Nathaniel Harnish

First Draft Division Three Proposal and Research Questions

I propose to focus on the setting—environment of the modern worlds burgeoning mega-slums. Specifically I plan to look at the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh through an interdisciplinary lens focusing on the affects of nationalism and it construction out of the 1971 war for independence, foreign aid and development, and it’s connection to a history of military autocracy. Specifically I propose to look at the most precarious sections of the city residing in the built landscape—environment—culture of the informal settlements primarily residing in the ‘Old City’ region of Dhaka. In order to achieve this level of specificity I will be traveling to Dhaka for a month (plus+) during January term to conduct research and document spatial experiences. During F 2009 semester I will pursue in depth a discussion of methodology and the drafting of a research framework.

Some of the questions I foresee asking might begin with:

How can architecture / design be used as a tool to facilitate the empowerment of people living or surviving in informal settlements.

—> Placed within the extreme circumstance of informal settlements or “slum” how could architecture respond to this environment to subvert it’s image (as unprogressive), improve livelihoods, or enable more sensitive systems of sustainable development?

—> More importantly how can the architect challenge his own authority, by inverting the power relationships and placing the community, the place and the culture above the imperatives of capital, and in this way develop a sense of belonging that may enable genuine and responsive designs to urgent needs?

—> What can be learned by investigating the relationship between the construction of nationalism after the independence war of 1971, the insueing growth of foreign investment aid and an NGO model of development, and the perpetuation and extenuation of urban poverty and exploitation?

—> What have the affects of none-state-networks been on the built environment either directly or indirectly through organizations, interventions, or economic exchanges with the people of Dhaka. How have these operations changed existing or historical patron/client relationships in the city and what can be learned/critiqued by analyzing their contradictions, examples of corruption, or simply their positions in relation to capital exchanges.

—> Where can I find inlays into the landscape of the Dhaka slums? specific moments or events that have re-arraigned or reterritorialized the social, political, or spaitial boundaries between the slum dwellers and the state, or none-state-networks. where have the plans or designs envisioned by one party interacted, contradicted, or spurred opposition in the other and how have these intersections been inscribed on the landscape? Or in another way how have they re-scripted the narrative of nationalism to reflect the oppositional motives of secular / religious, development / progress, liberal / conservative or — [ a resistance by the other to maintain an ambiguious relationship to place instead of surrender to the operational logic of the governments and NGO's that attempt to rationalize through policy, law or spectacle the seizure of property, land rights, or 'rights to the city'. ]