Spaces for social interaction: a post-occupancy evaluation of real-estate apartments in Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka

Abstract

The housing sector in Dhaka city experienced a major shift in the last three decades mainly in the form of unprecedented growth in real estate apartment living. The lack of option for physical expansion and shortage of developed urban land made this option a popular choice among an affluent section of the urban population from wide ranging socio-cultural background. These varied (apartment living) communities face higher degree of social disorientation and hesitation to social interaction than the traditional ones, resulting in social problems and socially unfit groups in the apartments. The issue of social interaction within these communities along with the spaces for interaction, therefore, is equally important with other issues of apartment planning and design. A preliminary observation suggests that one of the reasons for the needs and demands for social interaction of these apartment residents not fulfilled is inadequacy or non-existence of community space. The apartments, other than the Dwelling units, provide regular shared spaces—the lift lobby, staircases, parking place, roof etc.—are thought to be generating social interaction. Along with these shared spaces, many architects have come up with different design solutions to generate social interaction within the apartment building whose performance remained unevaluated. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is an instrument of evaluating built environment performance that provides feedback by considering the technical aspects along with social and behavioural issues from the occupants’ perspective. The three objectives of this research for evaluating spaces of social interaction in apartments are: first, to trace the changing social interaction pattern in residential context in Dhaka, especially, with the transformation of building types and advancement in technology. Second, to find out the social spaces of the residents living in Real Estate Apartments of Dhanmondi Residential Area focusing on the role and use of these spaces in social interaction. Third, to evaluate the role of social spaces provided in an apartment based on the understanding of dwellers’ adaptation to the social spaces for social interaction. Seven apartments were selected based on their location for observing the spatial disposition of spaces for interaction, and respondents from the apartments were interviewed to understand the nature and extent of social interaction in space. Changes in housing context, social structure and advancing technology, over the time, have brought a dramatic change in the social context of Dhaka. The close-knit conservative society of the pre-colonial period changed its character to a more formal one during the colonial period, where social status ruled. The social life of Dhaka faced major changes during the 1990’s, when technology started to reign and the face-to-face contacts shifted to mobile phones and social networking websites. Highrise high-density living gave birth to an observed heterogeneous community. The residents of Dhanmondi R/A generally belong to the Higher Middle Income group who are highly educated and live in a nuclear family doing business or job. Most of them maneuver in the whole Dhaka City and their social spaces extent accordingly. The nature and type of their interaction are neither similar to each other nor is related to space they travel. Dhanmondi Ra\/A shows a similar pattern of apartment design other than some variations depending on the size of the plot. The apartments on the smaller plots, because of their size, cannot provide any additional space within and the regular shared spaces are generally inadequate and fail to generate any types of interaction. Whereas, some attempts are seen to provide a space for generating interaction in the larger plots. These spaces are used depending on the design quality and users’ type and wish. This research concludes that, lack of evaluation not only keeps the architect aloof from a feedback but also gives misleading information about the practices of the user. Future research on individual elements, specific POE of designed apartments of the same designer or broader evaluation of the similar design projects of different designers would provide in-depth explanation and diverse users’ response.