JATIYO SANGSAD BHABAN

   

Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban, the National Parliament Building, (Bengali: জাতীয় সংসদ ভবন Jatio Shôngshod Bhôbon) is the Jatiyo Sangshad  or National Assembly of Bangladesh , located at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the Bangladeshin capital of Dhaka. Designed by architec Louis Kahnt, the complex, which accommodates all Bangladesh's seven parliaments, is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world, comprising 200 acres (800,000 m²).
The building was featured prominently in the 2003 film My Architect, detailing the career and familial legacy of its architect, Louis Kahn. Robert McCarter, author of Louis I. Kahn, described the National Parliament of Bangladesh as one of the twentieth century's most significant buildings.

History

Play of light inside the building

There have been nine national elections in Bangladesh. The first and second Parliaments used the Old Shangshad Bhaban, which currently serves as the Prime Minister's Office.

Construction began in 1961 by President Ayub Khan, the then president of Pakistan as a permanent building for the federal legislature of both West Pakistan and East Pakistan  and was completed after the country's war of independence and several decades — on 28 January, 1982. The complex opened the following month on 15 February for the eighth (and last) session of the second parliament of Bangladesh and has since operated as the sole complex for the National Assembly.

Jatiyo Sangshad was designed by Louis Kahn. Previously, the government had appointed Muzharul Islam as the center's architect, but Islam deferred, instead recommending Alvar Aalto  or Le Corbusier. When those architects were unavailable, Islam enlisted his former teacher Louis Kahn as the architect. Throughout the project's design and construction, Islam assisted Kahn.