Architectural Culture in the Fifties: Louis Kahn and the National Assembly Complex in Dhaka

This article explores the architectural culture of the fifties and analyzes Louis Kahn's responses, as reflected in his project for the National Assembly complex, now called Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After World War II, architects and social critics became increasingly distressed by the apparent erosion of community and rise of mass culture. Major architectural trends such as the new monumentality, humanism, and regionalism, were attempts to arrest this erosion and to facilitate the reconstruction of communal life. Analysis of Kahn's intellectual development from the mid-fifties to the early sixties demonstrates that he was influenced by these movements and shared these concerns. This is reflected in his design for the National Assembly complex, which became a forum in which Kahn addressed these particularly western dilemmas.