Rethinking Urban recreation space through vertical expansion

Abstract

This paper focuses on the possibilities of adaptation of the urban recreational spaces of going vertical, based on the theory of high rise to tackle the land scarcity issue and making the lands for recreational activities more efficient. With the ever growing population and limited land area, accommodating all the essential facilities for a desired standard of living has become a challenge for most parts of the world. While the idea of going vertical has been used mostly for residential and commercial purposes, the demand of area for recreational use has also gone higher. To balance the need within limited land area, rethinking the way of accommodating recreational facilities, enhancing social interaction and multiplying the usable area to increase the efficiency of the lands are the main area of exploration of this paper. The paper mainly draws information from the existing but smaller scale solutions of sports, recreation and community activities, international guidelines of sports offering different scales and the opinions of the people deprived from these essential recreational facilities. The aim of the research is to set an example of the possible solutions within the context of Dhaka, Bangladesh – which is one of the most densely populated countries and facing the issue of recreational spaces badly, which could be used in other contexts as well facing similar kind of situation.