Comments: (0)

How to make streets livable in the traffic-packed city of Dhaka

Category: ⚐ ES+city+design+dhaka+mobility+urbanism

Trying to drive along a street in the Lalbagh area, in the city center of Dhaka.

Trying to drive along a street in the Lalbagh area, in the city center of Dhaka.

After getting out of the airport in Dhaka, the first thing we noticed—the first thing every visitor notices—was the traffic. As we were heading to our hotel in a taxi, the streets around us were crowded: trucks, taxi, private cars, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, carts with horses… All transportation modes were sharing the same space among clouds of dust, smoke and a cacophony of sounds, without any apparent organization.

How could some of these roads be turned into walkable, human-friendly streets within a short period of 5 years? continue reading

Comments: (2)

Rethinking Public Spaces in Dhaka: an Urban Design Scheme

Category: ⚐ EN+city+design+dhaka+movilidad+urban social design+urbanism

Introduction: the Dhaka City Neighborhood Upgrading Project

During our trip to Dhaka, the last march, we wandered through public spaces and we experienced what it is like to be a pedestrian in one of the densest megacity of the world. Our assessment was clear: the capital of Bangladesh really needs to improve its public spaces. Because of the city’s urbanization pace, public spaces tend to be approached as an afterthought and become the residual and scarce space between the buildings. And, as such, it is usually lacking the most basic comfort, accessibility or healthiness.

Public place, however, is one of the most valuable assets of every city. continue reading

Comment: (1)

5 things you can do in Dhaka’s public spaces

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+city+dhaka+mobility

As a recent project has led us to Dhaka, we are starting a series of posts to share with you some key topics and observations about this very interesting city.

Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, is one of the densest cities in the world, with 18 million people squishing in 1,528 square km. The average density of the central area of the city has reached a staggering 41,000 inhabitants per square kilometer1. The city is considered one of the least livable cities in the world, ranked 137 out of 140 cities2 in 2017. It is the lowest for any South Asian city surveyed, because of, among other things, air pollution, severe traffic congestion, bad sewage system, hundreds of slums and regular river floodings.

In such a dense and crowded city, the inhabitants make the most of each square meter, making public space a truly multi-layered and multi-dimensional entity. continue reading

Comment: (1)

Dreamhamar network of european workshops: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture.

Category: ⚐ EN+arquitectura+dreamhamar

Copenhagen 5-9th september 2011

During one week master students and 3rd year students from the Royal Academy of fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen were working around dreamhamar project. The students were mainly from Denmark but there was an important amount of them coming from countries all around the world. There were students from: Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Chec Republic,
Island,…
The workshop was lead by the danish professor Frans Derniak and the ecosistema urbano partner Jose Luis Vallejo (@jlvmateo).
The main aim of the workshop was to experience public spaces in Copenhagen by directly acting on them and later extract the learning of the process and comunicate to Hamar citizens involved in the design of the new Stortorget Square. continue reading