Negotiating Thresholds

Abstract

Thresholds in the built environment manifest themselves in multiple forms throughout Dhaka City. While the physical permeability of these thresholds vary across circumstances and contexts, it is more common than not, to find at many thresholds of the city, a solid boundary wall. This thesis investigates thresholds in three distinct scales of the city, namely, neighbourhood, bazaar and public place. It seeks to identify the actors and understand the situations that arise against these respective thresholds. Having studied the aforementioned situations of the city, appropriate interventions are proposed at each site. These range from notions of what a neighbourhood’s thresholds can look like to policies that may facilitate informality within the formal scope of the city’s markets. Finally, a detailed design intervention of a public place demonstrates the potential of resolving the many issues arising at an urban context, at the very thresholds against which their elements coalesce.