“Architecture of the land”: Louis I. Kahn’s national assembly building complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the construction of a national identity

Louis I. Kahn’s (1901–74) National Assembly Building Complex (constructed 1963–82) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, provides a case study on how the builtenvironment can help in the formation of a nation’s identity in its postcolonial (after 1947) and postindependence (after 1971) eras. My study will investigate this process by focusing on the designed landscape that surrounds the National Assembly Building Complex. Whereas the building itself has been studied in depth by architects and historians, the landscape component of the complex, which is a part of Kahn’s design, has received negligible attention. My dissertation investigates the original vision of Kahn’s design as well as the importance the complex has gained over time, spanning two political paradigms. By juxtaposing Kahn’s and state leaders’ original ideas about the design with the events that have granted the design a unique place in the national imagination, my dissertation explores three questions: (1) Why, at a critical point in Bangladesh’s history, did the state choose Louis Kahn, an American architect, to design the principal national complex that was intended to represent the new nation’s identity? (2) How has Kahn’s landscape evolved into a nationally renowned space for civic activities since its construction? (3) How has the paradox of the design’s manifesting both a Western/modern sensibility and a traditional Bengali sensibility operated over time in the complex’s role as a national symbol? By investigating Kahn’s thoughts on the design through archival research as well as interviews with key scholars and stakeholders, my dissertation aims to reveal the particularly pluralistic ideas that have undergirded popular thinking about both the Complex’s built environment and the nation writ large. In so doing, I explore the role that Kahn’s landscape has played in the formation of Bangladesh’s multilayered postcolonial identity. I examine the respective roles of landscape and architecture in constructing the country’s national identity. Holistically, my research probes into Western colonialism and modernism’s instrumentality in homogenizing history, tradition, and culture across the globe.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Landscape Architecture

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Samayeen, Nubras

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ruggles, D. F.
• Stallmeyer, John C.
• McCarthy, Cameron
• Rhee, Pollyanna
• Khan, Hasan Uddin

• Louis I. Kahn
• Dhaka National Assembly Complex
• Bangladesh
• Bangladeshi Nationalism
• Landscape Architecture
• National Identity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Nubras Samayeen

Language dc:language

eng, en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/124540