---

Rethinking Urban Retail Spaces due to Covid-19 Pandemic in the context of Sylhet, Bangladesh

Corresponding Author : Mohammad Tanvir Hasan (tanvir-arc@sust.edu)

Authors : M. T. Hasan (tanvir-arc@sust.edu), M. Nahyan (ar.nahyan@gmail.com)

Keywords : Public Space, Covid-19, Retail Typology, Retail Space

Abstract :

Maintaining social distancing is currently an ultimate prerequisite to evade the crowd owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in public spaces like marketplaces, retail shops, parks, and streets. Adopting social distancing is quite thought-provoking mostly in public buildings in Bangladesh since the building design concept allure public gathering, more accessibility, and shared facility. Retail spaces like markets and shopping malls are one of the centers of public crowds where people commonly share facilities and circulation significantly. Apart from social distancing, there are several measures for retail space use and user guidelines have already been suggested by different national and international health organizations. But, often people could not uphold the guidelines due to limitations of building design and facilities. Ironically, the existing design and facilities cannot be altered entirely but trivial appropriate interference could open up potential scope. The purpose of the study is to identify the limitation and scope of retail space design in Sylhet city considering Covid 19 issues. Therefore a typological analysis has been conducted between two different types of retail spaces where the various aspect of building design had been analyzed. The research concludes with identifying the major issues in the building design of retail space which needs to intervene due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published on October 25th, 2021 in Volume 3 Issue 2, Civil Engineering, Environment and Architecture