The Nilket area is one of the oldest book market place in Dhaka city which is sandwiched between Dhaka University to the east, Mirpur road and New Market at the west. It is the largest commercial zone in Dhaka. Nilkhet Book Market is now being proposed to undergo a redevelopment with the changing patterns of customers’ needs and lifestyle.
The focus of this project is to propose a design and policies with which the essence of a public market can be kept in Nilkhet Book Market and most importantly create a balance between commerce and community in publically owned retail markets. This project is proposed by Nayeem Bin Abedin, a student of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST). The proposed design will provide the area with retail services for the local people as well as for the foreign consumers in the area. The cultural context of the city is an important aspect that is highlighted in order to represent the retail and entertainment culture of the city to the users. The services will be set according the requirement of the area as well as the commercial value of the land, thus creating an economically feasible public gathering space which the city lacks.
As the site of the market is situated at a very vital node of a commercial zone, the design needed to consider urban context, user expectations, and community involvement. The complex is divided into three parts. First part is the informal shaded area for the street vendor, second part is the podium portion where the formal book shops are designed and the last part is the tower portion which will be used as a commercial zone for rent. For zoning the designer tried to follow the existing zoning of the market.
Pedestrian density of this area is exceedingly high. To solve this problem a pedestrian elevated walkway is designed which will connect Nilkhet Book Market with other markets. As the street vendors of Nilkhet Book Market create problems occupying spaces on pedestrians, some specific spaces have been designed for vendors. Existing settlement of Nilkhet Book Market is creating various problems in urban life of Dhaka city through occupying pedestrian and major roads so the project tried to develop a design giving possible solutions to the existing problems.
