Modernist Architecture in Dhaka

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, sees a wave of infrastructural expansion. This includes Modernist building projects and affordable housing construction to meet the demands of its steadily increasing population, which rose dramatically immediately following the influx of migrants from India during the Partition. During this period, many other South Asian cities — including New Delhi, Islamabad and Chandigarh — attempt to remake themselves in a future-oriented light after colonial rule, encouraging projects by Modernist architects. 

Among these, Muzharul Islam and Louis Kahn emerge as major figures in the creation of a new Dhaka, designing landmark structures such as the Faculty of Fine Arts in Dhaka University (1955), the Mir Musharraf Hossain Hall at Jahangirnagar University (1973) and the National Assembly Building (designed by Kahn as part of the Capitol Complex in 1963 but completed posthumously in 1982). 

Largely built as government projects for public use or service, the Modernist structures of this period are inspired by the democratic character of the new state as well as Mughal and Bengali building styles that favoured ventilation and insulation. They are noted for an emphasis on functionality, accessibility and climatic adaptations, such as deeply recessed and sheltered portals and filtered natural light, the creation of green spaces, and the aesthetic preference for stable horizontality rather than verticality. In contrast, the apartments being built in Dhaka’s new residential areas draw criticism for being too cramped and too hastily constructed.

Today this period is considered the third era of Dhaka’s development, the first two being the city’s time as the capital of Mughal Bengal in the seventeenth century, and later as a political and economic hub under British rule through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.