Site Area: 2.31 Acres  

Build Area: 11334.1 sqm

The Dhaka North Civic Center Competition project was arranged jointly by Dhaka North City Corporation and IAB in 2021. Civic Center evaluated a contest, where the built form creates different types of scopes of activities, which encourages people to interact and communicate.  This seeks to enhance the civic center as both a ceremonial gathering place that inspires civic pride as well as adds intimate spaces that create daily destinations for local residents.  Dhaka North City Corporation [DNCC] has an allocation for the development of a civic center at Gulshan 2, Dhaka measuring around 11334.17 sqm (4.53 bigha) approx. For the civic center 9290.30 sqm and for the commercial building 2043.87 sqm. 

DCC market is a renowned market and a familiar place for people of the Gulshan 2. It was established under the Dhaka city corporation in 1968, with a simple approach of a two-storied building around a courtyard concept. Location wise the site holds great potential to be the “civic Centre” for the northern part of Dhaka. Hence, the project optimizes a vision, not just fulfilling the task of designing a marketplace. The vision would be to transform an archetypal marketplace into a desirable “Civic Centre” where the citizen will find their voices through “place-making”. Place-making is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, designing and management of public spaces. It is the process of planning quality public spaces that contribute to the well-being of the local community and also guide it to make economic progress.

In this project, our vision is to continue that essence by regenerating the existing plaza as a civic plaza. The idea is to make an extension of the existing plaza both horizontally and vertically which is merging along with the main civic center.

The design approach of DNCC Civic Center has come up with several multi-disciplinary functions to address those activities along with the shopping facilities. Through creating the civic plaza, DNCC Civic Center can be a cultural hub which will encourage the user to come and get inspired by the public spaces with social dynamics and cultural activities.

The environmental and sustainable interventions are highly noticeable in the design approach. The east-west orientation of the tower, focuses on pedestrian circulation, climatic considerations to minimize heat consumption and the creation of buffer space, ensuring natural ventilation in common corridors by creating a void in the middle, the internal enclosed space contained the central air-cooling system. The DNCC tower is also designed considering the east-west façade blocked by the service core and the served space has been placed in between the cores that face the north-south direction. A civic plaza is a place of social interaction between different communities which can provide a sense of equality, responsibility and social balance. The center can increase the scope of innovation and overall economic growth of the country.