Vernacularizing a Democratic Landscape：Louis Kahn’s Capitol Complex, a Citadel of Democracy in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Samayeen, Nubras

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114281 Copy

Description

Title

Vernacularizing a Democratic Landscape：Louis Kahn’s Capitol Complex, a Citadel of Democracy in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Author(s)

Samayeen, Nubras

Issue Date

2022

Keyword(s)

Landscape Architecture

Abstract

In 1963, Louis Kahn, a Jewish American architect, was commissioned to design Pakistan’s Capitol Complex, a symbol of an aspiring democracy in its post-colonial era. After Pakistan’s civil war in 1971, his Complex became emblematic of Bangladesh’s (previous East-Pakistan) independence and democratic identity. Opposing the local cultural continuation, the Capitol’s architecture reveals a continuum of Western models: the massive walls of European citadels, and medieval cathedrals. The cylindrical forms of the Cathedral of Alibi, for example, are appropriated in Kahn’s church and synagogue designs in the American post-war era. Modernization thus emerges as a universal and interchangeable design language. As for the landscape, Kahn emulated the country’s natural and vernacular archetypes. Numerous drawings and correspondences reflect his fascination for Bangladesh’s riverine landscape. My research probes the symbiotic yet contrary existence of architecture and landscape and their asymmetric relations. While the architectural form is affected by Western design language, its landscape hides the European roots with interpretative Bengali symbols. The landscape vernacularizes his architecture and evokes a new Bengali Romanticism in the larger democratic landscape in this Non-Western context. Kahn's design indicates that the country’s nationalist sentiment remains embedded in an unreal, fetishized landscape of democracy and hegemonic normality.

Type of Resource

• Text
• Image

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/114281

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Copyright 2022 Nubras Samayeen

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