It’s an irony that the more we are being developed, the more we are losing our resources. Humans have achieved the tag of ‘planet wrecker’ for their selfish act of ignoring his environment by throwing off rubbish which ends up in landfill site. Our response to the query whether ‘rubbish’ is a refuge or resource is largely inconclusive and so is our waste management system. In many cities, use of landfill sites for disposal of municipal waste is very common. Dhaka is not an exception. Though, Dhaka recently adopted a Solid Waste Master Plan, sufficient waste collection services are not available in most areas of the city. Only 40–60% of Dhaka’s waste is collected and transported to the city’s two landfills at Matuail and Ameen Bazar. Nobody knows what would happen to the sites when entire site is filled against continuously generating waste. In structural plan 2016-2035, recommendation has given towards 3R strategies (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) of waste management instead of land fill.

3R strategy comprising reduce, reuse and recycle has become the universal law of good consumption. But does it really work? The terms reduce and reuse come with compromise but who would compromise or why should one compromise? Again, after industrial revolution a series of products have been launched to the planet with a tag of ‘warranty’. So it won’t be wrong to say that the products of today are designed to be landfilled so that consumption can continue. Recycling rather sounds more practical option where the main idea is to recover. If we see in nature it is growing then breaking down and re-growing;  the most perfect recycling and re-using system has always occurred in nature, then why not us?

In the big picture, the scope of the following project involves re-thinking of the waste management system through the process of recycling which is independent of landfills. This will create opportunity to heal the existing dumping site and re-claim the lost urban open space (proposed on DAP 2015). The project proposes re-generative landscape (phyto-capping) as a mechanism to heal the existing by reducing toxicity of the land in a gradual way, so that the reclaimed healthy open ground can serve the surrounding neighborhood. In addition, a waste treatment plant is proposed to recycle both the biodegradable and non biodegradable waste so that nothing is left without recycled.

INTERPRETATION OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE:

While designing the internal circulation of the urban park, the main challenge was to create shortest possible and efficient connection between nodes and internal facilities. The site was surrounded by roads on all four sides. So there is highest possibility that traffic flow will occur from the road junction. With the help of algorithm in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, shortest possible connection within points were simulated on the basis of four parameters, i.e. i) Nearest node point ii)Speed iii) Attraction point  iv) People flow amount . After optimization of the results a final circulation paths were obtained which satisfied all the requirements.

Other proposed facilities include Zero Waste Research Institute, community and sports facility and activity kiosks. The zero waste research institutes will promote research and conduct social campaign to build awareness on waste management and to seek efficient way to process waste in future. This park is surrounded by various localities, so community facilities and sports facilities with a mini open field is necessary for them. So a facility was designed which is visually permeable and made of celluloid structures. Every cell consists of different functions with a provision for future expansion. Along the circulation paths activity kiosks are designed so that people can take rest or relax while moving through the park from one place to another. Most importantly these kiosks will be made from recycled materials designed by zero waste research institutes.

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