An Assembly of Livelihoods: Community-Based Housing for Climate Migrants in Bangladesh’s Rapidly Urbanising Cities | Masters Design Thesis

Site Context

Located at the heart of Sylhet, near the Surma River and key commercial zones, the Hawkers’ Market site occupies roughly 2 hectares of publicly owned land. Once covered by narrow concrete market halls—demolished in 2017—the area has since transformed into a sprawling green field, gradually reclaimed by bamboo stalls and temporary structures. Today, it hosts a vibrant ecosystem of street vendors selling fish, vegetables, clothing, and household goods.

The market shows how vendors actively appropriate public space, turning sidewalks and open plots into places for trade. These everyday acts of claiming space speak volumes about the aspirations of different socio-economic groups—those who cannot afford formal shops but still carve out a place in the city’s economy.

Seen this way, the Hawkers’ Market becomes more than a marketplace: it reflects the many reasons people migrate to the city for—access to income, visibility, and the possibility of a better life. Its energy and informality became a key inspiration for the project’s vision of spatial justice and cohabitation. It became a lens through which to examine how cities are reshaped by migratory flows.

Design Process

The project began with the ambition to understand and respond to the shifting realities of internal migration. Following a visit to Sylhet and its surrounding regions, attention shifted from the study of construction workers and their living conditions to the overall lived realities of rural-to-urban migration and its profound societal impacts.

While in Bangladesh, the author began speaking with seasonal workers in both Sylhet and Dhaka who had left their home villages to seek employment in the cities. At the time, most connections were with construction workers living on-site for several months, who would return home to support their families during the monsoon seasons.

It was only later, after seeing the diversity of the hawker’s market, that the design evolved to support a spectrum of lived experiences. Not only are those coming for seasonal work trying to combine the different temporalities of migration, but they are also weaving them into the already dense urban fabric of Sylhet. This meant including current market vendors, families fleeing their flooded farmlands, women leaving their communities, and individual workers supporting their families from afar. By incorporating these different stages, the design did become more complex, perhaps less clear, but only in this way could it reflect the uncertainty, transitions, and hopes of those who move in search of livelihood and security.

Final Outcome

The current Hawker’s Market represents both the challenge and opportunity of how cities shape spaces for those who migrate in search of work and livelihood. Because of its strategic location but also its public ownership by the city, its future remains unclear.

The Assembly of Livelihoods envisions a mutual, supportive economy where informal storefronts can create stepping stones for more permanent jobs, and permanent facilities can host and sustain the rhythms of seasonal work. Rather than separation or competition, the proposal aims for interdependence: cohabitation that allows different livelihoods to complement and uplift one another.

This mix is not just physical but also should have social and even emotional impact. It acknowledges the shared experience of displacement, often driven by climate pressures, and offers a setting where people can collectively rebuild their lives. Through shared spaces, skill exchange, and everyday proximity, internal migrants gain strength in connection rather than isolation on the fringes of the city. 

Conclusion: Ultimately, by fostering a setting where diverse livelihoods intersect and evolve side by side, the project resists urban segregation and offers a counter-narrative: one of integration, codependency, and urban dignity—for everyone, regardless of when or why they arrived.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]