Themes for an Aqueous City
Abstract：A hydro-geographical landscape calls for a different measure in design thinking and practice, and even a new water ethos in contemporary design discourse. Considering that an aqueous urbanism entails an epistemic shift, this paper cites the city of Dhaka as a point of departure for such a thinking. What distinguishes Dhaka from other cities in similar growth outbursts is its deeply intertwined relationship with a landscape constructed by powerful rivers, epic floods, silting and land-shifting of monumental proportions. In that fluctuating hydrological world of the delta, cities and settlements have been structured by the dynamics of rivers, canals, wetlands, floodplains, agricultural fields, chars (silted landforms) and human habitation. An hydraulic vision for such cities has to begin from the edge of the precious landscape of wetlands and agricultural terrain, ushering a conception that integrates urbanism, agriculture, and flood terrains.
Keywords：Hydro-geographical landscaperiverbank ecologywet designaquatic city
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 86-91 )