Housing for the Low Income People

Project title: Citywide solutions to land and housing problems to excluded and marginalised communities in Dhaka (one of five model cities in Dhaka, Yangoon, Kathmandu, Manila and Jakarta)

Implementing organizations: Platform of Community Action and Architecture, Grambangla Unnayan Committee, Co.Creation.Architects

In Support with: Asian Coalition of Housing Rights and Selavip Foundation

Introduction: Point of departure

We (POCAA, Grambangla Unnayan Committee and CCA)  believe that housing is a basic human right and imperative for the steady development of the country. It deserves a much larger, thoughtful and creative process that can only be achieved through collective and innovative interventions in the urban housing sector. The rapid urbanization of Bangladesh has resulted in urban housing shortfall on a large scale. One of the core reasons for this crisis is the ignorance towards housing as an asset and form of permanent security, especially for lower and lower-middle-income people. The unplanned sporadic housing design comes along with poor, unsafe yet costly physical infrastructures as compared to other housing models. Housing is thus an intricate part of the very sensitive social fabric of any city and settlement; it is the key to enhancing the quality of life of the citizens of all strata and the overall city. Since the ‘5 model cities’ project took off, POCAA and Co.Creation.Architects took the knowledge and experience from Jhenaidah and started working in Dhaka for housing systems innovation.

Housing project

The first housing project of ‘5 Model cities: Dhaka process’ at Gabtoli was started in October 2020 and the construction was finished by April 2021. Unlike the other communities listed above, Gabtoli colony was a community where individual households had permission to build houses from the city corporation on the land the city corporation had leased from the water development board. This led the first big housing project to take place in Gabtoli, as the other communities needed time to resolve many land related issues, with Government, with landowners or with the internal community leaders who take advantage of the disputed land by collecting rents from the others.

About Gabtoli city colony:

​​About 15 years ago (1995), due to the Hatirjheel Development Project, 472 families were relocated from Gulshan, Dhaka to Gabtoli City Colony. Gradually evicted from different parts of the city, today about 1500 families are living here. Colony residents are mainly employed as “sweepers” (cleaners) of the Dhaka City Corporation, but some are involved in small business, and some work as mechanics and day laborers.

This colony is situated near the river Buriganga 600 meters away from the Gabtoli bus terminal. In the beginning, this land was filled with garbage, did not have roads, water lines, and other necessary infrastructures. Roads, water lines, and toilets are being provided gradually with NGOs and the government’s help.

Mapping and profiling

The first step of the big housing project at Gabtoli was to do mapping and community profiling by the members. There are a total of 15 lanes in the colony. Sixteen families are living on each side of the lanes. Apart from these families, more and more families are now living within the community wherever some empty piece of land is found and allocated by the communal leaders. There is a toilet block and a water line at the end of each alley. 7-8 households use one toilet. At the other end of the alley is the market, which is run by the residents of this area.

Household studies

The study that community architects took on together with the families, showed that though the houses at Gabtoli are built as a monospace, with only four walls, a roof and a door, the use of space is multilayered. The bed used for sleeping at night becomes the hanging out space for the family or study place for young ones by day. The architects also got an account of the possessions, the storage space each family needed for different purposes. Some are the frequent storage space for everyday life, while others are storage for occasionally needed items (extra pillow, winter clothes etc.)

Each family lives in 15 feet by 12 feet land area. Many live miserable lives, even though everyone has built houses with CI sheets and wood according to their ability. The Shapla Boshoti Unnayan Samity is the first to list those who are facing various problems, including financial issues. They teamed up with the architects of POCAA to document the condition of the houses on the list by sketching, taking pictures, and recording how the family members used the spaces inside and outside. During this study, the residents began to get to know themselves better.

Communal saving group formation

The Gabtoli community formed a savings group, named ‘Shapla Boshoti Unnayan Shamiti’. The members of this association started to save 300 taka per month as monthly savings. Currently they are on process of creating a bank account within the Government bank services of Bangladesh


Housing loan beneficiary selection criteria


Shapla Boshoti Unnayan Shamiti set up a few criterias to select houses and the sequence to build.

  • Worst structural and material condition of houses based on household survey.
  • Families who had allocated plots but no house.
  • Families with lesser purchase power per member. Since the community mostly work for city corporations as cleaners, the salary is somewhat similar. However, to take into account how many members depended on that salary or if there is any additional income by other members made the difference of the families’ comparative financial need within the community.
  • Families that had too many members /subfamilies to house within one plot.

Loan repayment regulations

Shapla Bosoti Unnayan Shamiti decided to pay the total loan in 50 months, with 3000 taka each month. The amount of installment was determined from the current housing rent of that area. The committee also decided to pay a 200 taka fine , if a family does not pay the installment for two consecutive months without any proper reason. However, if any family faces a genuine problem for paying a monthly loan installment, the shapla bosoti unnayan shomiti will consider the issue case by case.

Community construction guideline Development

Before the construction started, the shapla bosoti unnayan shomiti deviced following design and construction guidelines to improve the houses as well as the neighborhood.

This Projects:

  • is not a project of providing only loan / micro credit, it has to contribute to the total health aspects of people’s housing.
  • is an initiative of co-creating and sustaining a healthy and beautiful environment and surroundings.

To achieve ‘the healthy housing’ goal the following guideline would be maintained by the parties involved :

  • The Design of the houses must be well illuminated and ventilated
    • If direct sunlight and south breeze do not enter the house alternative measures will be taken.
    • South facade of the house will be prioritized for openings.
    • Door and window must be positioned in such an order that allows maximum sunlight intrusion, ventilation to allow passive cooling, prevent dampness and fight against pests, disease and rodents.
  • Ground floor must give back the previously occupied land from the road and not occupy more than the City corporation allocated plot size.
  • Before the construction starts, every household will consult with the owners of all three surrounding houses and resolve any plot related dispute by measuring and probable manipulation with everyone’s consent so that no problem arises after starting the construction process.
  • Two adjacent houses should have a proper gap between their walls so that they are not damaged by rain. Or houses can use the common, shared rainwater gutter.
  • It is encouraged to share brick walls with adjacent houses if possible and anyone is interested.
  • The construction materials chosen for houses need to be durable and low-cost as well as environmentally friendly and healthy. Use of galvanized steel sheet should be minimum.

Design workshops

A series of design workshops took place in order to find out the best possible house design solution for Gabtoli houses. First, the saving group members made models of their desired houses. Based on their aspiration and previously done household surveys, the community architects came up with few different solutions for the houses. The designs were communicated to the households through models. After few consultancy and revision (of design) meetings, few prototypes were generated , from which the households chose the best one for their respective families. During the cost estimation workshops, local builders were invited. The community and the builders calculated the cost of each prototype based on their experience and market survey.

Images of design workshops and house models that were used to communicate among the community and the local builder groups.
Prototype 02: Interior Kitchen
Most of the families wanted to shift from the previous cooking system (coal stove) to a newer, healthier system (LPG or induction stove). As a result of this aspiration, prototype 02 of the houses was designed including a small, niche kitchen inside the houses with storage shelves under and above the stove. The more organised, clean kitchen space provides better cooking posture to the women who are involved in cooking for their families.
Prototype 03: Exterior Kitchen
The family composition vastly differs in the Gabtoli community. Rina apa, a young mother previously shared a one-room house with her husband-children and her husband’s brothers family (with children). These two family units simply hang a piece of fabric in the middle of the house to partition two families. While constructing the new house. Rina apa and her brother-in-law’s family decided to build two storeys so that each brother can occupy one storey with their respective families. The kitchen and the stairs are placed outside on the ground floor. Now they can share the cooking space, yet respect each other’s privacy to a greater degree than before. In Gabtoli, there are many families like this, sharing one plot between two family units, such as young couples with their in-law’s families, or several brothers/sisters with their partners and children. Such families opted out for this house prototype 03.
Alleys of Gabtoli
  Before starting the housing design, many consultation meetings happened in the community. Together the participating households decided to develop a design and construction guideline to enhance the collective living of the houses and adjacent alleys. The houses built during this project decided to return back previously occupied space from the alleys for making kitchens It not only enables vehicles to enter in case of emergency but also ensures proper sunlight intrusion and air circulation to keep the environment healthy and safe Other times, that space reactivates the social interaction by inducing communal activities in the re-introduced semi-private space. A small niche space is revived for children to play or for the families to have a vertical food garden.


Construction

For the construction work community was mostly comfortable hiring the local builders group. Each household was responsible for hiring and managing the masons and carpenters’ group for their houses. Two teams of local builders did most of the houses, while 3 families had to hire from outside of the community, so that they do not have to wait for the local teams and can finish the house construction before the upcoming monsoon season.

Loan repayment

The families have started to pay the installment of the housing loan after one month since they had moved into the newly upgraded houses.

Small Project (Collective garden)

Children Led Co-Creation of a Vertical Productive Garden

‘5 model cities’ project started in the middle of the COVID-19 breakout in Bangladesh. Since then, all the schools are closed so children are spending all their time at home. In the dense communities, children spend much time outside the home, playing in the adjacent spaces. Unfortunately, there is not much open space outside as well, having only narrow alleys and an access road as their playspace. Our small project started with the children’s group here by searching for playspace/play activities for people of all ages, especially for the children.

The development process involved three months of intensive community consultation, studying the existing practices, communicating with the locals about their problems, wants, and needs regarding communal space and space for gardening as a means of recreational activity. The absence of a proper community space can result in the lack of social coherence that exists at present. Therefore, this project aimed to create a social meeting point where space is very scarce for the entire local community.

Throughout the initial site studies, the children showed more interest and were eager to show around the site. They were very enthusiastic in showing around the spaces they like, where they play, where they spend most of their time etc. So, naturally, creating a community space started with the children taking the lead.

After the initial studies, a garden was formed through a co-creation process with the community’s children. No one believed there could be a garden there. By proving everyone wrong, the plants grew faster than imagined, like magic! That is why the children named it “The Magic Garden.” We opted to create a vertical planting system that aims to address their limited space and natural light issues. This project aims to develop and test a low-cost, limited spaced and water-efficient prototype replicable in other areas with the same space and resource scarcity.

Fig.: Magic Garden Phase One

The location of the first phase of the garden was out of sight of the general public. That is why there were fewer people to take care of the garden. Also, chicken and duck were used to destroy the garden as it was placed on the ground. The kids tried to protect it with nets, but it became hard for them to take the plants.

So, keeping all the community’s feedback in mind, a vertical prototype was designed to address the financial feasibility, ease of construction, and flexibility in use. After studying locally available materials, a scrape iron rod was selected as framing material, and plastic crates were chosen for durability. The design was done in a modular pattern with repetitive elements that made the construction easier. All the measurements were selected by the suitable plant height, clear space for light, and ease of the watering system.

The experimentation and prototyping of this collective garden space in Gabtoli, is being developed in other communities such as Dholpur.

City-wide network building process

Throughout the one year time of ‘5 Model cities’ project,contact to networks of community was reestablished to explore the way for this project to be useful to the communities in need. The attempt to address the complex issue of low-income housing in Dhaka city , which is our ‘5 model cities’ project, has been communicated from government agencies, community networks, NGO networks, urban thinkers and academicians and organisations that directly work with housing, infrastructure development in other cities or providing legal support to land and right to housing. The further expansion of the network is being developed with several community networks (with BDERM, NDBUS, NBUS) and pro-bono legal support providing organisations (BLAST, COM etc). The potential collaboration with BLAST can lead the Dhaka city housing process from resisting (eviction) towards being proactive and forwarding  policy suggestions.

Strategy forward
As we are progressing with the support of 5 model cities project for low income housing development in Dhaka, we realise that it is a long way to travel to see impactful reflection in the national housing approaches and policy changing. The role of the enthusiastic professional and community network has to be rigorous and persuasive. For the 5 model cities timeline , following are the strategies we have in mind:


1. Strengthening the collective preparation of communities towards housing development would be facilitated through the small projects.

2. Creating various examples of community -led actions by involving more and more communities through community profiling, small projects and big housing projects with different (and unique) challenges.

3. Formation of partnership with community networks and organisations for the legal support to the communities for accessing lands and resisting eviction.

4. Facilitating partnership between different government agencies and community networks.

5. Training more young professionals who can continue the pro-people housing development approach in Dhaka city and beyond.