Course 02: Let’s co-create our neighbourhood

In keeping with this nation’s youth’s spirit, a group of youth from Korail participated in a workshop to dream and work on a healthy neighbourhood for all. Being the largest low-income housing of the country, Korail currently accommodates more than 50,000 residents. The dense fabric of this neighbourhood comes with a lot of opportunities to work on a better living environment. So POCAA facilitated a 10 day workshop with the community youth to explore various participatory planning methods including community mapping, scale drawing, critical thinking of a space and model making with the rethinking of community spaces. The workshop brought together youth from both Korail and Gabtoli, along with local masons from the Korail community, creating a collaborative learning environment.

With support from UrbaMonde and ACHR, POCAA has been conducting a series of ‘Learning by Doing’ sessions. This was the second session held in collaboration with Nogor Abad in Korail.

How did we start?

The workshop started by getting to know each other through some fun activities and then going to a walk in the lakeside to explore and learn about water-edge farming from Nagar Abad. . One of the key parts of the workshop was to visit another community ‘Gabtoli city colony’ who have been working to develop their housing environment. It was great to have this kind of horizontal sharing and dialogue between two communities. Also, a visit was arranged to meet eminent architect Nahas Khalil.  Visiting his office and residence and a long conversation with him gave the participants insights on using local materials for housing construction, breaking the misconception that good-looking houses need expensive materials to build. 

Learning to draw maps!

In this phase, the participants were divided into groups and had broad discussions on dream city, dream neighborhood and what can be done to achieve that.  Each group decided on a topic to work on, for instance, one group worked on a women-friendly space, others chose an eco-friendly neighborhood formation. The participants measured the real site and used graph papers to present them as neighborhood mapping on scale. To introduce the participants with relatable examples, Nagar Abad shared their experiences and learnings on low-income housing from Nepal. Moreover, showcasing a similar mapping workshop experience from Jhenaidah along with a thoughtful lecture by architect Khandaker Hasibul Kabir on Korail motivated the youth to reimagine their surroundings for a better community space. In continuation to this, the participants discussed child-friendly space creation inside the existing community with BIED (BRAC Institute of Educational Development). Lastly, an online sharing session with the Hunnarshala Foundation (from Bhuj, India) enlightened participants with alternative construction techniques like  shallow domes and heat mitigation techniques as a part of cost effective housing solutions. Perspectives from another country and how they work with a community-led approach really inspired everyone.

Now, it’s action time!

As the site measurement was already done by the participants, they began with hands-on design work as teams reimagined spaces like a residential unit, bazaar, community park, and women-friendly club on the selected site. They conducted site analysis and started to build site models from their own understanding. Creating the site models was a new task for the participants and on their way of doing it, they faced challenges which eventually helped them to brainstorm ideas for rethinking the spaces into healthy condition. The model-making session was more engaging with the volunteering support from BRAC University architecture students and POCAA fellows. With their help, participants prepared to present their ideas and learnings. At the end of the day, side-by-side displays of existing and proposed models highlighted the transformation of the spaces.

The exhibition day

Finally, the last day came with an open exhibition for all. The arrangements started with a short video of workshop sessions, rewinding the collective learning process. All the participants were elated as many of them were giving presentations for the first time in life, they rehearsed their presentation and shared it with a large audience with a lot of confidence! The presentations expressed the fresh ideas of the participants along with models which were very interactive and many visitors from various platforms discussed the possibilities among them. Students from Bangladesh University, DUET and BRAC gathered. Besides, people from BRAC, Bangladesh Union, BLAST, Bhumijo and other professions joined and engaged with the Korail community. This way the team got feedback and encouragement for working in the community, moreover the inspiration to think about a better living environment.. At the closing hour, participants eagerly shared their experiences and key takeaways from the course as a final wrap-up. The workshop ended with hopeful faces who are ready to take action to make a healthier and happier neighborhood.