Designing Public Space With[out] Public Participation?A Study on Hatir Jheel, Dhaka (original) (raw)
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Participatory Methods in the Development of Public Space: Case Studies Review
AESOP Annual Congress 2019
Urban Design and Planning worldwide have long been criticized for their lack of meaningful public consultation and participation in the process of shaping our built environment. Currently, the existing practices of consultation and participation are within the confines of council meetings, complex form filling and survey reports that often carry little weight towards the decisions made by the planning authorities; the latter are increasingly seeking for ways to encourage meaningful public participation in urban development decisions. This paper presents a systematic literature review on sustainable urban governance vis-a-vis participatory planning, in an effort to consolidate, evaluate and critique the various approaches on involving the public in decision-making process in relation to urban form in general and public space in particular. The literature/case studies presented are referenced across a scale of degrees of participation, referring to a range of influence that participants have in the decision-making. In its two extremes it can be viewed as no participation, where designers make assumptions of users’ needs and requirements, and full participation, based on user-defined criteria of quality. The evaluation of many participatory research practices is somewhere in between the two extremes, focusing more on design with the users. However, the given theoretical process, might provide an insufficient degree of realism that designers need to cope with, due to time and budget constraints. If it is to remain grounded to the practice of design, literature should be able to cope with barriers, and seek understanding beyond its conceptual approaches.
Urban life and use of Public Space in Dhaka
The urban population of Dhaka suffers from lack of proper urban facilities. The 'Public open spaces' are needed for different functional and leisure activities of the urban dwellers. In spite of growing densification, a number of open spaces are scattered in the city. Such areas often found to be misused by anti-social occurrences, thereby resulting into dehumanized areas. Moreover, the existing open spaces are frequently threatened by encroachment. The role of public open spaces, both at community and city level, is important to improve the social ties and social control for future generations. Therefore, it seems that the open spaces need to be more effective for public interaction. Now it is imperative to know what type of spaces still exist and also to study the nature and quality of use of public open spaces by the urbanity at present in order to retain and to generate responsive spaces as needed by the future generation of the urban population of Dhaka. The present investigation has found that the existing stock of open space in not enough to sustain the need of urbanity in Dhaka. The open spaces mostly exist in the form of 'Urban Parks', 'Urban Recreational Areas' and 'Urban Development Open Spaces'. The utilization of the existing large open spaces, i.e. the urban parks, is overwhelming; and their impact on urban life appears to be enormous. These urban parks serve as recreational ground for the middle-income urbanity. The upper income people use those areas for their personal care; and the poor comes to earn by serving others. Besides, the 'Urban Recreational Areas', like small and medium sized parks and playgrounds, are frequently used by the local children and youth. The 'Urban Development Open Spaces' also generate many activities; thereby they are helping to enhance a better urban living condition. It has been recommended that government and local authorities should urgently recognize the value of these resources. The existing open spaces must be protected by the enforcement of Environmental Laws. In order to make the open spaces responsive to the urban need, such spaces need to be well equipped. Besides, regular maintenance and control of these areas is essential to cease the anti-social occurrences and put them in successful use.
2013
The involvement of local communities in public space planning and design processes is widely promoted as an essential element of landscape architecture and urban design practice. Despite this, there has been little theorisation of this topic within these fields. Furthermore, the implementation of ideals and principles commonly found in theory are far from becoming mainstream practice, indicating a significant gap between the theory and practice of participation. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of theories of participation in the planning and design of public spaces. It steps away from the prevailing normative and procedural approach to theory development, and instead adopts a critical approach grounded on the deep understanding of the challenges of participation in the planning and design of public spaces. Case studies of two urban renewal projects, in Medellin, Colombia, and in Barcelona, Spain, and their participatory processes, are used for building up the theoretical contribution. The empirical and theoretical findings foreground the contextual and political nature of participatory processes. Contextual, in the sense that the implementation of ideals and principles found in theory is facilitated or hindered by the social, political and economic context in which a participatory process takes place. Political, in the sense that in complex contexts that comprise a wide range of actors, and where contrasting goals and agendas are at stake, the implementation of these theoretical ideals and principles is significantly challenged by politics involving deep differences, conflicts and power relations. The findings also show that prevailing theories of participation within landscape architecture and urban design do not take into consideration the contextual and political nature of participatory processes. This renders these theories weak in their capacity to respond to the challenges encountered by participatory processes in contemporary public space projects. This is particularly so as the dynamics of increasing pluralisation, muliticultarisation and neoliberalisation of cities create contexts that hinder the implementation of the ideals and principles found in theory, and increase the challenges caused by their political nature. Consequently, this thesis proposes a new theoretical approach to participation in the planning and design of public spaces, that allows context-based distinctions and judgements about the qualities of participatory practices for just decision-making. Difference, conflict and power are central in this approach. This thesis establishes this theoretical departure point and makes a significant contribution towards the development of the proposed theoretical approach.
2013
"The involvement of local communities in public space planning and design processes is widely promoted as an essential element of landscape architecture and urban design practice. Despite this, there has been little theorisation of this topic within these fields. Furthermore, the implementation of ideals and principles commonly found in theory are far from becoming mainstream practice, indicating a significant gap between the theory and practice of participation. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of theories of participation in the planning and design of public spaces. It steps away from the prevailing normative and procedural approach to theory development, and instead adopts a critical approach grounded on the deep understanding of the challenges of participation in the planning and design of public spaces. Case studies of two urban renewal projects, in Medellin, Colombia, and in Barcelona, Spain, and their participatory processes, are used for building up the theoretical contribution. The empirical and theoretical findings foreground the contextual and political nature of participatory processes. Contextual, in the sense that the implementation of ideals and principles found in theory is facilitated or hindered by the social, political and economic context in which a participatory process takes place. Political, in the sense that in complex contexts that comprise a wide range of actors, and where contrasting goals and agendas are at stake, the implementation of these theoretical ideals and principles is significantly challenged by politics involving deep differences, conflicts and power relations. The findings also show that prevailing theories of participation within landscape architecture and urban design do not take into consideration the contextual and political nature of participatory processes. This renders these theories weak in their capacity to respond to the challenges encountered by participatory processes in contemporary public space projects. This is particularly so as the dynamics of increasing pluralisation, muliticultarisation and neoliberalisation of cities create contexts that hinder the implementation of the ideals and principles found in theory, and increase the challenges caused by their political nature. Consequently, this thesis proposes a new theoretical approach to participation in the planning and design of public spaces, that allows context-based distinctions and judgements about the qualities of participatory practices for just decision-making. Difference, conflict and power are central in this approach. This thesis establishes this theoretical departure point and makes a significant contribution towards the development of the proposed theoretical approach. "
Inclusiveness and Participation in the Design of Public Spaces
International Journal of E-Planning Research
The COVID-19 pandemic made visible the need for greater participation of diverse communities in the planning of cities since it revealed exclusions based on gender, migratory status, and class. As a result, initiatives were launched that applied new technologies, digital platforms, and data-based intelligence to bring alternative solutions to the re-use and re-management of public space. The aim of this article is to analyze Her City, a joint effort of UN-Habitat and Global Utmaning, meant to guide urban actors to implement projects through an open and digitally accessible platform that involves girls and young women in urban planning and design. The authors conducted a review of literature and analyzed a case study that included the application of the Toolbox in Chania, Greece, concluding that although Her City can face challenges in the post pandemic scenario, it could be considered among these new, radical, and forward-thinking technologies, groundbreaking from an urban planning ...
User behaviour experiences of Dhaka’s public open space and design features
2019
I would like to express my gratitude to all my lectures throughout this MSc Urban and Regional Planning. My friends and Librarians at UTM, BUET o f Dhaka, Bangladesh also deserve special thanks for their assistance in supplying the relevant literature and information. My fellow postgraduate student should also be recognised for their support. My sincere appreciation also extends to all my colleagues and others who have provided assistance at various occasions. Their views and tips are useful indeed. Unfortunately, it is not possible to list all o f them in this limited space. I am also grateful to all my family member.
RE-EVALUATING PUBLIC SPACE IN URBAN SLUM: A CASE OF KORAIL BASTI
Proceedings of the 12th FARU International Research Conference (Faculty of Architecture Research Unit)At: University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2019
Slums are the undeniable truth in the urban fabric of developing counties. As per UN Habitat 30 percent of world's population live in slums and the vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres. As reference, Korail Basti is Dhaka's biggest slum with a total area of around 110 acres of land. Due to spontaneous growth and density there is no viable public space for the intangible growth of the slum dwellers. But most often this crisis of such huge community is overlooked by providing bare necessities like-infrastructure for water, power, sanitation etc. with oversimplified , short term cheap schemes. However, on the deeper end it always failed to address the intangible needs of this community where cultural, recreational and social interaction can happen. This paper tries to re-evaluate the needs of viable public space in this type of dense urban slums, understand their present features from the existing public usage and analyses the constraints and scopes to incorporate them addressing the challenge of swarming density. This research has been carried out through diagram preparation from GIS mappings, field survey, photographic survey, one to one interview with the locals and questionnaire survey from the slum dwellers. The findings suggest us a clearer vision about the present public domain in Korail, its dependence on slum infrastructure and the local's aspiration for a better living condition. This paper focuses on the sequential process of understanding public integration, public usage and spatial inclusion of infrastructure and public domain within slums to transform it into consolidated neighbourhoods for the betterment of the city.
2020
The gendered built environment contributes directly to social and economic inequities. The economic prosperity of Dhaka city is yet to translate into a desirable urban life, especially for its female citizens. Public open spaces – where active urban life flourishes – are populated by men and boys in the city. Nevertheless, these spaces are in a constant state of becoming, radically departing from the earlier ideas of static due to increased engagement of women in urban productivity, politics, and governance. Space is a neglected dimension both in gender and urban studies. The paper examines the urban system maintains a dynamic balance between forces or exhibits a capacity to grow and change. The findings illustrate that access to and mobility in public open spaces influenced by a range of pragmatic, ideological, socio-cultural, and spatial factors underpinned by prevailing gender inequalities and asymmetries contribute to both social and economic inequities in the city. Thus, the pa...
GASS 2018 Conference Proceedings - National University Singapore, 2018
Rapid urbanization and water scarcity in Indonesian cities are fuelling the demand for more diversified water sources to meet demand (ADB, 2016). The sustainable use and appropriation of public spaces in Indonesia is one of the lowest in the world (Althoff et al, 2017). This is partly because of the lack of connected and enjoyable walking tracks and open spaces, and lack of a more sustainable and integrated urban design approach including water and vegetation that can interact as active agents for the filtering, cleaning and reduction of stormwater runoff and greywater into the main urban streams or for re-use purposes (Tanan & Darmoyono, 2017). This paper presents the experience of a participatory approach applying a Water Sensitive Design Framework (Wong et al, 2012) to the design of public open spaces in the city of Bogor in Indonesia, with a focus on the active transformation of public space with Green-Blue Infrastructure as a catalyst for community integration, environmental recovery and resilience to the recurrent floods affecting most Indonesian cities and other environmental stresses. The Water Sensitive Framework aims to build more water sensitive cities and neighbourhoods, working alongside communities towards these goals. Community Visioning, Benchmarking and Scenario planning strategies have been used to understand local issues, determine the potential for change and explore the actions and roadmap needed to achieve the desired future in their communities to ultimately leapfrog to a more water sensitive future.
Realties and Myths of Public Spaces: Conflict and Participation in Kolkata
International Journal on Emerging Technologies , 2017
Built environment since the inception of mankind is coded through contest and participation, more so if it represents a public space meant for heterogeneous occupancy and multiple activities. Public space in a city transforms itself along with the ever changing social, cultural and economic realities as well as modes and mediums of interpretation and can be considered as the representation of urban dynamics and processes which are the actual lifeline of the city. This research paper proposes to interpret the public spaces of Kolkata, a bustling metropolis of Eastern India with reference to contestation and participation of its citizen and their engagement with the material spaces of public domain and various negotiations and mediations that has been at play for over 300 years of its existence. Kolkata has grown to the first imperial capital of India from a cluster of villages and surfaced as the cultural and literally capital of the country by the 19 th century .City's public spaces also behaved in consonance by travelling from dingy lanes and small clearings of indigenous settlements to vast recreational open spaces created by colonial rulers in preindependence era followed by present day modern landscapes dictated by changed concern at the same time maintaining unique connotations. This paper scrutinizes public spaces of Kolkata through literature study and narratives of selected sample and tries to understand the prolonged struggles and negotiated juxtaposition of public spaces with every day civic life and sentiments through the lens of time and appropriation in order to establish its importance and concludes with pointers about the future of public space interpretation which may guide the city planning visions and paradigms.