Source of Original paper: Publication of Asiatic Society on the Celebration of 400 years of the Capital Dhaka, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 2010. Also in WEB: http://buet.academia.edu/DrFaridaNilufar

1. Urban Morphology of Dhaka City:
Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core
Dr. Farida Nilufar
Professor, Department of Architecture
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology ( BUET)
1

2. Dhaka :The capital city of Bangladesh
590 Sq.miles
54.5 Sq.miles
26 Sq.miles
12 Sq.miles
8 Sq.miles
1 Sq.mile.
Before 1610 Pre- Mughal Period
1610-1765 Mughal Period
1765-1947 British Period
1947-1971 Pakista ni Period
B ngladesh Period ( DMA Lim it)
a
1971-till now
B ngladesh Period ( DMDP/ Rajuk L
a imit)
Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core 2
1

3. Sir Patrick Geddes advocated that
"The diagnostic survey . . . seeks to unravel the old city’s labyrinth
and discern how this has grown up. Though, like all organic
growths, this may at first seem confused to our modern eyes,
that have for so long been trained to a mechanical order,
gradually a higher form of order can be discerned - the order of
life in development . . . In city planning then, we must constantly
keep in view the whole city, old and new alike in all its aspects
and at all its levels. The transition in an Indian city, from narrow
lanes and earthen dwellings to small streets, great streets and
buildings of high importance and architectural beauty, forms an
inseparably interwoven structure. Once this is understood, the
city plan ceases to appear instead as a great chessboard on
which the manifold game of life is in active progress".
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2 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

4. Objectives
• To explore the evolutionary layering of urban form and meaning
which Geddes urged to uncovered through historic studies of
Dhaka
• To identify the primary spatial patterns existing in Dhaka since
its inception.
• To investigate the spatial dynamics of urban growth of Dhaka
by analyzing the configuration of the urban grid.
• Try to reveal the fundamental relation between configuration of
space in an organic city like Dhaka and the way that it functions.
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3 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

5. Organic Urban Grid of Dhaka
• With the passage of time the entire
Dhaka grew in a natural way.
•Formal Planning and Uncontrolled
development side by side.
•Some parts are deliberately created
by the designers- in a fragmented
way.
Distinctive morphological ‘clusters’
4 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

6. Old Dhaka – New Dhaka
Two dominant urban patterns are conspicuous within the
successive stages of growth; they are the historical core or
'old Dhaka' and the later development towards the north,
known as 'new Dhaka'.
New Dhaka
Old Dhaka
Old Dhaka
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5 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

7. Urban Spatial Patterns in Dhaka
Indigenous Historic Structure
New Indigenous Communities -
Informal Layout Colonial Interventions -
Civil lines
Planned Schemes -
Geometric Layout
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6 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

8. Spatial Dynamics of Growing City:
pre-Mughal Mughal Urban core and functional pattern in Dhaka
1859
3 0 3 6 Meter
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7 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

9. Methodology
Urban Grid
Axial Line
Spatial Analysis (Depthmap programme)
relationship
Land use pattern
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8 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

10. Methodology
There are three basic conceptions in Space
Syntax Analysis.
These are Tools for Configurational Analysis
a. Axial Line
b. Convex Space
c. Isovist, or fields of vision
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9 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

11. analysis of settlement structure
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10 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

12. Spatial analysis of urban grid
Axial Map Global Integration Local Integration
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11 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

13. Bangla
Bazaar
Historic Boundary of pre-Mughal Dhaka
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12 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

14. Chawk
Islampur Road
Bangla
Bazaar
Land use pattern of Mughal Dhaka (1700 )
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13 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

15. Bangshal Road
Chawk Nawabpur Road
IslampurRoad
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14 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

16. Ramna
Dhaka University
Land use pattern of British Dhaka (1910)
Nawabpur Road
Nawabpur Road
Islampur Road
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15 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

17. Tejgaon
Dhanmandi
Ramna Abdul Gani Road
Nawabpur Road
Land use pattern of Dhaka (1945 )
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16 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

18. •Integration core at the physical centre of
the city
•Highly integrated lines - within the newer
parts of Dhaka
•The global core - a continuous loop
forming three rings, with a long tail linking
Motijheel
Tejgaon
•All these provide an evidence of a shift in
importance from the old city towards the
newer part Dhanmandi Green Road
•Ringy and hollow core which contained
large pockets of un-built and open areas
New Market
Motijheel
Land use pattern of Dhaka (1962 )
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17 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

19. Land use pattern of Dhaka (1975 )
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18 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

20. Land use (1995 )
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19 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

21. 2007 :
•City has physically extended
•Extensive internal densification as well
as linking corridors.
•Infill developments in the low lying
areas: Western and Eastern fringes.
• Due to newer link roads from south to
north, the integration core has a
northward pull.
•There is an indication of two types of
areas in Dhaka – one is the integrated
center and the other is segregated
periphery
•The physical extension of integration
core corresponds to the development of
polycentric functional centers
•The planned areas, as developed in
piece meal manner, have greater impact
form the organic city grid as it engulfs
the planned areas in course of time
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20 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

22. Morphological character of old
Dhaka:
•Morphology of Old city is particularly
distinctive because of the density of its
built up areas by comparison with the
looseness of the later developments.
•Dispersed development outside the old
core had changed the global character of
the city.
•The Old Dhaka is modeled independently
- Islampur Road revealed as the urban
core of old Dhaka.
•The bazaar streets feature as locally
important segments in the old city over
time.
•The old city had its own global, as well
as local structure, different from that of
the total city.
Global Integration cores of Old Dhaka [built-up areas]
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21 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

23. •The commercial centre systematically declines in
importance with each subsequent stage of growth.
•The global core of the total spatial system of Dhaka at
different stages identified the functional core, both
commercial and administrative, of the city in each
corresponding period.
•This result is based on the changing character of the
global integration core at different phases, which is
always influenced by the pull of the new extensions.
1953
1963
Existing centers
Possible Future
centers
1973
Global Integration core
1995 2007
3 0 3 6 Meter 23
22 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

24. Conclusion
• The essential morphological characteristics of
four different spatial patterns, that exists in
Dhaka, needs special attention in terms of
planning and design.
• More over, the linear cores of traditional period
have changed into ringy and hollow ones which
contained large pockets of un-built and open
areas. As compared to more established
western cities, this might be referred to as a
condition of unplanned growth in rapidly
developing cities.
• The old part of the city is becoming increasingly
segregated from the life of the new core day by
day.
• With all it's idiosyncrasies from the established
planning theories, the harmonious development
of Dhaka’s land use with its morphological
transformations is significant. The spatial
dynamics of Dhaka and its core corresponds to
a social history which remains as the underlying
force behind the spontaneous formation of its
morphological structure.
• Although the global core has been more or less
static for the last two decades, the growth of vast
developments in all the peripheral areas except
the south may lead to its beginning to move
once again in the not too distant future.
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23 Urban Morphology of Dhaka City: Spatial Dynamics of Growing City and the Urban Core

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