User behaviour experiences of Dhaka’s public open space and design features (original) (raw)
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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.
Open Space in Dhaka: Identifying the Factors of Public Inaccessibility
The Jahangirnagar Review: Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLIV, 2020
An open space can only become successful by ensuring accessibility accurately. In the language of planning, open space can only become successful after achieving accessibility for each and every people of society. Increasing demand for housing and other facilities from rapid population growth has been a strong reason for the decrease in open spaces. This study tries to represent the existing open space accessibility condition of Dhaka city, by studying a playground and a park. To explain the aspects of accessibility, this research focuses on public accessibility instead of place accessibility. Several reasons behind inaccessibility, such as-social, economic, cultural, and environmental aspects have been discovered in detail. In regard to determining the prohibiting factors, both user and non-user group data have been assessed from a fixed catchment area. Factors that affect the people most with its impacts and create inaccessibility in spite of having open spaces in close proximity are the main issues focused on this article. Along with the primary survey results of a playground and park, this study has also included model-based theories to determine the findings. Findings show that accessibility declines mostly for safety issues, restrictions, and close association with travel expenses to reach there. The ultimate output of the research can be stated in one sentence that, accessibility is not only the thing which can only be described by proximity or physical distance but also public accessibility, which is the most significant determinant for using any open space.
Dhaka is considered as one of the fastest growing megacity with a population of 15 million ranking 9th among the world. In the process of urbanization, throughout its history, many part of Dhaka has gone through many physical and functional transformations. Ramna area which was produced as a pleasure garden during Mughal period is one of those parts that has gone through consecutive manipulations. This has become one of the major public open space due to its uniqueness. This paper attempts to unfold the changing scenario of present Ramna Area.
The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, 2018
A number of socio-psychological factors cause accessibility problems of public open spaces such as parks and playground. However, for ensuring a healthy urban life, some open spaces are essential as taking breath to give a child some fresh air, a little scope of giving the chance of playing. A public open space becomes successful only when it is accessible to each and every person of society. Accessibility is now not only the concept based on the close proximity but also the most important concern for people to make any open space successful with its purpose. Class dynamics and public versus place dichotomy are creating all the possible changes of accessibility condition at any public space. Since this study tries to focus on public accessibility rather than place accessibility, all factors like social, economic, cultural and environmental factors for creating inaccessibility and prohibiting people from using the open space have been identified and analyzed in detail. Factors like social, economic, cultural and environmental factors are responsible for deciding a person’s decision to use an open space. This research is an attempt to find out all the prohibiting factors that influence a person to go a community open space.
Designing Public Space With[out] Public Participation?A Study on Hatir Jheel, Dhaka
In a developing country like Bangladesh where the practice of urbanism is merely seen as either successful or miscarried milestones set by the government rather than an inclusive design process, it's not a surprise that the projects are often devoid of people's active involvement. However, the importance of including the users a space is designed for is undisputable, particularly from the perspective of New Urbanism concept advocating for 'citizen-based participatory planning and design' process. Public spaces are the urban connectors and points of reference in a city, thus rendering the design process as a better-suited opportunity to reflect the desires of its denizens. This paper investigates the unseen opportunities of public participation in sketching out the public spaces of Dhaka, taking Hatir Jheel as a case study. Hatir Jheel is a lake designed with the vision of connecting the existing traffic network to ease the congestion, retaining water, repelling pollution and illegal settlers along the waterbody and reinvigorating the urban activities on the waterfront. Despite having every potential to be an all-encompassing public urban design project realized from people's aspirations, Hatir Jheel doesn't live up to the expectations of becoming one. With the research question in mind 'What role can public participation have in designing public spaces?', this topic is explored in four sections, (1) literature review of the role of inclusive and participatory process in urbanism illustrated with two case studies in two different contexts, one in Belgium and another in Nepal, (2) public space as seen in the context of Dhaka, (3) the frequent breach between the above-mentioned concept and the reality, exemplified through the case study of Hatir Jheel and finally through these steps, (4) the paper aims to look for the recommendations for developing a toolkit to make participatory process in designing public space possible in developing countries. The paper concludes that in introducing the citizen engagement in the developing countries, public spaces can act as starting points and the planners should take the role of advocating and mediating people's needs.
Reclaiming Public Open Space within the Shifting Landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2020
Public open space is an essential structuring landscape element and is a pivotal point for the civic social system in a city. Unplanned urbanization and densification are often deemed responsible for the disappearance of public open spaces in Dhaka. Since 1960, as one of the fastest-growing megacities, Dhaka faces continuous destruction of open spaces that includes seven vulnerabilities: water, riparian areas, parks, vacant lands, green areas, greenways, and ecological reserves. To ensure sustainable growth along with proper functioning of ecosystems, foster social cohesion and public health, there is an urgent need to assess shifts in Dhaka's landscape-by re-evaluating the interaction between Dhaka's Public space and the urbanization of its natural landscape. Therefore, this article explores historical avenues of Dhaka's natural-urban metamorphosis through urban mapping and cartographic exploration to understand the transformation of public open spaces over time. This way, the aim is to identify future potentials for preserving nature and strengthening the role of public open space and its manifold uses through unfolding the hidden layers of history.
PRESERVING OPEN SPACE FOR LIVABILITY OF DHAKA
Proceedings of the Seminar on “Public Space for All’, organized by Housing and Public Works Ministry, GoB on the occasion of ‘World Habitat Day 2015’ , 2015
Open space can be defined as un-built lands within the city which provides environmental, social and economic benefits for the communities that cover land and water bodies devoted to recreation, scenic beauty, conservation. In addition to their ecological and aesthetic value to urban dwellers, open spaces are used as recreational facilities either in active orin passive mode. Availability of open space for public use is an important indicator of ‘Livability’ of cities to ensure health and wellbeing of citizens. This paper presents the proposals of Dhaka Structure Plan (2016-2035) regarding open space including green network, urban and peri-urban greening, water bodies as important elements of livability of Dhaka.
Analyzing Accessibility of Public Open Space in Relation to Urban Configuration of Dhaka City
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023
Public open space plays an essential role in urban life, particularly in densely populated cities like Dhaka. Dhaka has a limited supply of land for its major urban areas; however, some open spaces are frequently criticized for being inconvenient to users and therefore underutilized. The issue of how to enhance the performance of open spaces is therefore crucial for city planners and designers. Accessibility, defined as the relative proximity of one location to another, denotes the convenience of reaching the destination from the starting point. As a spatial analytic metric, it plays a crucial role for decision-makers in determining where to locate public facilities or amenities in order to maximize their utility. In addition to the traditional accessibility measures, various factors, such as spatial configuration, opportunity attraction, and pedestrian comfort, are also considered. In this specific circumstance, the review tries to exhibit that customary openness measures to public spaces (squares, gardens, and stops) as far as time should be enhanced by other setup based measures. Space Syntax and GIS Network Analysis are two methods for determining open space accessibility. The Organization Investigation strategy estimates the distance between the open space and the neighborhoods it serves, while the space grammar procedure assesses the open space's spatial arrangement. This paper identifies the locations of these open spaces and analyses their level of accessibility using a comparative approach to both techniques. Related to public space inclusion, worldwide or nearby combination in the hub guide might bring about shifting weighting coefficients for openness examination. This study's primary outcome highlights the importance of integration as a critical factor in pedestrian movement throughout the city. Customary proportions of time related to these proportions of spatial design could be utilized to recognize roads with low degrees of openness.
From ‘Urban Space’ to ‘Urban Place’: The case of Gulshan South Park, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract— What turns an urban space into an urban place? With an intention to explore the aspects that persuades people to transform an urban space into an urban place in a socio-cultural context like Dhaka a research was done from 2006 to 2015. This paper is based on that study. In our search for production of urban place, a neighborhood park namely ‘Dr. Fazle Rabbi Park’ and popularly known as ‘Gulshan South Park’, is chosen as a case study. By virtue of its location, the Gulshan South Park is serving as a recreational space of three residential areas of Dhaka: Gulshan, Niketon and South Badda. Regardless of its earmark in the plan of Gulshan Model Town of 1962, Gulshan South Park remained as the most hideous public park on account of 25-year long illegal occupancy. In 2010, the city government of Dhaka, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), turned the park into a pulsating urban space. Both pre and post design state of Gulshan South Park were investigated. The study revealed that, the provisions of pathways, outdoor furniture (tables and benches), vegetation, lights, and see-through boundary wall that are applied by Gulshan Society and their proper maintenance influenced the community people inhabit the park with their activities and thus turned this space into lively place. The paper concludes with the propositions for available urban places and thus brings them into public realm. In this light, based on analyzed design forms, observed activities, and interviewed users of Gulshan South Park, a performance based recommendations rather than prescriptive recommendations are presented to guide the development of available urban spaces for the well-being of urban population of Dhaka.