Louis Kahn in Ahmedabad and Dhaka

Abstract

Louis Kahn’s office began work on the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, and the National Assembly in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1962. Rather than the work of a single architect, or even of that architect’s office, these buildings should more properly be credited as well to the many other experts involved in their creation, from the construction force that mastered new ways of laying brick and pouring concrete, to the academics and officials whose demands also shaped their forms. Negotiating the different interests, as well as cultural backgrounds, of these often competing kinds of expertise slowed the completion of both projects but ultimately contributed in powerful ways to their appearance.