Environmental Friendly Low Cost Housing and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh
- February 17, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Civil Engineering, IJRSI
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705
Environmental Friendly Low Cost Housing and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh
Dr. Engr. Masuda Siddique Rozy
Managing Director, Rasa Construction & Development Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract– Natural disasters- flood, cyclonic tidal/storm surge, land slide, river bank erosion, drought and earthquakes are the main hindrance to the sustainable development of Bangladesh. In recent years, these have caused extra burden for the marginal people of the country jeopardizing country’s economic growth as a whole. Although it is a small country, its culture, disaster types, availability of building materials are diverse and the housing practices in different regions vary widely too. A large number of rural houses are damaged due to disaster on a regular basis and cause economic losses and sufferings to the people. Repetitive constructions of such houses also impart deterioration of the environment as much of the construction materials are obtained locally from surrounding nature and thus sustainable development is also hampered significantly. To develop the design, at first the local practices and availability of local materials were studied. Besides, it was considered essential to understand and accommodate the need and culture of the community. At the same time it is important to consider environmental issues. Three-stage community level meetings attended by people, leaders and local masons were held to gather their views, demand and experience. Properties of the local construction materials were ascertained from laboratory tests. Respecting local affordability and considering the service and environmental loads, designs were finalized based on FEM analyses. Model houses were constructed at the selected locations to demonstrate them to the local community with an aim that new design or at least some features would be replicated. Different treatment schemes for increasing the durability of materials were employed to study their effectiveness.
Keywords— Building culture, community participation, disaster resilient, local material, rural housing, sustainable development;
I. INTRODUCTION
Housing is a basic need for civilized living. In a developing country like Bangladesh- housing inadequacies and backlog have been increasing mainly due to the galloping increase in population; fast pace of urbanization and other social and economic factors, which include breaking up of the joint family system, and steep rise in the price of land, building materials and labor.
