Urban Space

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Abstract— This paper is based on the study done with an intention of exploring the aspects that persuades people, within the socio-cultural context of Dhaka, to make an urban space into urban place. In our search for production of urban place, a neighborhood park namely ‘Taltala Park’ or ‘Gulshan South Park’, and now popularly known as Shahid Dr Fazle Rabbi Park, is chosen as a case study. By virtue of its location, the Dr. Fazle Rabbi Park is serving as a recreational space of three residential areas of Dhaka: Gulshan, Niketon and South Badda. Regardless of its earmark in the plan of Gulshan Model Town of 1962, Gulshan South Park remained as the most hideous public park on account of 25-year long illegal occupancy. In 2010, the city government…show more content…
The source of inspiration of this study is posed by the notion of Place: the alteration of ill-used or encroached urban places to bring into public realm. This requires an understanding of the distinction between ‘space’ and ‘place’, ‘urban space’ and ‘urban place’. According to the encyclopedia of urban studies, ‘space’ refers abstractly to a physical location and its contents, and spaces become ‘places’ when individual assign them meaning and social significance (Hutchison, 2010). The uses of space thus receive meaning through the different interactions with space for particular and collective purposes (Moulaert et. al., 2011). As Clark (1985) put it: Place is the interaction of people with the immediate environment that gives it characteristics distinct from those of the surrounding areas. The human geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, proposed in his book, Space and Place, Places are centers of felt value where biological needs, such as those for food, water, rest and procreation, are satisfied’. The term ‘urban space’ is a broad and inclusive concept. It is defined from a range of viewpoints as physical and social location of metropolitan region, the properties of that location, and the spatial organization of the entities within it. Spatial…show more content…
Since urban spaces are nodes of high population density, there is a high demand for public spaces such as parks for leisure activities and recreation, gardens, woodlands for natural respite, playfield for sporting events etc. As an element of the public realm, public spaces for example, are seen as ‘space we share with strangers…space for peaceful coexistence and impersonal encounter’ (Madanipour, 2003). Street & sidewalks, squares, parks, gardens, playfield, water bodies (lake, canal, and pond), woodlands etc. are regarded as public spaces or open spaces of a city in general. This study focuses on parks, the only places of beauty and natural respite that is Dhaka left with for its residents. Parks usually understood as green and unencumbered, nature pictorialized and furnished, places both as refuge and assembly (Donlyn, 2003). So a park can be both an asset and a place. A park is an asset when it offers safe, clean and attractive environment. Park is a place where people meet others and socialize, contact with nature-see trees, birds, and butterfly, and engage them in activities jogging or strolling, also passive activities such as reading, just sitting or people-watching. The same park becomes liability when they are empty and underused, poorly maintained and hence becomes home to illicit activities. Regrettably,
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