AIA Canada is pleased to present
SOUTH ASIAN MODERN & THE MAKING OF A NATION Louis I. Kahn’s National Assembly Complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 12:00 PM ET
Time: 12:00 – 1:0o pm ET
CES: 1 AIA LU
Speaker: Dr. Nubras Samayeen
Course Number: 2025AIACS03
Provider Name: AIA Canada Society
Provider Number: 100100113
Course Description
Of the Western design professionals who played a key role in establishing modernity in South Asia, Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), the American Modernist, is one of the most important ones. From the mid to late 20th century, Kahn designed two key institutions in the region. One is the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (1962-1972), India, and the other is the National Assembly Complex (constructed 1963-1982) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Taking Kahn’s Assembly Complex in Dhaka as the focus, this lecture will present distinctive instrumentality of architecture and landscape vis-a-vis holistic built environment, in the formation of a nation’s identity in the post-colonial (after 1947) and post-independence (after 1971) eras. His work not only demonstrates a merging of Western modernist architecture with Eastern cultural elements, but it also serves as a symbolic representation of a newly independent nation striving to define itself both internally and on the world stage. While designing the Complex, Kahn was inspired by the region’s deltaic landscape and its longstanding influences on the culture. The Complex itself appears to float on a constructed, artificial lake and the other key buildings abut the lake, thereby granting the entire site a sense of dynamic interplay with the lake and surrounding landscape. Accompanying the focus on water, there are other elements of the design that Kahn intended as nationally symbolic: the immense lawn, the basic geometric shapes, the gardens, and the open plazas. These spaces, while vast and monumental, are also meant to be accessible to the public, encouraging inclusivity and fostering democratic engagement. Though many of the inspirations of the architectural design expressions came from the Western culture, the Assembly Complex was intended as a historical and cultural emblem that would help in the formation of democracy for the newly found, independent nation, East Pakistan ( later Bangladesh). Kahn therefore envisioned an amalgam of sensibilities: modernist yet traditional, Western yet Bengali (Bangladesh’s culture), open yet monumental, forward-looking yet reverential. The final result was a magnum opus; it reflects Kahn’s vision for a national space that was open and egalitarian, yet at the same time, imbued with symbolic weight. Such complexity permeates not only the design but the entire post-colonial history of the country and South Asia region.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the role of architecture in shaping national identity – Examine how Louis I. Kahn’s National Assembly Complex contributed to the post-colonial and post-independence identity of Bangladesh.
- Analyze the integration of landscape and built form – Explore how Kahn’s design responds to Bangladesh’s deltaic geography, incorporating water, geometric forms, and public spaces to create a sense of place and inclusivity.
- Examine the fusion of Western modernism with Eastern cultural influences – Investigate how Kahn blended modernist architectural principles with traditional Bengali cultural and historical elements to create a design that was both monumental and locally meaningful.
- Evaluate architecture’s role in fostering democracy and civic engagement – Discuss how the Assembly Complex’s design—through its spatial openness, public accessibility, and monumental symbolism—embodied democratic ideals and civic participation in a newly independent nation.
Join us for this enlightening lecture.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Nubras Samayeen is a scholar, an academic, and a practicing architect in Bangladesh. Most recently, in 2025, she was awarded the UC Berkeley South Asia Art & Architecture Dissertation Prize for the best dissertation on South Asian architecture. She completed her Ph.D. from the joint program of Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation titled “Architecture of the Land” investigates American modernist architect Louis I. Kahn’s National Assembly Building Complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After her undergraduate degree in architecture, she completed dual master’s degrees in architecture and urban design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with distinction. She worked at various architecture firms such as Eisenman Architects, HOK, Beyer Blinder Belle in New York, and ZGF in Washington DC as an architect. She also taught architecture at the University of Asia Pacific in Dhaka, and Howard University in Washington DC. At Illinois, her research has been supported by the Dumbarton Oaks Summer Workshop Fellowship from Harvard University, the Kennedy and the Feil Travel Awards, the AAUW International Fellowship, the Humanities Research Institute Fellowship, the Illinois Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and the Nicholson Fellowship to study a summer at Cornell University. Among others, her most recent publications are: “Space to Breathe: George Floyd, BLM Plaza and the Monumentalization of Divided American Urban Landscapes,” and “The Landscape of 1971: Museums, Memories, and the Aesthetics of Bangladeshi Nationalism.” In 2023, her work – Vernacularization of a Democratic Landscape, received the best Students Research Award from Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). While Dr Samayeen is preparing for her book on Kahn’s landscape, she is currently working on a forthcoming book chapter, “Shifting Spatial Aesthetics and Mutating National Identity” to an anthology titled, A World of Contradictions: Culture and Identity in the Roiling of Globalization to be published in 2025.
