Beyond housing Abstract
In the rapidly growing economy of Bangladesh, housing should be a significant factor in both maintaining and supporting the economy. While sectors like infrastructure, industry and connectivity enjoy prioritised attention, we feel that housing as a foundational sector of development deserves a much bigger, thoughtful and creative focus. This requires a bolder, and important innovation in the urban housing sector, one that cuts across and goes beyond housing, creating a multi-layered approach that embodies the needs of diverse people to live in dignity, and being sensitive to the needs of the environment in terms of sustainable use of energy and material, in short - to make housing future-proof! Fundamentally, our proposal encourages the development of a neighbourhood, who support each other, and learn to manage their housing as a community. Therefore, a productive, collective form of housing, with open accessible shared spaces - looking to the vernacular Bengal’s notions and use of central open-spaces, with activities to support inter generational exchange and encounters, and opportunities to learn and grow together, in growing productive gardens and communal workshops.
Introduction Housing is a fundamental right, recognised in a number of international human rights instruments. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living It states that: ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself/ herself/themselves and of their family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.’ Bangladesh’s rapid urbanisation and the urban housing shortfall and current crisis stems from a lack of understanding of the importance of housing as both an asset, and as a form of stable security for many lower / lower middle income groups, who migrate (for variety of reasons, mostly being economic ) and a heavy reliance on the private sector to address this need, which has left cities, especially like Dhaka and surrounding cities, with squats, illegal settlements and informal market arrangements - creating infrastructures that are often not safe and inadequate and costing much more to the government, than would regulated and supportive and adequate sized housing models. Globally, urban housing is a complex social and economic dynamic whose results are the physical patterns of cities and settlements, the qualities of collective living, and the health and well-being of the people. Housing is thus a social and material fabric of any city and settlement; it is the key to enhancing the quality of life of the immediate dwellers and the overall city. Yet, housing suffers from many misconceptions and poor practices in Bangladesh.
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