Re-Thinking Town-hall Market as an Urban Marketplace to Meet the Future with it’s Lost Vibrant

A city is introduced by the people living there. A cultural community is formed by the neighbourhood. With time being, the growing technology and ever growing demands, the rural fabric of Bangladesh is set to transfer into cities faster than we can imagine where it accommodates the traditional functions of bazar into our neighbourhoods. In Bangladesh, bazar have been a focus of cultural and physical elements of a rural area where the other public functions grow surrounding it to play a vital role in creating a community. In rural area bazar fails to meet the urban scale, demand and context. Thus it loses its traditional image and no longer the heart of a community as it once used to be.

Dcc owns 36 markets in the capital. In 2004 dcc decided to renovate 13 markets that were built in 1950’s and are structurally failing, posing threat to users. Town hall bazar in Mohammadpur is one of the supermarkets which are to be demolished and rebuilt as a multi-storied modern market. The two storied supermarket which established in 1950’s contains kacha-bazar, ward councillor office along with other mixed used shops and offices. However this market has the potential to be more than a market but a centre of the neighbourhood.

Town hall is a municipal building used for the local government where meetings are held at which a politician or public official answers questions from members of the public. The main function of a town hall is town hall meetings where the government interacts with each other and with the public.

Town hall stands at the middle of Asadavenue and mohammadpur bus stand. It is also the front and gateway to mohammadpur with its landmark shaheedpark moqsue and townhall building. Azamroad and shershah suriroad intersects at the middle of the mosque and market. This part of mohammadpur has been called ward no 42 however, recently the ward number has changed and it is now ward no 31.

After town-hall building was established it functioned as a market not as the official civic building a town hall is supposed to be. During 1970-71 kacha bazaar which is an open air food market was added. Later shops and various offices added to the market. Town-hall developed as a mixed use formal and informal marketplace. The function of market is not only trading and commercial benefit but it also creates opportunities for interactions and gathering thus transforming into a public space.

According to s.w.o.t analysis we can find certain things about Town-hall market.

Strength: the site is surrounded by many educational institutions. The location is easily accessible from any point. Site is located in a mix residential zone. There are average size buildings all round this site. Weakness: no such public square beside this side.

Opportunities: this can be a great cultural platform. Can work as a public hub.

Threat: Noise and heavy traffic often destroys work environment.

The idea is to renew the area by organizing the functions of town hall and marketplace with redevelopment and connecting them with public spaces that an urban neighborhood desperately demands with all necessary objectives to meet the upcoming future.

These are the objectives to be followed:

1: scrutinize the existing functional cognation between local marketplace, public shopping zones and commercial spaces to understand the morphology of conventional marketplace.2: Analyse the idiosyncrasy of public functions, public space and where the proclivity of public activities are stronger than regular movements and how they act on each other 3. Unearthing a design layout / establishment idea of how multiple public pursuits of the site accompany and interoperate.4: concoct the access and vista to the open expanse.

Name: Shahriar Kabir, Project Name: Re-Thinking Townhall Market as an Urban Marketplace to Meet the Future with it’s lost vibrant, Institution name: Ahsanullah University Of Science And Technology. Year of graduation: 2021,Course Tuitors: Dr. Jasmin Ara Begum, Nujaba Binte Kabir, Ayesha Siddiqua, Advisor: Zisan Fuad Chowdhury.