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Research Seminar – Measuring Impacts of “Outdoor Comfort” on “Walkability” in Warm Humid City: A perspective from New and Historical streetscape in the residential area of Dhaka, Bangladesh
31 May, 2016 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Research Seminar
Topic:
Measuring Impacts of “Outdoor Comfort” on “Walkability” in Warm Humid City: A perspective from New and Historical streetscape in the residential area of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Speaker:
Ms. Farzana Siddiqua
Lecturer, Department of Architecture
American International University Bangladesh
Schedule:
Tuesday, 31 May 2016 (13:00 -14:00)
Room 829, Knowles Building
The University of Hong Kong
Abstract:
“Walkability- is a measure of the livable urban form” 1 which is affected by the rapid and intense urbanization worldwide. Dhaka, Bangladesh is an example of uncontrolled and fast growing city is now facing the challenge of livable and healthy urban development, especially in newly planned residential areas where a comfortable setting of walkable streets is almost absent. Automobile dominated newly planned residential sprawl severely compromises pedestrian mobility in terms of reachability, safely, and comfort etc. This research investigates the thermal comfort condition on walkability of two different street fabrics of Dhaka. The research starts with theoretical review of ‘pedestrian-friendly community development’ while looking into case studies and standards in order to synthesize ‘walkability’ matrices. The research then proceed to a comparative analysis of the walkability between newly planned residential (Bashundhara R/A) area and historic settlement (Shakhari bazar) while taking into account street fabric as a variable for outdoor thermal comfort in the context of sub-tropical city like Dhaka. The next step is the calculation of thermal comfort indices to find out the comfort condition of the historic and the new street fabric by using a simulation software “City Comfort +” (Jianxiang , H et al, 2014). Scientific tools are used to collect site specific microclimatic data for thermal comfort. To understand user’s response to comfort sensation and walkability of the street observation and questionnaire surveys are conducted. Survey data is then synthesized to find out the matrix between street fabric and thermal comfort condition. The aim is to develop and recommend a checklist of comfortable streetscape elements and potential design features from the historic street fabric and reinterpret those features to selected study area to investigate the scope of improvement of outdoor thermal comfort and streetscape thus walkability of that area. The outcome is tested by the computer based simulation software “City comfort +” (Jianxiang H, et al,2014). Finally the research suggests some urban design options for an effective and comfortable streetscape for streets of Bashundhara Residential Area Dhaka, Bangladesh.
About the Speaker:
Farzana Siddiqua is an academic researcher and lecturer in the Department of Architecture, American International University Bangladesh (AIUB) since 2009. Her bachelor of Architecture degree (B.Arch) is from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and she had her Master of Urban Design (MUD) from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) under the Asian Development Bank-Japan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP) in 2015.Throughout the last semester of her masters she was doing her masters on ‘Measuring Impacts of “Outdoor Comfort” on “Walkability” in a warm humid city: a perspective from New and Historical streets cape in the residential area of Dhaka, Bangladesh’ which was awarded by the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS). Her main research interests are on urban design, outdoor comfort, walkability, sustainability.
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