Bangladesh

Development of small townships in ancient Bengal by the kings and their representatives at various places had once introduced a group of special types of houses constructed mostly within fort structures. These houses had residence of the owners at the centre and rooms for service and support personnel alongside the boundary wall. Archeological excavations discovered some of such houses in different parts of Bangladesh. Almost all of them were built with mud bricks.

Developments in housing in East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971 may be characterised by a fast growth of urban structures and modern houses in towns with amenities like electricity and running water supply. In spite of urbanisation, the psychology of the people in general did not change much and most people continued to prefer living in individual houses rather than in flats in multistoried buildings. Apartment buildings were becoming a vogue in Dhaka city towards the middle of the 1970s and by 1985, the trend gained a momentum with large-scale acceptability of the concept of living in flat houses under acute shortage of land and in a situation of rapid increase in land prices and the cost of construction.

Urbanisation in its proper sense started in Bengal with establishment of British administrative centres (particularly, the district headquarters) and development of business centres on the banks of large rivers. The process, however, did not bring much change in house structures and their styles. Houses in these newly developed townships used almost the same materials as in the surrounding rural areas and yet, changes started showing up very soon. These houses were constructed usually in rows and blocks and many of them were built in European architectural design. A completely new phenomenon was the growth of slums, especially around industry centres and for the people migrating from rural areas in search of jobs and earning opportunities. Buildings in some areas adopted the designs of Muslim architecture and in many places, the influence of typical Indian structures of the Mughal period could be seen in abundance.

Until 1951, Bangladesh was almost completely a rural-agrarian country with 95.67 percent of the population living in rural areas and only 4.33 percent in urban areas.

Table shows the urbanization pattern in Bangladesh. The level of urbanization was extremely low in 1951 with only 4.33% of the total population living in urban areas. It has increased gradually to 5.19% in 1961 and then very rapidly to 8.78% in 1974, 15.54% in 1981, 20.15% in 1991 and 23.39% in 2001 (BBS, 1991 and BBS, 2001). A recent study by World Bank has estimated that about 40% of the total population in Bangladesh will be living in urban area in Bangladesh by 2025 (ADB, 2000).

Urban Population Density in Bangladesh

Urban population density in Bangladesh was 2179 persons/sq.km in 1991 and the present density is estimated at approximately 3008 persons/sq.km. Population density of Dhaka megacity was found to be 4795 persons/sq.km in 1991 and the present density is estimated at approximately 8573 persons/sq.km. However, the population density of DCC area is more than three times of the megacity area, as in 1991 it was 15333 persons/sq.km against estimated present density of 18055 persons/sq.km. With limited availability of flood-free land, further
densification of population along with haphazard encroachment of peripheral land of Dhaka as well as in urban areas of Bangladesh seems inevitable.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is the primate city of the country as its share of national urban population was 25% in 1981, 31% in 1991 and 34% in 2001 respectively. Dhaka’s dominance not only in terms of population, but also in terms of economy, trade, commerce, and administration is obvious. In 1991 among the thirty-four mega cities of the world having a population o