National Assembly Building of Bangladesh – Dhaka, Bangladesh 

[6] 

The National Assembly Building, known to locals as Jatiya Sangsad Bhabanin Bengali, had a long history from its first conception to its completion. First thought of in 1959, the building was conceived to be an extension of the parliamentary headquarters of Bangladesh, however, it wasn’t until 1962 that American architect Louis Kahn was commissioned to design the project.[1] To quote bangladesh.com, “The architect’s key design philosophy was to represent Bangladeshi culture and heritage, while at the same time optimizing the use of space.“ [2] 

The project began immediately, and ran until March of 1971 when construction was halted due to Bangladesh declaring independence from Pakistan, this was a turning point in the project. To quote ArchDaily.com, “Originally, Kahn had intended to make a building of monumental presence, but after Bangladesh had officially broke from Pakistani rule in December of 1971 the project became much more of a symbol of democracy and pride for the Bangali people.” [1] Louis Kahn died three quarters of the way through construction of the project, the work was then overseen by David Wisdom, who had worked for Kahn. It was finally completed on January 28th, 1982.[3] 

The building itself is a clear example of modern brutalism, using mostly concrete and including definite shapes and straight lines and edges is the design. However, these shapes do provide context to the design as they are abstracted forms found in traditional Bengali culture.[1] This was incorporated to create a blend of old and new cultural identities. 

Louis Kahn was an architect originally born in modern day Estonia but emigrated to America at an early age and spent most of his life there. Kahn enjoyed the artistic side of architecture as opposed to the more technical side, he preferred to focus on shape and light and form, how the building would look and feel, rather than how it would necessarily stand up. One aspect of this that he took great importance in was daylight. Kahn once said, “Of the elements of a room the window is the most marvelous.” [4] In Kahn’s best works, daylight is intertwined into the designs, it is a part of the fabric. There is no bit of light in his buildings that he has not carefully planned for you to be able to see or not see. I think Alexander Russ put it best, when he said of Kahn’s use of light, “In Kahn´s world, light is to be sought not only as a physical, animating source, but for its natural symbolism, for its metaphorical, poetic and spiritual meanings.” [4] 

[7] 

From the image of the national assembly building here, it is clear to see that this is also the case in this piece. Light coming in through the cracks between the wall and ceiling, the shapes and visuals that the light creates, the height, size and shape of the windows, it all comes together to create the atmosphere that Kahn was aiming for when designing the building. 

However, although the height and size and shape of the windows does contribute to the overall atmosphere of the space, there is another purpose behind there positioning. This building is in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the climate here is very intense. [5]

During the dry season, there is a lot of sunlight in Dhaka, and this is very hot sunlight as well, with summer averages for temperature reaching as high as 30 degrees Celsius, and winter months only seeing a decrease to 24 degrees Celsius, these being the most sunlit months if the year.[5] So, it's obvious that if Kahn wanted to incorporate sunlight into his design, he had to ensure that it did not cause any discomfort to the people inside via heat and glare. This was accomplished by putting windows high up in relatively narrow corridors so that light would have to hit the wall and bounce back to hit the observer, and so some heat energy could be diffused or absorbed by the wall creating a more comfortable temperature for them. 

[8]

So, is this a good use of daylight in Architecture? In a one – dimensional sense, yes. The architect attempted to use the lighting in the space to create emotion and feeling while also allowing for enough light to pass through the space so that it could be used by the people that worked there every day. He also tried to do this while sticking to the theme of the heritage and pride that the Bangladeshi people should be able to feel when they see this building, and I think he was successful in accomplishing all of this. The lighting adds to the story of the building without being in anyway intrusive or inconveniencing, the heat that the light would create was taken into account and dealt with excellently. So, on the surface, and for the time period that it was built in. However, if we think about how we would incorporate sunlight today and the many other uses that it has for renewable energy, then we cannot call this a completely sufficient use of daylight, as sunlight has not been used as an energy source in this building at all. 

 The photovoltaic cells that we use to convert the suns energy into electrical energy were created in the 1950s, so they were around at the time of the creation of this project.[9] So to not have any inclusion of them in such a daylit climate seems like a massive oversight. Clearly, they were not as important fifty years ago as they are now, and people were not thinking about them as much, but it seems like such an easy inclusion in this project, that the omittance of them, and the lack of inclusion of them since, is a glaring problem in terms of the sustainability of this project, and the use of daylight in the design. 

So, in conclusion, Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Building is a building designed primarily through the thought of form over function. Daylight in this project is used excellently to create beauty and atmosphere, while incorporate sufficient light levels, but fails to see the future by not including solar panels or any other way of harnessing the energy of the sunlight that it so heavily incorporates. This project shows us how rapidly the requirements in architecture can change, as in the span of fifty or sixty years, this project has gone from being a beautiful art piece that perfectly encapsulates sunlight, to a project with a massive oversight in the lack of solar panels or other renewable energy sources. 

References:

[1] Souza E. AD Classics: National Assembly Building of Bangladesh / Louis Kahn [Internet]. ArchDaily. [cited 6 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/83071/ad-classics-national-assembly-building-of-bangladesh-louis-kahn 

[2] Discover and Explore Bangladesh | By Bangladesh.com | The Grand Architecture of Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban [Internet]. Discover and Explore Bangladesh | By Bangladesh.com. [cited 6 October 2020]. Available from: http://www.bangladesh.com/blog/the-grand-architecture-of-jatiyo-sangsad-bhaban/ 

[3] Muzharul Islam part 3 - - biography of Muslim and Bengali (3) [Internet]. Londoni. 2014 [cited 6 October 2020]. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091016/http://www.londoni.co/index.php/who-s-who?id=325 

[4] Russ A. Louis Kahn - Master of Light – lightlive blog [Internet]. lightlive blog – a Zumtobel project. 2014 [cited 7 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.lightlive.com/en/20141114-louis-kahn-master-of-light/ 

[5] Bangladesh climate: average weather, temperature, precipitation, best time [Internet]. Climatestotravel.com. 2020 [cited 7 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/bangladesh 

[6] pinterest.co.kr 

[7] blogspot.com 

[8] ArchDaily.com 

[9] [Internet]. greenmountainenergy.com. 2014 [cited 7 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.greenmountainenergy.com/2014/06/solar-energy-past-present-future/#:~:text=It%20wasn%E2%80%99t%20until%20the%201950s%20when%20technology%20was,the%20Vanguard%20I%20space%20satellite%20launched%20in%201958.