| Write up from the project submission |

While designing large complicated architectural and urban spaces it is often difficult for designers to understand the relation between space and human behavior by only their senses and experiences. Computer simulation of pedestrian movement is a useful method to help designers to understand the relation between space and human behavior and  find an optimize situation. The following thesis project is a proposal for redevelopment of Gausia market – an unique marketplace where goods and variety of products are available in competitive price. Customers from all over Dhaka flock here to buy the desired item. Using Mass motion – a crowd simulation software, the project basically deals with the pattern of customer’s circulation inside the market with an aim to find an optimized layout for the redevelopment proposal. Though smart integration of adaptive reuse and retrofitting,  the proposed extension of the Gausia market is expected to retain its original flavor while satisfying general standards of a marketplace.

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The construction of Gausia and Nur-mansion started around 1960 and built over many phases. The marketplace covers total approximately 38000 sft of solid ground, were Gausia covering around 20000 sft and Nur-mansion about 18000 sft. Different kinds of shops are running their business here. There are mainly Sharee, Three piece, Salwar- kameez, Undergarments,  Baby product shop, Cosmetics, Jewelry, Boutique, Food corner.

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The growth of Gausia market is organic in nature; hence, it is not alike Newmarket or other shopping malls. In spite of being a popular market of Dhaka, Gausia lacks enough breathing space. It is a very compact market with hundreds of retail and wholesale outlets. The market is functioning but it lacks certain important environmental and safety requirements.

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One of the major challenge  of this project is the space constraint . Even though the market lacks basic facilities  of a modern shopping mall , the space rent at Gausia is still very high. Through time, the market developed organically according to the needs; it didn’t follow any planning or design standards. A huge number of people visit this place every day. Due its tight space layout and lack of air circulation inside the building, many people often result in a complete blackout. The area isn’t widely spread as new market as it is almost impossible to get any vacant land for expansion of Gausia.

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Due to the historical and cultural importance of the marketplace, a bottom-up design process is applied in order to give an optimized solution while keeping the existing organic nature of the market undisturbed. Every movement of people has been tracked and recorded. Independent movement of people has been simulated using ‘Mass Motion’ on every floor to find out a common transition path which was then being used to derive new plan. A number of simulations were run to find the most optimum path and shop arrangement. Then the result was juxtaposed to make the adjustment to existing model. Old structure in transitional part has been demolished to make open space and pathways. All the square feet that have been lost due to this renovation are relocated at the top of the market in a new form.

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