Impact analysis of urban street edges of residential areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Streets act as circulation spaces for vehicles as well as fundamental public spaces for urban people. The edges of the streets are very significant elements, while defining the character of the streets. It is observed that, boundary elements in urban residential areas, generally form the edges of their adjacent streets. If the boundary elements respond to its context, it will create a coherence of private space and the public realm, which can improve the urban experience. Dhaka, being the busiest mega polis of Bangladesh, has been experiencing a boost in residential sector, where, the development is primarily focused on individual architectural entities, rather considering an overall view of the urban area as a holistic entity. It is foundin most of the cases, that, private buildings are simply ignoring the outdoor public environment by erecting solid boundary elements. However, this type of boundary elements completely separates the private and public domain, which creates a negative effect on the street environment. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the existing situation of street edges of urban residential areas in Dhaka, and also to identify the impact of different types of street edges on their surrounding environment. Henceforth, a small portion of Dhanmondi, the oldest planned residential area of Dhaka, has been taken as study area. This research was principally based on observation and field survey. Books, journals, documents from websites etc. are the sources of secondary data. It is clearly demonstrated that, visually and physically permeable street edges create positive environmental scopes for both commuters and dwellers.