Yasuko's Room
Contributed by Yasuko Seki

A Tour of Indian Buildings<5> From India to Bangladesh / In Dacca
By Yasuko Seki

2006/08/30

A pay weight scale at the station
of Chandigarh Station.
The destination of our next tour, after completing the hard schedule of investigation on Corbusier’s buildings in Chandigarh, is the ‘National Assembly Building’ designed by Louis Kahn in Dacca, the Capital City of Bangladesh. We set out for the tour from Chandigarh Station at dawn to go to Delhi. And then, via Calcutta in South India, we flied to Dacca. You know there’s no direct flight from Delhi to Dacca. That’s why we took such a roundabout route of going through Calcutta to reach Dacca. In India, you must estimate that you need at least 3 hours needed for changing planes. If we add up the total flight time from Delhi to Dacca, it is just around 3 hours. We had to kill, however, almost unimaginable length of waiting time both at Delhi Airport and Calcutta Airport. All we can do in the airport lobbies where there are no duty-free shops, no cafes is nothing more than reading books we brought from Japan. After all, it was around the midnight that we, who left Chandigarh at dawn, finally reached the hotel in Dacca. We, however, couldn’t go straight to bed because the architects who were related with Kahn’s Parliament Building Project were waiting for us to have a conference with us. You know it was a challenge against the limit of our physical stamina and hunger.
To my amazement, the members of the architectural pilgrimage tour say they will leave the hotel on the early morning when it’s still dark. They say they want to confirm the beauty of the National Assembly Building in the morning dew at dawn. You know, quite naturally I refused to participate in such an excursion.



Appearance of the Parliament Building


Inside of the Parliament Building

Around two hours later than the brave members had left, I left the hotel around 8 am with my not perfect stomach condition because of the heavy food served at the conference. I caught up with the members of the pilgrimage tour, who had already visited the National Assembly Building, at Ayub National Hospital designed by Kahn. This is the second time to see the architecture designed by Kahn following the University in Ahmedabad. This hospital has a similar appearance made of red bricks arranged in geometric patterns.
And then, the time I could finally visit the National Assembly Building came. Other members who left the hotel unbelievably early in the morning had already witnessed it but for me this was the first time. The majestic and dignified building with its overwhelming presence beyond the time and the space looked to me like a great ancient ruin. The special point of the visit here is that we can see not only the outside of the building but also we are allowed to enter it. Having had a strict body checking, we went inside of the building where even the people of Bangladesh can rarely enter.
I am sure that no words in the world can depict the scale of this building. It’s too big to take it in one picture. Kahn designed this building and its construction started in 1964. Its completion was 20 years later than that. The architect who passed away in 1974 could not see the fruit of his whole life as an architect. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world but its people never gave up completing the construction of this majestic building, taking as long as 20 years to realize it. This building must represent their pride. I couldn’t but feel my great respect to the people of Bangladesh and the old American architect who came all the way here.