Place Making through Participatory Process: Revitalizing Parks and Playfields in Dhaka

Nayara Islam (Vitti Sthapati Brindo Ltd)

This paper talks about active public participation in designing neighborhood parks in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It shows how public opinion informs design, makes design process more transparent, increases accountability of all stakeholders and creates ownership among citizens.

Dhaka being the densest city on earth with 45,000 people in each square kilometer lacks open public space. Hence the preservation and proper use of existing open spaces are extremely important in making the city sustainable and life viable. In an attempt to do that Dhaka North City Corporation has taken initiative to revitalize and redesign 16 neighborhood parks and play fields. We have joined this endeavor as design consultants. Contrary to common practice in Dhaka we wanted the design process to be participatory and transparent. Three methods were followed at various scales to secure public presence in decision making. The methods were:

• Public opinion survey through interview,
• Participatory rapid appraisal method through active group sessions and
• Making users directly design parks with Mine Craft gaming software.

Technique 01 and 02 has been used for all parks where as technique 3 have been used in a limited scope.

In this paper we will elaborate on:

• Reasons for adopting a participatory approach,
• Procedures followed in implementing the methods,
• Findings and their analysis,
• Broader design guidelines which were extracted from the results analysis and
• Findings impact on final designs

According to the UN Habitat Barcelona declaration 2016 “Place Making” is one of the key aspects of design. Place making is related to sense of place, history and culture. Therefore, the course of design must recognize physical, cultural and social identities that define a place. Hence the more collaborative, multi-dimensional the design process is the closer it gets to place making. In this paper we will share our experience of place making.