Bangladesh Sishu Academy (Bangladesh Children Academy), at Dhaka University, Shahbagh, Bangladesh.

Abstract

One architect gives a very little think about the psychology of a children, when they build a building or made an architecture. It is, to all intents and purpose, children are the future of any nation. Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. If Dhaka doesn't have enough space or suitable architecture for the children, then we can easily guess, what is the situation of other cities in Bangladesh. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh has a long history of rapid urbanization and urban dwellings. The transformation of space from low-rise to high rise has a tremendous effect on the children's mental and physical health. This high-rise urban dwelling style has ushered in a new socio-cultural era in Dhaka as well as whole Bangladesh, which is significantly different from that of the past. Some high-rise buildings are just for living; they have hardly any scope for social interactions and social gatherings. So, they just stay in buildings and start to play indoor games, which is not good for their mental health. Now-a-days they don't know how to interact with other people, how to compromise and sacrifice, how to play in a group or how to lead a group. Outdoor activity got decreased in a dangerous level in last 15 years. This scenario is not compatible with our traditional culture; it ignores their social values such as sense of community, neighborliness and friendliness. We need to understand that quality of community space has tremendous effect on a children's mental or physical health. Maintaining traditional socio-spatial pattern helps them to retain their legacy of social harmony and social bond. This study attempts to focus on the effect of our architecture on the children of the Dhaka city. The main focus is to analyze the spatial organization of the community space of architecture of Dhaka are responsible for managing, maintaining and keeping the social harmony through various active performances of the children. With these assumptions, the study develops a conceptual frame work based on relevant theories and concepts and aims to analyze thereby the socio-spatial context and evaluate the findings regarding the issue scarcity of the space for the children. Socially sustainable community requires good social and physical space as a means to social interaction, active community participation and enough playground or space for the children. There are two case studies on two type of socio-cultural environment of Dhaka. (one with high rise housing system- Japan garden housing and the other one is low cost housing- Korailbosti.) It is hoped that the recommendations as derived from this study can help in building socially sustainable community space for children in the architecture Dhaka.