Feature
The Department of Architecture
State University of Bangladesh coming of age
Dilshad Ara Annie
A grand jury was organised on 11 February '08 to evaluate the level IV, fall term terminal design project of the Department of Architecture, State University of Bangladesh (SUB). The project was on a very contemporary issue of Dhaka's urban development. The project title was Study of Proposed Transport Corridor Connecting Bijoy Sarani and Tejgaon Industrial Area. Transport Corridor Connecting Bijoy Sarani and Tejgaon Industrial Area is primarily proposed to ease up some circuitous movement and increase east-west connectivity of Dhaka city. The government intends to construct a Railway-Overpass having a length of about 1000 feet and 80 feet wide on above mentioned proposed corridor, has actually triggered the project. The jury was headed by the Department Head, Ar Mesbahuddin Ahmed, while other official jury members where renowned urban designer and BUET Professor, Dr Qazi Azizul Mowla, senior practicing architect Ar Dilshad Ara Annie and SUB Faculty Ar Zinnatun Nahid. The jury and other audience who attended highly appreciated students' deliberations.
Context: Urban Design is about creating and managing space and facilities in order to meet the physical, social and economic needs of urban inhabitants. Urban design activities have been recognised as an integral part of the total urban development process. It should be at the same time sensitive to the socio-economic and political goal as well as constraints of a country and its people. Urban design includes complex of public buildings, design of urban spaces without designing the buildings, redevelopment or regeneration of a problematic area, area conservation and so on. The regeneration of cities or areas can focus on changing the physical shape of the urban environment in order to increase economic values matching social and technical values and innovations. Introducing a transport corridor through an existing development is a sensitive issue requiring skilful handling so as to cause minimum disruption to prevailing social, technical and environmental harmony but at the same time mitigating urban problems. An increased focus on the social outcomes of urban space is needed if quality of life is to be improved for users.
Studio Objectives: Main objective of this studio was to introduce the students to the process of handling urban scale project where the community is the client. The students were to work on a realistic urban design project in both a collaborative level and individually. Therefore the project was designed to be studied in two major phases. First phase was conducted by three person team, where each team conducted detail survey of existing urban fabric and utility services. They proposed certain design guidelines to mitigate local shortfalls and to relocate functions and utilities falling within the proposed alignment. While creating the corridor students tried not to divide the existing community. In the Second phase the students worked individually to propose solution to selected blocks based on the design guide guidelines proposed by them in their respective group.
The Design Process: Physical survey of land-use in and around the proposed corridor, together with the traffic, transportation and pedestrian circulation in the area was the priority.
Study of environmental issues including the open spaces, urban infrastructure and utilities in the area was also essential. The Strengths (positive approaches), Weaknesses (bar to fulfil the objectives), Opportunities (success), and Threats (obstacles to attain long-term success) of the transport corridor were evaluated by the SWOT analysis.
In all five teams worked separately and came up with five different scenarios of development. Each scenario tried to be sensitive to the context while trying to connect two vibrant areas at its two ends viz Bijay Sarani-Airport road intersection and Tejgaon Industrial Area. Students created some rehabilitation sites for the households displaced by the proposed corridor alignment. Three proposals opted to cross the rail track by fly-over while two proposals argued in favour of under pass beneath the rail tracks.
Within each layout scenarios individual students proposed block developments to harmoniously blend them with the existing urban fabric, following the design guidelines they had developed in group.
Proposed Study Model
Students' presentations and jury's deliberations were very lively. Department head Ar Mesbahuddin Ahmed was highly pleased with the students' performance particularly because the students tried to be very sensitive to the context, hardship they had to undergo as they had to work on a debatable site and the extant of input they had given to the project in such a short time. Prof. Mowla praised the students for tackling the problem in a professional way and wide range of issues they have covered to propose a sustainable development. Prof. Mowla opined that though there are faults in the proposals still the students have definitely learnt the process of addressing the problems of such an urban magnitude. Ar Dilshad and Nahid appreciated the endeavours for being very down to earth and the realistic process they had gone through from inception to completion of the project. The day long event came to an end with Department's Head Ar Mesbahuddin Ahmed thanking the students, jury and the audience for a lively participatory jury.
( The writer is a Senior Architect)
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