The construction of Louis I. Kahn’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar (the city of the Bengal Tiger) unfolded over the course of 20 years in a radically shifting political context. Kahn was a lauded architect known for his monumental buildings when the Pakistani government commissioned him in 1963 to design a governmental and civic complex incorporating a national assembly building, a mosque, residences, offices, a dining hall, courtrooms, a hospital, a museum, and schools. It was to be situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and was begun when that country was still a part of Pakistan. In addition to functioning as the political center of Pakistan’s second capital city, it was meant to stand as a symbol of national unity. Kahn addressed these goals by designing a monumental structure based on square, circular, and triangular shapes and permeated with apertures that allow light to flood its grand interior spaces. In 1971, Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan. This inevitably changed the purpose of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, which would not be completed for another 12 years, and it became instead an emblem of a newly independent nation.
