Homegrown Street
We are taking the Design Comes as We Build project to the next level - the Homegrown Street!
Homegrown Street Films
Two short videos present the Homegrown Street Project in Sangam Gully, Dharavi, Mumbai.
Legitimising the Self-Built
On how self-built structures in cities claim legitimacy bit by bit - A comparison between Mumbai and Philadelphia
Marginality, Climate Crisis, and the Right to the City: The future of participatory urbanism in the US
In a global context, populations marginalized because of race, class, gender, creed, etc. are those most incessantly stripped of this right to design the city in their own image within formalized constraints. In this way, the “informal” urban process of self-construction is inherently a product of this same marginality that excludes these groups from “formalized” city-making.
The Homegrown Street: Making of Afzar Ali’s House
UPDATED: A photo essay narrating the experience of making the model of Afzar Ali’s house in Sangam Gully Dharavi. A G+3 structure designed by Giriraj, a contractor from Dharavi
Weaving our way through Zari workshops
In the third part of this series, we explored the elaborate process that goes into embroidery (locally known as zari work).
The Making of Leather Goods
In the second part of this series, we explore two leather workshops near the 90 feet road in Dharavi, to understand where and how all processes in the creation of leather products are carried out.
A day's work at Kumbharwada
In a new series, we re-explore the homegrown streets of Dharavi in search of local arts and crafts. First in the series- Dharavi's famous Kumbharwada
Multifunctional Buildings of Sangam Gully
Study of the multifunctionality of houses in Sangam Gully through visuals
Anthropology as Urban Practice: Notes from Mumbai’s Sangam Gully
urbz founders Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove reflect on community-driven placemaking in the Indian metropolis.
Homegrown settlements of Cape Town
In this article, we travel to Cape Town in the western capes of South Africa. The homegrown settlements in Cape town have emerged from occupations of underutilized buildings and vacant lands in peripheries of the city. ‘Occupations’ in Cape Town act as points of contact and interaction between homegrown communities, grassroots housing movements, and the city’s planning institutions.
Basti of Karail
We continue across the border to Karail, a basti (neighbourhood) in Dhaka, Bangladesh to understand homegrown settlements and their formation.
urbz in the news
Article in The Asian Age about local development initiatives in Dharavi (Mumbai), which urbz supported.
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).
Exporting Indian Urbanism
Not all is worthy of the bin! Our latest column in The Hindu explores features of Indian urbanism that could inspire cities around the world. (The Hindu 24.09.2017)
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 improving.
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.
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.