Make in Dharavi
The famously productive neighbourhood in the heart of Mumbai city is full of thousands of artisans, craftspersons and mechanics, working away on their tools and machines in workshops and factories that often do
Proyecto Escape - Cazuca
Collaborative process between communities led by Proyecto Escape and supported by different local and international organisations
Proyecto Manila
Building a Community center by understanding social dynamics and participatory planning in a homegrown neighborhood in Bogota
The Design Comes as We Build
urbz invited local builders from Dharavi to design the best possible house they could imagine. These designs were translated into physical models by artisans.
Homegrown Things
We produced everyday-life objects based on the specific needs of residents and the skills available in the Shivaji Nagar area in Mumbai.
Khotachiwadi
urbz has been involved with the heritage precinct of Khotachiwadi for nearly a decade. We have organized many events workshops there and produced a strategic plan for the area among other things.
Mashup workshops
The mashup workshops take many different forms and happen in all kinds of places. They take specific neighbourhoods as sources of inspiration and unleash a maximum of creativity onto them!
Homegrown cities
This experiment in affordable housing led to the co-designing and construction of a small house in Shivaji Nagar, in Govandi. A neighbourhood in Mumbai that is struggling against all odds to keep growing and im
No Future
As part of the Future Architecture Platform, urbz was part of a series of exhibitions and lectures at the MAXXI in Rome, the House of Architecture in Graz, Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb and the Future of
Place, Work, Folk
Place, Work, Folk is a fortnightly column in The Hindu Sunday Magazine by Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, which is inspired by Patrick Geddes and analyzes current urban issues in India and beyond.
Circulatory Lives
For the past 5 years, urbz has been following families who's lives is spread between Mumbai and their ancestral villages in the Konkan (Western India).
Bareilly Street
Studies, workshops, street exhibition and plans towards making a small square in Dharavi children friendly
Breaking Ground
A 5 day long workshop in Geneva which produced strategies for gradual urban densification.
Handstorm in Dharavi
Our annual Handstorm workshops in Dharavi with the "Engineers for Social Impact" from NYU Abu Dhabi generate incremental innovations that improve the quality of life in this massive settlement
Urban Typhoon
Urban Typhoon is a 5 days long workshop taking place working with local associations to generate programmes and plans for the improvement or preservation of neighbourhoods.
Dream of a neighbourhood
"What could be generated by the living generation is an open work; it depends entirely on our collective good will, on the readiness of this generation to embrace a future without precedence." Architecture theorist Yehuda Safran reflects on the Delta V neighbourhood project in Versoix, Geneva.
Kumbharwada - incremental innovation to reduce pollution
A new series of Make in Dharavi focuses on the neighbourhood of Kumbharwada, famous for its pottery. We look at how the potters respond to the pollution generated by their kilns - and brainstorm with them.
Delta V : Introduction
Un projet de quartier participatif à Versoix!
A participatory urban planning project in Geneva, Switzerland!
Delta V in the News
Articles de journaux sur le projet Delta V
News articles on the Delta V project in Geneva
New City, Old Story
The Rise of Navi Mumbai viewed from the Konkan (The Hindu 29/04/2018)
Kumbharwada - a pottery village
A new series of Make in Dharavi focuses on the neighbourhood of Kumbharwada, famous for its pottery. Part 1 looks at the history of the area and some of the issues it's facing today.
Architectura y Urbanismo Emergente / workshop 2
The 2nd Workshop in Emerging Architecture and Urbanism in Altos del Pino, Bogotá, supports the initiatives of the community for the construction of public toilets and improvement of public space.
The limits of collective intelligence
Groupthink dominates social networks and participatory projects (The Hindu 18/4/18)
Handstorm Workshop 2018
A unique collaboration between New York University, Abu Dhabi Campus (NYUAD) and urbz, wherein engineering students engage with projects that address the issues of the residents of Dharavi at the grassroots.
Weaving an urban fabric
How did we lose the thread of context-driven architecture and planning? (The Hindu 31/3/18)
Homegrown Dharavi - Vision for an incremental future
This animation presents what Dharavi could look like if it was allowed to continue develop incrementally. All designs in the video were conceived by contractors living and working in Dharavi, Mumbai, as part of the Design Comes as We Build project.
The Design Comes as We Build - Catalog
This exhibition showcases ideal houses designed by builders who live and work in Dharavi. It travelled to the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, Spring House in Amsterdam and the Maxxi in Rome.
Where Gandhi meets Ambedkar
Two powerful archetypes — the village and the city — are resolved in a third one: the slum (The Hindu 18/3/2018)
The kind of data we mine will determine the kind of city we live in
The more diversified a neighbourhood, in terms of its uses, its composition and its physical expressions, the more efficient it is in terms of economic and cultural dynamism. (The Hindu 4/3/2018)
From Public Consultation to Community Land Trust
How the city of Ottawa’s participatory neighbourhood revitalization project has inspired the community to take the lead in choosing their future
Can urban villages ever be planned?
A global trend may be more fantasy than substance. (The Hindu 17/02/2018)
First Workshop in Emergent Architecture and Urbanism Bogota
Breathing life into a community´s vision for a ¨restorative cell¨ using Bamboo
Proyecto Manila
The story of participatory planning in Bogota
A Commercial and Community Building on Dharavi Main Road
urbz is designing a new building in Dharavi for the Koliwada Jamat.
Local Governance in Dharavi-Koliwada
The local governance of a century old fishermen village in Dharavi in the heart of Mumbai.