‘Instruments of Democracy’ invites students to question the role that architecture plays as a precondition for political, economic, cultural, and social engagement in the city. Following an analysis of the design of the National Parliament House in Dhaka, Ehsan Alam (MUD’ 2024) offers an intimate reading of the Louis Kahn’s visionary design, not only through the lens of a masterpiece, but as an urban mediator and political form which symbolizes freedom and resilience. An architecture which has grown in parallel to the emerging political identity of Bangladesh, one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels, with an extreme pressure on its economy and most recently amid political turmoil and major citizens protests.

Guest Lecture Arch 509 Politics of Balance