Settlement Patterns & Housing Characteristics

For figuring out the settlement patterns of the Harijan community in Bangladesh, four sites were chosen for physical survey, two being close to the site area for nearby analysis of the settlement patterns, and the other two were selected chronologically for a broader perspective on how the settlement patterns have evolved from suburban to a highly urbanized context.

The Harijan people mostly use one room as their house form due to having no land rights and lack of resources. The room can be divided spatially into 3 sections as per usage, such as living, dining, and semi-outdoor. The semi-outdoor space is used for cooking and other activities at household scale. Each family uses one room as a house form in their day-to-day life. Sometimes extended families live in one room using partitions due to no way of acquiring new space for a living unit, creating awkward interactions between generations and leaving no space for privacy. These rooms are generally composed in a row, using shared walls, developing a cluster supporting several families. Each family lives in a room of approx. 150 sq. ft.

The rooms are then organized in a linear connection with a connecting veranda or sometimes around a small pocket court that supports community activities at the neighborhood scale. These connected rooms then form a cluster. The clusters are mostly semi-pucka/tin shed, developed using different materials as built by different families according to their affordable range. There is adjacent space for cattle rearing with a few rooms, and about 30% has space above them for pigeon houses. Each cluster has 7-11 families. Clusters with a pocket court are thought to be ideal as a result of this study. These clusters later form blocks.

In macro scale, several blocks are then connected with road networks for accessibility. The network tends to have a main spine. The spine then develops a key area where the major amenity functions are placed. Here the key amenity functions are a ram temple and a samiti room for Mondali meetings and communal gatherings.