Kahn’s light: The measurable and the unmeasurable of the Bangladesh National Assembly Building

Abstract

To incline and unfold the constituent elements of Louis I. Kahn’s architecture and philosophy, a precise attention must lie on the fundamental objectives that he vigorously pursued and mastered, especially in his latest works. This work focuses attention on Louis Kahn’s idiosyncratic approach to light manipulation which he used to shape his architecture. That’s due to the constant coherence of his approach even today. As we are merged in the plurality of fonts that haul our discipline, we constantly question the real sense of architecture and what makes it intelligible. Kahn’s method drew conclusions and seeked for this sense through precise fonts: lessons from the past, current modernist flow, and the context. He combined and transformed these inspirations distinctively through his own sensitivity to achieve that spiritual value and its own true sense that architecture should retain in its form. Thus, it is considered of utmost interest to rethink his approach and particularly to reflect today on the pertinence of his main architectural parameter: Light.

Key words： Louis Kahn; Light; Architecture; Dhakka