Title: The changing nature of urban public places in Dhaka City
Abstract: Throughout the history, public places have been asserted as one of the key components of urban lif e for their p hysical, socia l, political, symbolic and environmental roles. However, t he nature a nd quality of public places in recent years have raised the question how fa r these p laces remain ‘public’ in true sense. The study systematically explores how t he public places of Dhaka have t ransformed throughout the history in different time periods. It attempts to assess the ‘publicness’ of the existing public places focusing on t he changing nature of these places and t he t ensions a rise from different persp ectives. The research is descriptive and employs a case study approach. Osmany Uddan, a park situated in t he p rime location in t he city cent er a nd the Hatirjheel, a recently developed lakeside a rea, have been cons idered as two cases. The findings from the case studies reveal that although these places are public cons idering the ownership, their quality a nd characteristics as public p lace a re d iminishing day by day. Limit ed physical and social accessibility have narrowed the group of users who can use the public place for a variety of purposes. Anot her major phenomenon which ca n be attributed to the changing nature of public place is t he growing private interest. In this backdrop, it needs pla nning and design considerations to make public place more inclusive to diverse groups of people as such these places can p erform multiple functions in ba lance.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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