Influence of neighborhood street pattern focusing dead-end streets as social cohesion of neighborhood: delineating physical attributes of dead-end streets in Mohammadpur, Dhaka.

Abstract

With the accelerating growth rate of rural-urban migration, Dhaka is teeming with dense urban formal and informal settlements. To aggravate the situation, numerous housing projects are sprouting without expert opinions and overlooking the need for open public place and proper connectivity. The changing nature of the physical characteristics of Dhaka City is caused by the prevalent urbanization process where open spaces and water bodies are being converted into built-up areas. The paucity of open spaces related to the very liveability of Dhaka threatens community, culture and social value of inhabitants, thus compelled them to look for new resolutions. The intention of this study is to contribute to how physical characteristics of dead-end streets adjacent to housing areas and inadvertent organic as well as inorganic patterns of the neighbourhood streets, particularly the dead-end shape the public space quality. The spatial analysis based on current gathering points of inhabitants in murky neighbourhood streets of Mohammadpur, Dhaka is carried out via Space syntax using depth map and behaviour mapping. The research is deeply concerned with the quality of life in these areas, from a perspective of sufferer, like the elderly and children. The findings will focus on (1) to analyse changing behaviour pattern at different dead-end street comparatively and also (2) to identify the major driving forces behind the changes in street connectivity applied in evaluating the street as a great public space.