Spatially Adaptive Courtyard Models for High-Density, Multi-Storied Residential Developments in Bangladesh
Open Access
- Author:
- Khan, Shayama
- Graduate Program:
- Architecture
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 06, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Pep Aviles, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Ute Poerschke, Committee Member
Alexandra Staub, Committee Member
Mehrdad Hadighi, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Domestic Courtyards
Vertical adaptive courtyards
High-rise residential buildings and apartments
Bangladesh
Mymensingh City - Abstract:
- The domestic architecture of urban Bangladesh has entered a new era of evolution since the late 20th century, experiencing a drastic spatial transformation from earlier courtyard-based dwellings to modern high-density, multi-storied dwellings. Modern residential buildings and apartment layouts, for the most part, have developed responding to the unprecedented economic development, urbanization, population growth, and increasing housing demand of the country. The new house forms have several positive impacts on current urban land scarcity, economy, and growing housing demand, as it is highly compact, requires a minimum land area to achieve higher density. However, they also reflect several undesirable outcomes, significant enough to question the living environment that they offer urban inhabitants to fulfill their desires to live in the cities. One of the crucial drawbacks of current urban house types of Bangladesh is the lack of adequate private or communal outdoor spaces, which is a major prerequisite to form a habitable living environment for dwellers. Unfortunately, the evolution of urban house types has disregarded its beginning, where courtyards served as an open to sky core of dwelling organizations, packed with spatial, sociocultural, psychological, economic, and climatic advantages, required for quality living. An underlying cause of this negligence indicates a major limitation of the typical courtyard-based model that has restricted its integration in this typological transformation. As an open to sky structure, a courtyard typically belongs to traditional low- density, low rise settlements, where the constraints of land limitations, land value, and population density are not as extreme as urban settlements. While in the urban context, such boundaries have produced compact vertical house forms where an open to sky courtyard has become a luxury product, almost impossible to afford by the major middle-income residents of the cities. Based on this observation the study hypothesizes that spatial alterations of conventional courtyard models, modifications of contemporary middle-income residential building forms, and apartment layouts, can provide an opportunity to improve urban living conditions. With this hypothesis, the study aims to explore possibilities to develop conceptual courtyard models that would be spatially adaptable for high-density, multistoried urban house forms. Additionally, the study also aims to identify possible strategies to modify the current urban house form to adapt to the new courtyard concepts. To develop new courtyard models, the study initially investigates design strategies, elements, and attributes of traditional domestic courtyards of a northeastern city of Bangladesh named Mymensingh. The study also provides an overview of a current high-rise residential built form of Dhaka, explaining its spatial, sociocultural, and ecological shortcomings caused by inadequate outdoor connections. With this analysis, the study proposes a spatially adaptive stackable courtyard concept for multi-storied residential buildings along with its possible typologies, design considerations, strategies, and examples. To develop such a revised proposal, the study primarily focuses on the functional aspects of a courtyard more than its conventional spatial organization. The proposed conceptual models that the study offers, can facilitate spatial integration of private and semi-private open spaces in future urban residences within the constraints of urban land scarcity and high-density.