A Vibrant and Sustainable Town Center Planning by Integrating Multi-functioning Activities at Baze Shilinda, Rajshahi

Abstract

Town center is the city’s central hub combined with flexible multiple use, district of vertical mixed-use buildings that holds retail, commercial, administrative, civic, industrial, recreational and residential uses together which develops social connectivity. Especially for Bangladesh, Rajshahi is a growing city becoming congested due to compact urbanization and needed to be decentralized for sustainable urban growth of the city. The main objective of the study is to develop a sustainable “Town Center” which will cover major multi-functioning features of sustainable urban development ensuring ecological protection, equitable housing, and livable community through zoning pattern. Hence, Baze Slilinda at Paba Upazila of Rajshahi is the proposed study area for developing town center which is situated at the fringe area of the central city. The proposed town center has been illustrated through AutoCAD 2D for plotting the area and SketchUp 3D to explain the elevation of the buildings. Furthermore, the proposed space, land use, building size and height have been estimated maintaining planning standard of the local ordinance. The study concerned about the equitable housing for all class peoples where distance from housing to commercial, residential, industrial, retail and open space to make the center convenient. The design will hold the future needs as the center has permission to expand and also proposed waste treatment plant will make the center hygienic. In addition, the design utilizes the local resources and yield sustainable and connected economic flow of the center. The study will be a framework for designing a city center ensuring maximum facilities in sense of ecological balancing and multiple functioning and that way concerned authority can get a guideline for further town center development.