|
The Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh and the first Parliament held
their sittings in the building that now houses the Prime
Minister’s Office and which is often referred as the
old Shangshad Bhaban (old Parliament House).
The second Parliament also held most of its
sittings in that building, the last sitting being on 10
July 1981. It was during the tenure of the second
Parliament that the present Parliament building, or
Shangshad Bhaban, located at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, became
functional. Its eighth, and incidentally the last
session, commenced on 15 February 1982 in the new
building.
The ‘legislative enclave’ at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar is among the largest
legislative complexes in the world and is bound by
Rokeya Sarani to the east, Mirpur Road to the west, Lake
Road to the north and Manik Mian Avenue to the south.
Its total area is approximately 200 acres. Situated in
the enclave are the impressive structure of the
Parliament Building, a Members’ hostel, residences for
parliamentary functionaries, two large lush green lawns
and a lake. Residences of Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
which were included in the master plan for this enclave
are yet to be constructed.
The design of the Parliament
Building, made by the famous architect Professor Louis
I. Kahn, was evolved from the basic human requirement of
protection from the glare and fury of nature. This has
been achieved through the overall arrangement of the
complex in different groups of buildings in which normal
external lines are deeply recessed by porticoes with
huge geometric openings on its outer facade, forming the
visual characteristics of the building. Thus
conventional methods of protecting external windows have
been effectively substituted, resulting in the
compositional effect of these huge openings, befitting
the scale of the building. The use of exposed concrete
walls to contrast the surrounding buildings with exposed
brick exteriors, merges with the land and its culture.
The lake on three sides of the main building, extending
up to the Members hostel not only creates visual relief
for the beholder but also echoes the riverine beauty of
Bangladesh. The entire complex has a floor area of
8,23,000 sq. ft. in the main building, 2,23,000 sq. ft.
in the South Plaza and 65,000 sq. ft. in the
Presidential Plaza.
The Parliament Building consists of three major components: the South
Plaza, the Presidential Plaza and the main Building. The
South Plaza, gradually rising to 20' height, serves as
the visual base as well as the formal entrance to the
Parliament Building. It contains:
- controlling
gates;
- a
driveway;
- a
main mechanical plant room;
- a
large car parking space;
- a
telephone exchange;
- offices
of maintenance engineers;
- equipment
stores; and
- an
open plaza with steps and ramps leading directly to
the main building.
The Presidential Plaza to the north, serves as an intimate plaza for MPs
and other dignitaries. It contains marble steps, a
gallery and an open pavement. Its ground floor is partly
open and partly occupied by stores. The Parliament
Building itself consists of nine individual blocks of
which, eight peripheral blocks rise to a height of 110'
while the octagonal block rises to a height of 155'. All
of these nine blocks surrounding the ambulatory contain
different groups of functional spaces and have an
interplay of different levels, inter-linked horizontally
and vertically with corridors, lifts, stairs, light
courts and circular areas. All have blended into a
harmonious whole.
The total seating capacity in the Parliament Chamber is 354 plus the
podium and two V.I.P. galleries. The Chamber has a
maximum height of 117' with a parabolic shell roof at
its top. There is here a splendid feature: a clear story
above the parabolic shell that lets in daylight, which
reflects from the surrounding walls and octagonal drum
filters into the Parliament Chamber, demonstrating the
ability of Louis Khan to combine architecture with
light. The artificial lighting system of the Parliament
Chamber has been devised in such a manner that it does
not obstruct the infiltration of daylight. A composite
chandelier, consisting of a metallic “web”, supports
the individual light fixtures and is itself suspended
from the parabolic shell.
At
the upper levels of this block are the visitors’ and
press galleries as well as communication booths, which
overlook the Parliament Chamber. Among others, it also
contains at level one, a library, MPs’ lounges at
level three, and Party rooms at the upper level. The
main committee rooms are located in one of the
peripheral blocks at level two. All parliamentary
functionaries, including Ministers and chairpersons of
some of the Standing Committees, have offices in this
building, as does the Parliament Secretariat.
|
