National Assembly of Bangladesh Case Study: Plan, Light and Climate (Louis Kahn)

The National Assembly of Bangladesh, the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka, is Louis I. Kahn's parliament building: a concrete citadel of nine blocks set on a plinth in an artificial lake, with an octagonal assembly chamber at its centre. It took from the early 1960s to 1982 to build, was interrupted by the 1971 war, and was finished after Kahn died in 1974. This case study covers the brief, site, concept, plan, section, construction, light and climate, what critics and users have said, and what designers in India can take from it.

Where sources disagree, both versions are given. The plans and sections here are MOA's own schematic diagrams; links to Kahn's real drawings are near the end.

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The brief and the client

According to Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh, the decision to build a parliament complex in Dhaka was taken in 1959, when the city was the capital of East Pakistan. Land north of Manik Mia Avenue, about 208 acres, was acquired in 1961, and Kahn was formally commissioned in March 1962. The Bangladesh Tourism Board says it was the Bangladeshi architect Muzharul Islam who recommended bringing in architects of Kahn's standing.

The brief was more than one building. Banglapedia lists hostels for members of parliament, ministers and secretaries, hospitality halls and community buildings around the assembly. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, writing in The Daily Star in 2021, describes the whole complex as a miniature city of two groups on a north-south axis, separated by gardens and lakes.

Work stopped when the war began in 1971, and after independence the building became the parliament of Bangladesh. Banglapedia records that in 1974 the government decided to complete it "without much change".

Site and context: National Assembly building Bangladesh location

The complex sits in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, in the middle of Dhaka. The city lies on the delta, and Kahn's response began with water. Ashraf quotes him: "The two elements of nature most pervasive in the landscape of East Pakistan [Bangladesh] are water and vegetation." Ashraf dates Kahn's first trip to Bangladesh to February 1963.

The climate is hot and wet. Banglapedia's climate entry describes three seasons: a cool dry season from November to February, a hot pre-monsoon season from March to May, and the monsoon from June to October. Relative humidity is over 80% everywhere from June to September, and April averages about 27°C to 31°C across the country. Any building here has to deal with strong sun, heavy rain and damp air, often in the same week.

Concept and design ideas

Ashraf calls the southern group "the so-called Citadel of Assembly": the concrete assembly building at the crown, flanked by lower brick buildings that were originally residences for members of parliament and officials. Two ideas carry the design.

Dig and mound. Ashraf describes Kahn's process of "dig and mound": excavating the ground to make a mound for the building, with the pit becoming a pond. On low delta ground, the earth from the lake raises the building, and the lake is the hole it came from.

A centre with layers around it. A 2000 Museum of Modern Art press release for its exhibition of Kahn's drawings describes his preference for "concentric plans with layered enclosure of massive walls and openings". In Dhaka the assembly chamber is in the centre, an interior walkway surrounds it, and eight building elements surround that, "including a Prayer Hall at one end". The Aga Khan Award text says Kahn drew on regional and monumental archetypes and abstracted them "to a degree of utter purity".

Plan and zoning: national assembly building of Bangladesh floor plan

Read the plan as rings, from the centre out:

1. Assembly chamber. An octagonal hall at the centre. The Aga Khan Award page calls it a 300-seat, 30 m high domed amphitheatre; Banglapedia and Structurae give 354 seats, and Structurae gives the chamber's maximum height as 36 m (117 ft).
2. Ambulatory. Banglapedia describes "a seven-storied high ambulatory, with light coming from the roof" around the hall.
3. Eight peripheral blocks. Banglapedia describes "four identical office blocks along four arms with other functions on four corners". The prayer hall sits at the front of the building, according to Wendy Lesser in The Threepenny Review.
4. Light and air courts. The Aga Khan Award page describes eight light and air courts alternating with the main spaces.
5. Plinth and lake. The building stands on a plinth, and Banglapedia says the artificial lake touches its walls on all sides. The formal entrance from the south plaza rises 20 ft 6 in (about 6.25 m); on the north side, an amphitheatre is used for state functions.

Banglapedia also notes that the nine levels are joined horizontally on only three floors, with the top level used for machinery, and that the basement holds parking and service plant. Lesser reports that visitors often get lost inside. That is the cost of a strongly symmetrical plan: every direction looks alike.

Section and structure: a building inside a screen

The section explains the facades. The MoMA release says the large openings in the outer walls, "triangles, rectangles, circles", are "intended to function as a massive screen sheltering the inner building from sun and rain". The big geometric holes are not the windows of the rooms. They open into the gap between a weather shield and the inner building it protects.

Banglapedia describes a reinforced concrete structure in which hollow columns within the space enclosures act as supports. Over the chamber, Lesser describes the roof as "a tent made of concrete", tethered to the walls at eight points, with daylight coming in beneath its edges. The MoMA release adds that a circular ring of dormers channels air and light to the spaces below.

We found no published account of the structural engineering detailed enough to diagram, so the section shows the principle of layers and light, not the structure.

Materials and construction: national assembly building of Bangladesh construction

The building is concrete inside and out, cast in place, with white marble set into it (Eduardo Souza, ArchDaily, 2010). The marble lines are a record of how it was built. Lesser explains that concrete had to be carried by hand, by workers walking up bamboo scaffolding ramps with pans on their heads, so the walls could rise only about five feet (1.5 m) a day. Kahn recessed the concrete at each five-foot lift and filled the six-inch (150 mm) gap with a white marble strip, which also hid the join between one day's pour and the next. Vertical marble bands complete the grid.

The surrounding hostels are brick. Ashraf describes Kahn's brick architecture here as having deep shadows, an earth-hugging form and arches tied with concrete, and suggests it may have inaugurated "critical regionalism".

Construction was long. Banglapedia gives 1964 for the completed design and start of work, a stop in 1971, a decision in 1974 to finish the building, and completion in early 1982. Kahn died in 1974. The Tourism Board says the project was about three-quarters complete when he died. The cost rose from about US$15 million to US$32 million (Banglapedia; ArchDaily gives the same final figure).

Light, climate and services

Light is the main experience inside. Lesser describes golden light entering through glass blocks at the roofline and light reflected off the outer facades, and notes that the interior's shade protects against the heat outside. Ashraf writes that changing light from unseen sources animates the ambulatory. In the prayer hall, which Lesser describes as a cube just under 70 ft (about 21 m) each way, all the light is reflected.

The climate strategy is mostly passive and mostly about shade and rain: the outer screen, the shaded gap, the courts and the roof light. The building is not sealed off from the weather either. The Speaker told Lesser that in the plenary hall you can hear the rain when it rains. Services are mechanical too: a 2026 report in The Daily Observer describes the Main Mechanical Plant under the South Plaza, which houses the central air conditioning, generators and electrical substations.

Reception: what critics, users and owners said

• Award. The building received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the 1987 to 1989 cycle. The award's project page describes it as "clear in form and composition, powerful in scale and siting".
• Its place in the city. Lawrence J. Vale, in Architecture, Power and National Identity (Routledge), notes that some see the complex "as an alternative to Dhaka rather than a part of it".
• Access. Lesser reports that the grand entrance is now used only for ceremonies and that security keeps the public out of the plazas and lawns. In 2006, The Daily Star reported there was no organised system of regular guided tours.
• Cost and time. More than double the first estimate and about two decades to finish.
• Leaks and upkeep. The Daily Observer reported in September 2026 that even minor rain leaks through the roof, putting equipment at risk, and that the response so far includes sealing glass-brick joints and waterproofing roofs, which experts quoted in the report called temporary fixes. Banglapedia puts annual maintenance and operating costs at about Tk 5.5 crore.
• Heritage status. A 2021 paper by Bayezid Ismail Choudhury in the Journal of Social and Development Sciences notes that the building "is yet to be nominated" as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and argues that it should be.

What designers in India can take from it

This is our reading, for Indian climates and sites. It is not a claim about Kahn's intentions.

1. Separate the weather skin from the room. In hot-humid cities such as Kolkata, Chennai or Mumbai, a screen wall or deep verandah a metre or more in front of the glass does what Dhaka's outer walls do at a giant scale: it takes the sun and driving rain, so the inner wall can have ordinary, openable windows. Our guide to jaali design for homes covers the house-scale version.
2. Let the cut make the plinth. "Dig and mound" suits low, flood-prone sites in Bengal, Assam or coastal Kerala: the soil dug for a pond or rainwater tank raises the plinth, and the pond holds runoff. Check soil and water table first. Our guide to building materials in Kolkata and West Bengal covers delta soil and damp.
3. Design the joint you cannot avoid. On Indian sites, concrete is often placed in lifts by hand. Decide where each day's pour stops, and turn that line into a groove, band or inlay on the drawings, rather than leaving a ragged cold joint to be plastered over.
4. Detail roof light for the monsoon, and budget for upkeep. The 2026 leaks at glass-block joints show that roof glazing in a monsoon climate needs upstands, falls and a maintenance plan. See our waterproofing guide by climate.

If you are writing this up for studio or a thesis, our guide to doing an architecture case study has a sheet layout that suits a literature study like this one. The same architect's campus for IIM Ahmedabad is planned for our India series.

Visiting and seeing the real drawings

The Bangladesh Tourism Board lists the National Parliament House as a place to visit and says it can be reached by taxi, auto-rickshaw or bus from anywhere in Dhaka. It does not publish hours, rules or prices. The building is a working parliament, and the 2006 Daily Star report described visits inside as needing an application to the parliament secretary, with the Speaker's consent, at least a week ahead, and student groups applying through an architects' organisation. Treat that as dated: check the current process with the Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat before you plan a trip.

Kahn's papers are in the Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Witold Rybczynski, writing for Designers and Books in 2013, describes it as holding more than 6,000 drawings in Kahn's own hand plus his office's development and working drawings, models and photographs. The same archive holds Mildred Schmertz's 18 slides of the complex, taken in December 1985, open for research by appointment. Use the archive, or drawings reproduced in published monographs, for the real plans and sections. Do not trace MOA's diagrams as if they were measured drawings.

For thesis ideas on public buildings, see our B.Arch thesis topics by typology. Our Salk Institute case study, on Kahn's other great work of concrete and light, is coming soon.

FAQ

Who designed the National Assembly building of Bangladesh?

Louis I. Kahn, the American architect. He was commissioned in March 1962 and died in 1974, before it was finished. His associates completed it: sources name David Wisdom, and Banglapedia also names Henry Wilcot.

When was the National Parliament of Bangladesh built?

Land was acquired in 1961, construction started in 1964 according to Banglapedia (some sources say 1961), work stopped during the 1971 war, and the building was inaugurated on 28 January 1982. Some sources give 1983 as the completion year.

What materials is the National Assembly building made of?

Cast-in-place concrete inside and out, with white marble strips set into the concrete at each pour line and in vertical bands. The surrounding hostels are brick, with arches tied with concrete.

How many seats are in the National Assembly chamber?

Banglapedia and Structurae give 354 seats. The Aga Khan Award page describes a 300-seat chamber. Check the parliament's current figures if you need an exact number.

What is the plan of the National Assembly of Bangladesh?

Concentric: an octagonal assembly chamber at the centre, a seven-storey ambulatory around it, eight peripheral blocks with eight light and air courts between them, all on a plinth in an artificial lake.

Looking for an architect who designs for heat, rain and light? Find an architect on MOA.

Sources

• Banglapedia: Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, en.banglapedia.org (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Banglapedia: Climate, en.banglapedia.org (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Aga Khan Development Network: National Assembly Building, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the.akdn (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• The Museum of Modern Art: Drawings and Models by Architect Louis I. Kahn Evoke the Power of Modern Architecture, press release, March 2000, moma.org (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Wendy Lesser, The Threepenny Review: Parliament's Castle, Summer 2016, threepennyreview.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, The Daily Star: Louis Kahn's Capital Complexity, 28 February 2021, thedailystar.net (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Lawrence J. Vale, Routledge: The acropolis of Bangladesh, in Architecture, Power and National Identity, taylorfrancis.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Structurae: Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, structurae.net (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Eduardo Souza, ArchDaily: AD Classics: National Assembly Building of Bangladesh / Louis Kahn, 2010, archdaily.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Bangladesh Tourism Board: National Parliament House, beautifulbangladesh.gov.bd (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• The Daily Star: Sangsad Bhaban: Will it open to visitors?, 6 September 2006, thedailystar.net (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• The Daily Observer: Rainwater leaks put Tk 200cr parliament equipment at risk, 3 September 2026, observerbd.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Bayezid Ismail Choudhury, Journal of Social and Development Sciences: Jatio Sangsad Bhaban: Aspiring to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2021, ojs.amhinternational.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Witold Rybczynski, Designers and Books: The Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania, 2013, designersandbooks.com (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• University of Pennsylvania, Architectural Archives: Mildred Schmertz, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Collection (Collection 211), design.upenn.edu (accessed 3 Nov 2026)