Jol-Jomi-Jon: Een Altlas van Publieke Ruimte in Waterlandschappen

This thesis argues that the planning and design of public space in Dhaka requires a conceptual shift towards a contextualist approach that acknowledges the innate relationship between land and water. Water is the main defining element of Dhaka, but astonishingly hardly recognised in contemporary planning discourses of Dhaka. A conceptual integration of aquatic and terrestrial systems—reframed as a 'blue-green-muddy' network, has the potential to redefine urbanism and public space discourse. To make this point, the thesis is retracing the history of Dhaka, uniquely through the lens of its water landscape. It specifically investigates the liminal space between water and land. The research does this in 3 main case studies, that are representative for the relationship between city and river, land and water: the Buriganga-Turag River system, the Hatirjheel-Banani-Gulshan integrated lake, and the Balu River. Within these three case studies, the research critically explores liminal spaces as forms of public spaces, spaces produced through the social practices of communities. The exploration is resulting in an atlas of the liminal spaces between water and land in Dhaka that spatially structure a multitude of social practices of communities in Dhaka. These spaces, shaped by the people who inhabit them, operate outside normative urban design frameworks yet play a critical role in the production of space. By deconstructing public space elements across temporal and spatial scales, this research searches a taxonomy for deltaic public space, that could offer eventually offer a framework for its future integration into urban planning. The alternative and critical reading of liminal spaces developed in the thesis allows indeed to speculate on their potential to reclaim public space in Dhaka.