Dharavi.org is the first prototype of the URBZ system. It was initially developed for Urban Typhoon, a participatory action-research workshop that took place in Koliwada, Dharavi, in March 2008.
It is a multimedia Wiki website dedicated to Dharavi, one of the largest informal settlements in the world located in the heart of Mumbai. Often dubbed “Asia’s largest slum,” Dharavi is a heart-shaped agglomeration of primarily informal settlements that bustle with economic activities. It is located in the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. Today, due to Mumbai’s rapid northward expansion, it finds itself strategically located between the city’s two main suburban railway lines and a stone’s throw away from the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the new financial and commercial center. These geographic advantages and Mumbai’s relative shortage of developable land combine to make Dharavi a prime piece of real estate potentially worth billions of dollars, creating pressure for redevelopment.
Dharavi.org has become the main reference for residents, researchers, and developers who need up-to-date information on Dharavi. Since it was launched in March 2008, it has been visited more than a 100,000 times, and hundreds of people have registered and contributed to it.
www.dharavi.org
This project is a research-action exercise that annually involves more than 350 urban researchers between the age group 18-25. The youth fellows or "Barefoot Researchers," are of diverse socio-economic backgrounds and live all over the Mumbai metropolitan area. Most of them come from outside the space of academic or formal research practices and participate in the project as citizens of Mumbai. The project is in its fourth year and has produced a wealth of material on urban issues affecting different groups of people, as well as specific neighbourhoods.
URBZ is developing a Wiki that will be used by the Barefoot Researchers at different levels: during the research process and for archiving and documenting outputs.”. URBZ will be organizing weekly workshops with the youth fellows to introduce them to the tools of the URBZ system so that they can use it to maximum effect in their own activities.
The Urban Typhoon workshop is a global experiments in participatory planning and design that directly connect with various communities and grassroots groups. Students, urban planners, architects, designers, artists, sociologists, media artists, and political activists come together to collectively generate ideas, visions and plans.
The Urban Typhoon workshop was first held in Shimokatazawaa, Tokyo, Japan, in 2006. The second one took place in Koliwada, Dharavi, Mumbai, India, in 2008. The third one is tentatively scheduled for Istanbul in 2009.
Behind the specific contexts of the Urban Typhoon workshops lies a theme of great relevance for urban communities around the world: the participation of the residents in the planning of their urban environment. Over the past decade, participatory planning has gradually gained recognition in the fields of planning and development. Developing cities, such as Curitiba in Brazil, Bogota in Colombia, and Mumbai in India, have experimented with participatory schemes, inspiring other cities, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Residents’ participation has become an essential element of urban policy in the developing world, as well as in highly developed cities such as Tokyo.
www.urbantyphoon.com
Khotachiwadi is a small village in the heart of colonial Mumbai that has won the attention of urban heritage conservation initiatives. Architecture students are attracted to its distinctive low-rise, high-density landscape showcasing a variety of individual homes, chawls and apartment buildings that reveal Indo-Portuguese flourishes, port-town styles off the western coast and modernist, deco touches.
For the inhabitants it is a village that is stretched between communitarian nostalgia and the aspirations of its younger residents. The community is passionately involved in its present and future.
khotachiwadi.urbz.net (under development) will be a space for residents and those interested in Khotachiwadi to interact, communicate and express themselves. The website will be used as a tool by the residents to build on the existing momentum with regard to saving the distinct personality of this habitat. Archiving activities and documentation projects will be punctuated by the organization of events that will bring the diverse issues and perspectives on an interactive platform. The site will use existing qualitative data produced or archived by residents as a starting point.
supports public participation and sustainable urban development