Circulatory Urbanism
For the past 5 years, urbz has been following families who's lives are spread between Mumbai and their ancestral villages in the Konkan (Western India).
Projects
Make in Dharavi
This series of interviews portrays the economic life of Dharavi in Mumbai through the activities of its inhabitants.
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.
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.
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
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.
Bareilly Street
Studies, workshops, street exhibition and plans towards making a small square in Dharavi children friendly
Mumbai-Ratnagiri Express
Many families live in between two households: one in the village and another in the city.
Circulatory Urbanism: The misunderstood paradigm
The biggest growth in urbanisation is not taking place in the metropolis but in small towns that are networked with villages.
The Future of Khotachiwadi
An urban village trying to safeguard its heritage value in the sprawling metropolis.
The Homegrown Cities Initiative: Update
After a handstorm workshop to make a variety of user-oriented objects and with a pilot house on its way, a report about the updates of the Homegrown Cities Initiative
Shivaji Nagar After the Handstorm Workshop
The Handstorm workshop brought together various actors from all around the world to build things that could improve the neighbourhood based on discussions with residents and with the help of local artisans
Handstorm in Shivaji Nagar!
All you need to bring along are your hands, a desire to produce something useful and beautiful which you feel the residents would love to use and loads of enthusiasm.
Handstorm Workshop: Mumbai 2014
The Handstorm Workshop will draw on energies that flow from creative manual involvement, acknowledging that it is always wired to the brain, to form a collective of power that attracts attention from the rest of the city.
The Homegrown Cities Project
How local, community owned and managed housing co-operatives, can be a vital step towards improving the neighbourhoods, bringing good quality civic infrastructure and making the city genuinely ’slum-free’.
Circulating Urbanism
The Konkan connection to Mumbai is only part of a larger universe in which the city’s force of gravity pulls together many other such regions.
Konkan Diaries: Chiplun
Chiplun’s residents today speak of their connections with Mumbai against this history – which reveals a relationship that is really deep. Chiplun became a gateway for us not just into the Konkan region and its tryst with the railways – but a paradoxical gateway into Mumbai’s heart – back again.
Homegrown Affordable Housing
The so-called slums of the city are in many ways attempts at increasing affordable housing units through a different construction and financial system.
Khotachiwadi all over the news
For reasons more than one, Khotachiwadi is across various Bombay newspapers.
Locals protest Khotachiwadi demolition
The unique protest, titled ‘Requim for Khotachiwadi’, was initiated by the village residents to protest against the breaking down of the 150-year-old structure, which had been sold to builders.
Khotachiwadi resists destruction of heritage bungalow
“While we don’t want to commercialise the locality, we want to create a cultural space for Mumbaikars, who don’t have many neighborhoods such as this”
Khotachiwadi's Heritage To Be Saved!
Mr. Lodha and members of the Khotachiwadi Welfare and Heritage Trust delivered a letter to the municipal commissioner calling for a heritage law to be enacted.