Urban districts, heritage places and urban assets

In the city, there are indeed many Dhakas. Dhaka has given rise to several urban morphologies, each of which represents a particular social, economic and environmental destiny. In the older city, hugging the river, colourful mixed-use buildings are crowded cheek-by-jowl along narrow, winding streets in neighbourhoods that are still traditionally organised. Further from the river in the Ramna area is the old colonial quarter, studded with bungalow-and-garden type governmental, cultural and residential buildings, many of which were built during the colonial rule. Louis Kahn's iconic Parliamentary Complex is another distinctive area of the city's urban and social fabric. The so-called planned residential areas created as plotted properties with individual buildings were the most distinctive development of the 1960s and later, but interestingly that morphology is being deformed completely. Alongside these formal areas, however, are vast, amorphous swaths of largely unplanned residential and commercial growth lacking adequate infrastructure that are glaring symptoms of planning failure in addressing the rapid transformation of the city. Areas such as Shewrapara, Kafrul, Ibrahimpur, Badda, and so on. A vast population of Dhaka remains untouched by the fruits of urbanity.

It would be a pity if all of Dhaka began to look the same which is what is beginning to happen because of development orientations. Certain areas in the city - "urban treasures" or heritage-rich areas - should be immediately marked as special zones, and every means should be tried with the utmost urgency to preserve them through regulations. Sher-e-Banglanagar is certainly a recognised one. There are also heritage-rich areas like Ramna, Wari, Chowk, etc. Part of the Ramna with some of the colonial era buildings should be converted into a museum district. Variations should be brought into building codes wherever it is necessary.

There are also many half-recognised or unrecognised areas that no longer come under the urban radar that should be designated as assets and restored. A few examples: Baldha Garden, Ali Miar Talao, Armenitola Maidan, to name a few.

 

What Dhaka is	What Dhaka Can Be
A city needs a plan	Disperse Dhaka, contain Dhaka
Dhaka is almost an island	Housing is the fabric of the city
Catalytic architecture for urban transformation	A modern city thrives on efficient mobility
A city for the twenty-first century	The street should be designed for the pedestrian
Open spaces are needed for existential reasons	Overhaul urban institutions
Urban districts, heritage places and urban assets	Sadarghat river front development