Revival of Connection between the Kalshi Canal and Neighbouring Communities

Idea projektu

Kalshi Canal is a man-made waterway located in the northern part of Dhaka metropolitan city, Bangladesh. It is a relatively small canal that runs through the Kalshi residential area and connects to the Turag River. The canal plays an important role in the drainage system of Dhaka, as it helps to manage the flow of rainwater and wastewater during the monsoon season. However, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the city, the canal has become heavily polluted, which poses significant health risks to the people living in the surrounding areas. The pollution of the Kalshi Canal is caused by a range of factors, including the discharge of untreated industrial and domestic wastewater, solid waste dumping, and encroachment along the canal banks. The pollution can affect both the water quality and the ecological health of the canal, including its aquatic life. The idea was to address relevant problems of the canal and its surroundings and create a positive impact and approach towards some sort of solutions through urban interventions and landscape design.

Popis projektu

The problems of the mentioned canal and its immediate surroundings are: Uncontrolled waste disposal on the waterbody (which generates bad odour), lack of character in softscape, waterlogging and water clogging, lack of biodiversity in the canal and its surroundings, lack of walkability beside the canal, and no connection between the canal and its neighbouring inhabitants. A macro-scale site visit helped the authors to observe and find more issues. The observations are that the canal is pretty narrow at multiple points, lack of public green adjacent to the canal and there are some informal settlements of urban poor adjacent to the canal, some of them have already taken initiatives of rooftop gardening or bamboo-stage vegetation beside the canal. The design strategies that are proposed to solve these issues are: riparian buffer, community gardening, planting street trees, staged pathway by the canal, green roof, green pocket spaces near the canal and staged pathway, and wastewater treatment of the canal.

Technické informace

Proposed riparian plants include vetiver grass, Indian mustard, watercress, neem, eggplant, tomato, bottle gourd, pumpkin, banana (already available at the site), spinach, beans, peppers, mango, papaya, guava, jackfruit, Palash (a native and important plant of that area), yellow iris, etc.

Sakib Nasir Khan, Adiba Farheen Mrinmoyee, Taufiq Elahi, Kamrul Hasan Sajid

Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Dhaka

Bangladesh

Urbanismus

Projekt odevzdán

12. 07. 2024

Tag

Urbanismus Parks Public spaces Gardens Waterway

Rada studentům

Revival of Connection between the Kalshi Canal and Neighbouring Communities

This project identifies a real and urgent environmental and public health issue—the degradation of the Kalshi Canal in northern Dhaka—and commendably attempts to address it through urban and landscape design interventions. The proposal suggests a series of low-tech ecological strategies including riparian buffers, community gardens, staged walkways, green roofs, and wastewater filtration systems. These strategies, though conceptually valid, remain underdeveloped both spatially and technically. While the project articulates several environmental and social goals, it lacks coherence in terms of architectural expression, spatial organization, and implementation feasibility. The visual materials do not clearly communicate design resolution, and the scale of intervention across various sites appears inconsistent and fragmentary. There is limited integration between social engagement strategies and the proposed physical interventions, and the handling of informal settlements is insufficiently explored beyond observational notes. Overall, the proposal shows good intent and site understanding, but its design maturity, spatial clarity, and execution strategy are inadequate to realize its stated ambitions. A more robust and phased masterplan with defined pilot interventions, stakeholder engagement, and clearer metrics for success would substantially improve its credibility and impact.
20.03.2026

Tamer ElSerafi

Kategorie

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