In the shadow : a study for utilization of space under flyovers in Dhaka

Abstract

lnaccessible, an absence and an abscess in the civic life of the city, the spaces under elevated highways canteem with activity. This thesis suggests ways to rehabilitate these forgotten, dark urban spaces without eradicating heterogeneity and fostering exclusion, which often accompany so many regeneration projects lt is a bit of a paradox - elevated highways are meant to connect two sides of a gap, to bring them together, but they often act quite intentionally as barriers because the space beneath them is so problematic. There is a tendency to leave it unused and overgrown with weeds, or to give it up for some perfunctory use, like parking.But there are many creative solutions to dealing with the space underneath an elevated highway. lnstead of dividing neighborhoods, the elevated highways in Dhaka can serve as a foci for the city. Tenuously domiciled in invisible urban interstices, their phantom existence can be transformed in to happening urban pockets through careful design and organization