University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An Emblem of Democracy

Samayeen, Nubras

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Samayeen_Nubras.jpg

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/109785

Description

Title
An Emblem of Democracy
Author(s)
Samayeen, Nubras
Issue Date
2021
Keyword(s)
  • Bengali Architecture
  • Landscape
Date of Ingest
2021-04-12T22:32:20Z
Abstract
Louis Kahn (1901–1974) is one of the most important American, modernist architects of 21st century. He is revered for his monumental works such as the Salk Institute (1959), la Jolla and Kimbell Art Museum (1972), Fort Worth in the United States and the National Assembly Complex (19820) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As a work of singular importance in the design-world, his Complex has attracted close attention. Architectural scholars have extensively analyzed and published Kahn’s works in general and the Complex in particular. Yet, its landscape, that is more than eighty percent of the total built- space, had been ignored. There had been no scholarly investigation of the landscape. While designing, Kahn was inspired by Bengal’s quintessential deltaic topography and intertwined culture which emanates through the Complex’s constructed lakes, terraced civic-plazas, gardens and immense lawns. My dissertation research examines the Complex as a case study on how Kahn’s designed landscape aided the identity formation of a newly born democratic nation and its popular culture in its post-colonial (1947) and post-independence (1971) periods. My dissertation asks, how the paradoxical merger of a Western receptivity with a traditional Bengali sensibility operated over time as the Complex materialized as a national symbol of democracy?
Type of Resource
Image
Genre of Resource
Photograph
Language
eng
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109785
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Nubras Samayeen

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Image of Research - Graduate Students PRIMARY