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Sustainable Adaptive Reuse of Urban Residential Built Form: A Study of Contemporary Practices and Potentials in Dhaka
First and second supervisors
Abstract
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is typically known as an overly crowded and rapidly urbanising metropolitan area. It has been experiencing an unrecognised yet very common practice of functional adaptation in both planned and organically developing urban sprawls. This practice contributes to an extreme shift in user patterns, predominantly in urban apartment buildings. This study's objective is to analyse these adaptation practices, with a particular emphasis on the most recently constructed residential apartment blocks, in order to determine their potential to meet diverse urban needs. This study will investigate the various factors that may influence this phenomenon by examining architectural design, structure, functional facilities, social dynamics, economic factors, and environmental factors. This research will also develop a systematic analysis of the sustainability and risk factors associated with this type of adaptation trend in the associated built forms that have undergone typological changes within an unexpectedly brief lifecycle. One of the primary aims of the research is to identify this unrecognised but widely used urban adaptation process in Dhaka and its various challenges and potentials, which will contribute to architecture, urban pedagogy, and planning sectors for future sustainable urban development.
Biography
Tanjina Khan is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at BRAC University and a freelancing architect who values context, climate, and culture. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Brac University with a 'Gold Medal' and a Master of Design Science from the University of Sydney with the 'Endeavour Postgraduate Award' from the Australian Government. As a guest faculty member at the University of Evora, Portugal, she received ‘EMMAsia 2013’ (Erasmus Mundus Mobility with Asia). For her PhD studies at Bartlett, she received the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Fellowship.
Tanjina believes in interdisciplinary solutions for the built environment with the neo-contextual, human-centric design approach. Her research interests are urban adaptive built environments and people-place inter-relationships in place attachment, to name a few. She worked on a co-researched project focused on discovering post-colonial identity through climate-responsive architectural adaptations in Bangladesh and international initiatives such as the "Zero-Carbon Bamboo Building Project'' and the "Million Cool Roofs Challenge''. She has worked on the book chapter of Bashirul Haq, Architect. She also worked as an architectural intern with Pritzker laureate architect B.V. Doshi. In addition, Tanjina has designed residential buildings, interiors, commercial spaces, and residential landscapes across Bangladesh.
Funding
Prime Minister Fellowship 2023-24 (Bangladesh)
Links
Image: Tanjina Khan