TRANSFORMATION A WAY TO MAKE AN OLD BUILDING POTENTIAL FOR INCOME GENERATION: A STUDY IN CORE DHAKA, BANGLADESH

A substantial amount of transformation1 in the old buildings of Dhaka has been observed in the last three decades. A major cause for such transformation is due to an ever increasing demand in housing. The impact of globalization also made enormous changes in such dwellings. The landlords of the traditional houses of Dhaka have realized the potentiality of these buildings to be subdivided into rental units for income. In the recent past, a group of businessman in the name of developers now is offering attractive propositions to the land owners for reconstructing apartments or market buildings. As a result, it has become difficult to preserve/conserve these old unique buildings with historical and architectural values. This study attempts to examine the process of transformation of the domestic spaces and to evaluate how the tenants or the landlords transform such spaces for income generation.