken picture of Khan himself!:
http://www.upenn.edu/gsfa/archives/majorcollections/kahn/kahn.html
March 2001 – Rachel Peterson
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