The two cities of Chandigarh and Dhaka make sense to everyone interested in architecture. Chandigarh is one of the rare places where Le Corbusier could, during the 1950s and 1960s, put his ideas into practice on a grand scale; he left some remarkable buildings, especially the Palace of Assembly, the High Court, and the Secretariat Building, all the while influencing the conception of many more. In Dhaka, the famous Louis Kahn built the National Assembly (1962 – 1974), considered to be one of his masterpieces. The building proposes some variations on simple geometric forms, either angular or circular. The principle building includes some sturdy towers reminiscent of Mogul forts, the remains of which can be found elsewhere in the city. It is enthroned, in a supported symmetry, in the middle of an immense park which distances it from the city as much as it renders it publicly inaccessible. Chandigarh is yet a stronger statement since it is the whole city which the architect designed. It is a project which borrows a lot from Ebenezer Howard's Garden City model, but with Le Corbusier's own personal interpretation.
(translation by Annette Fehr)