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DESIGN STATEMENT

FLUID MOSAIC NEIGHBORHOOD

Redefining Public Spaces for A Pandemic-Resilient Community

Living through a pandemic has affected people’s interaction and socialization practices drastically. In a developing country like Bangladesh, high density of population is a major challenge to physical distancing. Especially in Dhaka, the capital city, there are limited options for public gathering spaces,most of which can be daunting to access during a lockdown. As a result, people have spontaneously started to adapt to ‘a new normal’ by opting for new ways of interactions in alternative spaces like rooftops and balconies.

History shows that courtyards have been an integral part of Dhaka's culture, offering a strong sense of bonding in neighborhoods. As the years progressed, rapid urbanization gave rise to a concrete jungle, devoid of rich cultural and social heritage of the neighborhoods of old Dhaka. Today, the only land available to most city dwellers is the patch of open space on their rooftops. Naturally, in adjusting to the new normal, people are bringing back the age-old traditions of interaction in this digital world.

This new trend of retrospection has been the driving force behind the design.Public spaces, in post-pandemic era, should not be isolated pieces of ground designated for mundane activities on a city scale. Depending on the need of the users, public spaces should be amorphously spread in a neighborhood. As a model, a network of such spaces has been developed in this design, connecting rooftops of residential buildings to other building types i.e.: school, Bazar, mosque, etc. Since the area and direction of growth of this matrix are variable, this model displays a fluid character, while the small-scale interventions appear like mosaics floating on it. The flexibility of the design and temporary nature of intervention opens up options for the people to interact in different layers and reduce human density on the streets. The matrix also serves as an alternative pedestrian connection, for the users to access services in their neighborhood. Once connected, the multilevel rooftops provide a lively social space for the users while preserving their sense of belongingness.

This design paves the way to a wide range of opportunities by proposing a systematic distribution of public spaces, starting from the rooftop of a house, to the neighborhood parks and plazas. The rooftop modules can be used in several ways by the users, including and not limited to: rentable work-from-home spaces, e-commerce kiosks, farming and gardening spaces, etc. The privacy and security measures applied on each node can be controlled by the homeowners. Thus, proper governance through ownership can be ensured. The entire network can be altered, controlled, or redirected in response to a possible threat during crisis time. Thus, the design intends to reimagine the role of public spaces in a neighborhood.

Fringe is the future of Dhaka. A neighborhood in Masterbari, Uttarkhan presents all the scopes andchallenges of the chaotic edge and has been selected as the site. The volatility of the population and the room for guided development, make this area a perfect site for this project. Finally, replication of this scheme in other edges of the city should ultimately lead to a pandemic resilient urbanism in Dhaka.