Innovative use of space underneath a flyover of Dhaka Kabir Sahjabin 1 & Islam Tanzia 2 Harvard University, Technical University of Berlin Abstract: In recent years, remarkable flyover projects have taken place all over Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, resulting from the needs of mobility in the city. The flyovers, perceived as an emblem of modernity are aimed at alleviating congestion, promoting economic development and enhancing connectivity with the distant communities overlooking their voids underneath. These left over spaces designed by the transport planners either display withering, neglected landscaping or dead storage spaces. The striking fact is that the marginal inhabitants who cannot afford expensive lands in the city, find opportunities within these flyunder voids to invest on their self-generated array of activities and attribute multiple meanings to the unattended flyunder design by the formal institutions. The flyunder example from different case studies in Dhaka indicates how they become meaningful at the neighborhood scale through the spatial practices of marginal population in the area: namely, the use of space for economic, social and recreational activities. Therefore, this paper aimed at investigating on how the flyunder blighted spaces are perceived, produced and inhabited by the marginal community in a densely populated mega city like Dhaka. Followed by site observations, photographic documentation, informal discussions with the marginalized users at the Tejgaon Flyover location at Dhaka and some case studies in other countries, the research brought some design propositions at the end. Key words: Dhaka, flyover, flyunder, marginal, voids 1. INTRODUCTION The wonderful aerial views of the flyovers i at Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh explicitly represents the technological advancement of urban and transport planning of the city however camouflages the life underneath. The flyovers delivering distant communities to their destinations- home or work- at high speed and with less time, they become a destination for the marginal ii people in the city for carrying their economic and social activities and to capture the time beyond. The distant communities bypassing through the flyovers neither acknowledge the communal life underneath nor interact with them. The formal institutions of the city target at the flyovers for serving the transport facilities for the middle to high income groups, and grade separate them to a different level to enjoy a fast ride, avoiding the public life slowly roaming underneath. The marginal people, who cannot afford the expensive urban land in Dhaka city and are in continuous contestation of public space to carry on their social or economic activities find their fortune under the umbrella of these grade separated roads. What is most promising about these marginal people is that they find innovative ways within the flyunder iii voids to invest on their self-generated array of activities that in turn attribute multiple meanings to the unattended flyunder design by —————————————————————————————— 1 Graduate student, Master in Design Studies, Harvarad University, United States; Email: skabir@gsd.harvard.edu 2 Doctoral researcher, Doctor of Ingeenering, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin; Email: t.islam@gmx.de the formal institutions. The flyunder example from different case studies in Dhaka indicates how they become meaningful at the neighborhood scale through the spatial practices of marginal population in the area: namely, the use of space for economic, social and recreational activities. The economic activities act as a sponge that absorbs large numbers of surplus laborer especially women. 2. BACKGROUND Dhaka is characterized by large slums, poor housing, excessively high land prices, traffic congestion, water shortages, poor sanitation and drainage, irregular electric supply, unplanned construction, increasing air pollution and poor urban governance which results in growing problems of law and order (World Bank, 2007). In recent years, Dhaka has become one of the most densely populated megacity of the world. According to the Demographia World Urban Area report (2012), 15 million inhabitants live in Dhaka city, with an area of 337 square kilometers (km 2 ) and based on this statistics, the population density of Dhaka city stands 44,000 inhabitants per km 2 . 37 percent of the urban population are squeezing into slum areas with population densities reaching 220,000 inhabitants per km² (Hackenbroch et al., 2009). The prevailing urban conditions in Dhaka with such a density