I Visit the Parliament Building
March 25, 2007

At the end of the BUET conference a few of the organizers invited me to go on a tour of the Parliament Building the next day. I was actually quite excited about this, because regular citizens are not normally allowed inside – BUET had apparently obtained special permission for the out-of-town guests and some of the students.

The Parliament Building was built by Louis Kahn and is a matter of great pride for the Bangladeshis. From the outside, the building looks like a massive concrete mass, but from the inside it is surprisingly light and airy. I was actually amazed by how much of the inside was lit by natural light coming in through small windows. The light was indirect sunlight too, reflected off of concrete walls outside. While this meant that there were very few views of the exterior, it also meant that the heat gain in the building was not as high.

Here is a picture that one of the students took of us at the building.
(Can you spot me in my sari?)