Transformation of Spatial Settings of Home-Based Enterprise (HBE) induced Rural Housing in Sirajganj

Abstract

This article investigates the factors affecting the transformation of spatial settings of rural housing in Sirajganj, Bangladesh, due to the practice of Home-Based Enterprises (HBE). Rural housing in Bangladesh is traditionally affected by many cultural and environmental factors. When HBE is practiced within the rural house forms, the nature of housing transformation receives some extended dimensions. These transformations are studied along with the spatial allocation of HBEs of the twelve selected cases, identified as permanent and floating households. The effects of HBEs found by the field survey of the study cases are explained through a comparative analysis of the housing transformation of these permanent and floating households. When HBE is induced within a household, it affects the homestead and gradually establishes its importance over other traditional housing factors like spatial settings that reflect the religious and cultural issues. When HBE is practiced it becomes the priority to the dwellers to negotiate the transformation of their housing.