Identification and performance evaluation of Christopher Alexander's pattern 60 in the context of Urban Dhaka to investigate livability

Abstract

Good-quality, accessible greens play a vital role in revitalize communities; encourage inward investment and urban livability. Dhaka’s citizens’ like to see such accessible vibrant green spaces in their close proximity. But unplanned urbanization and an avalanche of greed and manipulation by both private and public interventions has gradually tilted the ratio of open space and habitation, narrowing the access of the residents to such green spaces over the years. So a new language for this problem has been created with the help of Christopher Alexander’s book “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction” (1977). Among 253 patterns of this book, PATTERN 60: ACCESSIBLE GREEN emphasize that people use green urban places most when they are in close proximity to their residences or work places. There by the objectives of this thesis is to identify and list the selected existing accessible greens in the planned and unplanned neighborhoods of Dhaka for evaluation of their performances in the light of yardstick set by Christopher Alexander’ PATTERN 60 : ACCESSIBLE GREEN as well as by documenting the problems and prospects of such accessible green spaces of urban Dhaka and delineating a hierarchy or network of green spaces resulting in out door living room effect, which will foster social interaction as well as comfort by creating a language comparable to the Pattern language of Christopher Alexander but applicable for urban Dhaka. The findings are synthesized with people’s behavior and motivation pattern (distance) to use existing accessible green areas. The multifunctional urban green in the case of Dhaka with an area of 2.0 acres and distributed nearly 3-5 minutes walking distance from each other is considered similar to PATTERN 60 and taken here as case studies. It is found that the distance of accessible green in Dhaka should not exceed 1000-1250 feet (4-5minutes walk) from the users place. For existing accessible greens of Old and New Dhaka this concept of “MULTIFUNCTIONAL PARK-FIELD” will portray the characteristics and qualities of parks and playfields in the same ground that will meet the preferences and need of the users. To make Dhaka a city, not a great, nor a beautiful one, just a city with a sense of commonality and liveability, with a sense of civility, and mostly with a sense of equitability, the designers and citizens have to participate with the idea of creating a accessible greens for future generation of Dhaka and that should be the pattern language for any future urban design endeavor for Dhaka.