The AIUB Journal of Science and Engineering (AJSE), Vol. 14, No. 1, August 2015 163 From ‘Urban Space’ to ‘Urban Place’: The case of Gulshan South Park, Dhaka, Bangladesh Md Sariful Islam, Sudipta Barua, M. Arefeen Ibrahim and Dilruba Fredous Shuvra Abstract— What turns an urban space into an urban place? With an intention to explore the aspects that persuades people to transform an urban space into an urban place in a socio-cultural context like Dhaka a research was done from 2006 to 2015. This paper is based on that study. In our search for production of urban place, a neighborhood park namely ‘Dr. Fazle Rabbi Park’ and popularly known as ‘Gulshan South Park’, is chosen as a case study. By virtue of its location, the Gulshan South Park is serving as a recreational space of three residential areas of Dhaka: Gulshan, Niketon and South Badda. Regardless of its earmark in the plan of Gulshan Model Town of 1962, Gulshan South Park remained as the most hideous public park on account of 25-year long illegal occupancy. In 2010, the city government of Dhaka, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), turned the park into a pulsating urban space. Both pre and post design state of Gulshan South Park were investigated. The study revealed that, the provisions of pathways, outdoor furniture (tables and benches), vegetation, lights, and see-through boundary wall that are applied by Gulshan Society and their proper maintenance influenced the community people inhabit the park with their activities and thus turned this space into lively place. The paper concludes with the propositions for available urban places and thus brings them into public realm. In this light, based on analyzed design forms, observed activities, and interviewed users of Gulshan South Park, a performance based recommendations rather than prescriptive recommendations are presented to guide the development of available urban spaces for the well-being of urban population of Dhaka. Keywords: Urban Space, Urban Place, Gulshan South Park, Dhaka. 1. Introduction Today, urban life is more desirable than ever, and more of the world population than ever before resides in cities. Cities across the world are on the move; hence transformation process is particularly visible here. This phenomenon is particularly common and widespread in cities of developing countries like Md. Sariful Islam is a lecturer of Department of Architecture, of American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB). Email: sariful@aiub.edu , 8814471-3, Ex-778 Sudipta Barua was an Assistant Professor of Department of Architecture, American International University-Bangladesh. Email: sudipta@aiub.edu M. Arefeen Ibrahim is an Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Architecture, American International University Bangladesh (AIUB). Email: arefeen@aiub.edu, 8814471-3, Ex-781 Dilruba Fredous Shuvra is a Lecturer of Department of Architecture, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB). Email: dfshuvra@aiub.edu, 8814471-3, Ex-776 Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Since independence in 1971, the city has been experiencing rapid; mostly disproportionate urbanization associated with high urban population concentration triggered by rural-urban migration. According to the New geography data- 2013 [1], Dhaka with its current population of over 15 million people bears the distinction of being the fastest growing city in the world. The urban growth (Fig 1) has been phenomenal as the city is the hub of administrative, cultural and commercial activities [1]. As a consequence, the spaces and places, public spaces or open spaces in particular, of Dhaka are consistently being ill-used and encroached on ensuing social and environmental degradation. Lack of both strategic vision and efficient management system is adding up to this continual decline and vanishing of the valued urban places of Dhaka. And this has the effect of reducing Dhaka‟s potential as living space. Fig. 1: Significant reduction of natural lands and consequent increase in urban land due to high magnitude of anthropogenic activities Source: Dewan et. al., 2010,[2] The spaces and places in cities that constitute the public realm function as the containers of collective urban life and it is for this reason that they should be seen as venues for reconciliation and active engagement [3]. The source of inspiration of this study is posed by the notion of Place: the alteration of ill- used or encroached urban places to bring into public realm. This requires an understanding of the distinction between „space‟ and „place‟, „urban space‟ and „urban place‟. According to the encyclopedia of urban studies, „space‟ refers abstractly to a physical location and its contents, and spaces become „places‟ when individual assign them meaning and social significance [4]. The uses of space thus receive meaning through the different interactions with space for particular and collective purposes [5]. As Clark put it: Place is the interaction of people with the immediate environment