Real estate development in Bambolim, Goa.

In Goa, the small Indian state and popular tourist destination where I did my research internship with URBZ, it does not take long to see that speculative real estate interests are invading. Throughout Goa the signs of growth are everywhere. Hillsides are being clear-cut for resorts and vacation homes. Concrete skeletons of future faceless flats line the highways, already looking dilapidated from the rains. It is difficult and unrealistic to argue against all types of development but what is being done in Goa seems to be done with little consultation with Goans.

The history of this serene locale is unique. Goa was initially colonized in 1510 by the Portuguese. Essentially cut off from the rest of India by mountains and alluvial plains, Goa remained relatively isolated until 1961 when it was finally absorbed into India.

The Portuguese legacy is seen in both design and culture. Conversion to Christianity, initially started by the Franciscans, was taken to a new level by St. Francis Xavier and the Jesuit Mission. Money poured in from Portugal during the Inquisition to convert native Goans. Laws were introduced that censored literature and banned any other faith. Hindu temples were destroyed and converted Hindus adopted Portuguese surnames.

The times of Portuguese domination are long gone but now Goa is witnessing a new type of conversion: land conversion. Money is pouring in from developers and speculators around the world. Goa’s unique environment has made it a hotspot for speculative real estate and the discontent amongst local Goans is palpable. The following quotes were taken from a local blog and newspaper:

“Goans are being pushed to the wall by the abusive economic interests who are causing irreparable damage to the environment and the ethos of Goa. And the Government is crawling when asked to bend by the vested interests. It needs a wake-up call to be told that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” –Save Goa blog.

“Real estate is coming up in a very big way in Goa. But the second homes for the rich are dislocating our lives and our only homes.” -Sabina Martins, convener of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan.

Many of the new developments are done at a high cost environmentally and socially. Developers with enough money seem to bypass the laws that forbid building on steep slopes or near sensitive shoreline ecosystems. When the legality is questioned the necessary paperwork seems to conveniently go missing.

In Vanxim, a small island community near Panjim, citizens are protesting the sale of large portions of land by the Archbishop of Goa to Mahendra Gaunekar. The proposed resort development affects the homes and lives of sixth and seventh generation Vanxim residents as well as agricultural land and an ecosensitive zone. The development is being met with opposition locally and nationally. A local fisherman commented, “the moment people come from outside, the peace and quiet will change.”  Residents have taken the case to court and are hopeful that the laws will be enforced so the land remains in its current state.

“The moment people come from outside, the peace and quiet will change.”

Unfortunately Vanxim is just one example of a story happening all over Goa. Terekhol  is facing a similar problem. A hotel developer from Delhi began trying to acquire land in the village in 2007. Villagers claim that they were tricked into selling nearly 25 percent of their village for a future golf course. Meanwhile, further south in Bambolim, protests over Aldeia de Goa have been happening for years because of an obvious violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) laws.

Outside investment is undoubtedly taking precedent over local interests. This is a story seen in communities around the world. Do we have to accept this as an inevitable cost of progress?

After only a month in India, I cannot pretend to understand the intricacies and complications of development in Goa. What is clear to me though is the fact that development is occurring against the will of the people and the laws put in place to protect Goa’s unique environment. Trained as an urban planner I often find myself looking to the work of Jane Jacobs for guidance. She once wisely said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only when they are created by everybody.”

The parties involved in development are in need of a productive dialogue. In an attempt to incorporate developers, activists, and citizens I am creating an interactive map. The Goa Development Tracker is the first attempt at a tool to map the development and violations occurring around this great state. Anyone can fill out the web form and request to add a development, or comments on a development to the map. A moderator will filter comments to curb abuse and periodically fact-check the additions. When it is up and running, the map can serve as a place to record developers’ projects and citizens’ comments and can thus serve as a central information source to keep everyone informed on current projects and development trends. Since the official map using Google API is still in the works, an initial prototype can be found here: www.zeemaps.com/Goa_development_tracker.

The type and scale of development happening in Goa today threatens homes and livelihoods as well as the very environment that makes Goa a desirable location. It would be naïve to try to stop all development but there should be ways to make companies stick to the laws meant to protect Goa’s people and the environment. The Goa development Tracker may be one forum in which we can start a dialogue.

By Lauren Brown

This is Miriam and Fabio, architectural students at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. We have landed  in Mumbai, more specifically in New Transit Camp, one of the many neighbourhoods of Dharavi.

We will spend almost two months in India, the first one in Mumbai and the second one in Bangalore researching architectural materials, usages and techniques.

As Europeans landing in Mumbai, we experienced culture shock immediately! The research started with  direct exposure to a totally different culture, languages, religions, ways of living, eating… Walking through Dharavi, entering in people’s houses and feeling foreign to everything around is a very special experience.

With URBZ we are in the process of analyzing an incrementally developed structure in Dharavi. We are mapping it in detail and  trying to understand – for instance- how water reaches the second floor, how electricity is distributed, which construction materials are used and how the building was developed and changed through time.

It seems that all we will need is a few simple tools and lots of goodwill. Actually, we have been here for days. We don’t speak Hindi or Marathi (most of the people here don’t  speak English) and is not so simple to enter someone’s house asking questions about their life and home, measuring the small rooms in which they are living and working. That’s why we are starting with the building where URBZ’s office is located. We have been introduced to the neighbours who, although they don’t always understand what we are up to, are very welcoming.

The type of approaches we are used to can’t work over here. We are right now  simply presenting ourselves and our experiences, hoping that the people we talk to reciprocate. We have already learned so much and we are sure that at the end of this experience we will come back with much more.

We have illustrated this post with some of the drawings we are currently producing. This is the 3 storey building where the URBZ office is located.

Miriam and Fabio

Location: URBZ Office, New Transit Camp, Dharavi

Time: Part-time

Languages: English, Marathi, Hindi

Duties: Update the dharavi.org website. This involves surfing the web for new info on Dharavi, reading the newspapers and most importantly getting updates from local actors.

Skills: The intern will be trained on using the dharavi.org wiki system, uploading text in multiple languages as well as images and videos. The intern should be able to work independently and have good social skills.

This is an unpaid internship ideal for journalism, new media, urban planning, social work students researching Dharavi, willing to work in the area. It is a good chance to do something useful, while learning about Dharavi and new media.

Interested candidate can contact us using this page.

Image: URBZ team members and interns with the South Dandy Squad and DJ Paul Devro (Mad Decent) at the dharavi.organic party organized in January 2009 in Dharavi.

The URBZ Internship program has been running successfully for the last two years with interns coming from all over the world. We invite interns who are self-motivated and independent. The contexts in which we work are far removed from the worlds where most of our interns come from – within India or abroad, which means challenging and dynamic in unexpected ways.

URBZ is not funded by any organization, institution or patron. All its team members see themselves as engaged with urban issues through their specific interests and passions. We invite interns who clearly understand this and do not see the programme the way they would a certified course in an academic context. They are free to use the internship for their own academic agendas, as long as we understand that the program is driven by concerns beyond academia.

Interns have to contribute towards the running cost of the program, which includes accommodation, office space and other infrastructure. URBZ provides them access to the communities, networks and supervision as and when required. URBZ has facilities of accommodation for a maximum of two interns at a time.

The idea is that interns join us in learning, doing and working together so that our goals of user-generated cities becomes a reality. URBZ interns must have an open mind and genuine political commitment. The internship program is not a consumerist space that can be reduced to provision of services. Nor is it a corporate internship with a rigid structure and top-down supervision. It is up to the intern to make the most out of it.

If you feel our work, concerns and passions coincides with yours, write to us for further details and join us on an exciting journey.

Past Interns:

George Carothers Carothers trained as an urban planner at the University of Waterloo and later worked as a researcher of urban studies at the University of Toronto, exploring issues of urban design, community development, and participatory planning. His research and interests in urbanism have taken him to numerous cities, villages and huts around the globe, as a participant in international conversations on development and urbanization. George holds a masters degree from The Bartlett, UCL, where he investigated dialogues of participatory planning and development in Dharavi. George is currently involved in the Dharavi Shelter and the Adaptable Structures projects. He is a contributor to thepolisblog.org, a blog about cities.

Dipti Hingorani studied structural engineering and architecture at Sheffield University and completed her diploma in architecture from Oxford Brookes. She practiced in Spain and the UK and also worked in Pune working with women self-help savings groups. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Development and Emergency Practice at CENDEP, Oxford Brookes University, investigating case studies on alternative participatory and inclusive processes for slum-upgrading and rehabilitation in Mumbai and Pune. She is also actively involved with the Dharavi Shelter project in Mumbai.

Julia Siedle studied urban design at Columbia University in New York, and architecture at PBSA Duesseldorf and ESA Paris. She has been involved with the design of water management systems in both the academic and professional realms, and is interested in the interweaving and organic growth of physical with social infrastructures. With Mumbai experiencing a severe water crisis, she is currently researching the potential of micro scale water management strategies.

Sytse de Maat graduated in architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Parallel to his career as a professional architect he works on his fascination for the human habitat. He gave lectures in Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Mumbai. His aim is to open the eyes of students, professionals and his clients for the aliveness of their environment and help them participate in its evolution. Observing and sharing his observations is his most important strategy. Photography, blogging, and lecturing are his tools. Christopher Alexander’s “The Nature of Order” is his current inspiration.

Francesco Strocchio Recenlty graduated from Turin Polytechnic with the degree thesis New Transit Camp – An informal design process in Dharavi, Mumbai. He studied architecture and building restoration in Italy and Finland (Turku University of Applied Sciences,) and worked in Finland and Spain at Stenman Oy and PO2 Arquitectos firms. Presently he is working in the OfficinaTre in Alba (Piedmont, Italy) and is taking part in the project SITUA.TO inside the program of Turin’10 European Youth Capital. SITUATO proposes different practices and tools to read the complex social and urban changes in Turin through concrete actions to improve the quality of public space through the inputs of city-users and their practices in urban planning. He was part of the HINDUSTRY URBAN RESEARCH GROUP working on urban design and studies of Indian mega cities with a special focus on the relationship of social and architectural issues. With this group he participated in 2009 at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam through the project ‘Coesistance as survival: Enhancing the existing synergies in the Koli community, Dharavi, Mumbai. He is involved in the work of the cultural association L’ARVANGIA, that tries to bring attention to the identity of the Langhe territory and culture in Piedmont, Italy

Alberto Botterois enrolled in the master’s degree in architecture at the Turin Polytechnic, He participated in the Erasmus European mobility project in Belgium, where he learnt about the International panorama of architecture on different scales. In Feb’08, he graduated from Turin Polytecnic with a thesis about reciprocal frame systems inspired from “BuckministerFuller”. During the last years he attended some international workshops (”A new Lingotto’s railway Bridge-Station ” in Turin with the RPI (USA); “Abandoned Sacred Spaces” in Bruxelles and “Canelli Planning” in Italy with MIT). In Sep’09, He participated in the HINDUSTRY URBAN RESEARCH GROUP at the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam through the project Coesistance as survival: Enhancing the existing synergies in the Koli community, Dharavi, Mumbai. In Oct’09, he was in Mumbai working on his thesis degree about an informal design process in Dharavi. Presently he is working for the CarloRatti office in Turin, taking part in the international competition for the Olympic Games 2012 in London through ‘TheCloud proposal’.

Guillaume Folliot, Caen, France: PhD Candidate in History at the Caen Basse-Normandie. He graduated in History, studying the production of Memory and the political use of history in media. He is now finishing a second graduation in Social Geography and Urban Issues. During his internship with URBZ he has mainly worked on two historical precincts linked with the Portuguese colonisation, Khotachiwadi in Mumbai and Fontainhas in Panaji – Goa. The aim of his work is to create databases with historical, cultural, urban and architectural information. He interned with URBZ from April 1 to August 1, 2009.

Swathi Shivanand, Bangalore, India: She is a student of Masters of Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Worked previously with The Hindu, Bangalore as a city reporter for two years. Post graduate diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She interned with URBZ from April 6- April 30 and June 1 – June 23, 2009.

Tilak Pattnaik, Mumbai, India: Tilak is a fifth year undergraduate from Metallurgical Engineering& Material Sciences at IIT Bombay. His interests include reading, playing, watching movies & anime and meeting & interacting with new people. He was a core group member of Techfest, IIT Bombay’s annual science & technology festival and Asia’s largest of its kind. He is also the chief editor of Pulse, IIT Bombay’s science & technology magazine. He interned from June 1 2009 onwards.

Namrata Mehta, Bangalore, India: Namrata is a post-graduate student at CEMA, Centre for Experimental Media Art, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, interned with URBZ during the months of January and February 2009, for a two month project in Mumbai and Bangalore. The internship explored and sought to bring together the areas of participatory planning, community informatics, community media and web development. Internship period: January 2009 – March 2009.

Internship Programme:

URBZ Internships are integral to all our activities. At present we have two streams of activities around which the internship programmes take place. One is based in Mumbai and the other in Goa, six hundred kilometers south of Mumbai citty.  Our internships have a strong pedagogical component to them in the sense that we encourage interns to develop their own projects in partnership with us. At the same time they have an option of working directly on our ongoing projects as well.  Interns  can thus bring in their own research, action, project-based, creative agendas and use the expertise of the URBZ team and the facilities of URBZ to develop them.  Or they can learn through our own projects and subsequently develop their agendas from here. Our own projects include the following:

A. Mumbai-based

1) Understanding and Documenting the Diversity of Mumbai’s Built-forms.

2) Engaging with Dharavi, Mumbai’s context in terms of architectural, planning and socio-economic projects.

3) Working with Shelter – a charitable trust in Dharavi which works with children and elderly residents from the neighbourhood.

4) Mapping resources and materials for auto-construction of structures and civic amenities in Mumbai.

5) Creativity and Art projects in Mumbai’s informal neighbourhoods.

B. Goa-based

1)  Looking at urban policy in India.

2) Exploring the idea of urban systems and networks outside the metropolitan map.

3) Local involvement in environmentally sound coastal tourism.

4) Comparing the impact of colonial histories on urban formations.

5) Exploring the relationship of fiction with architecture and urban spaces.

Since the internships form an integral part of our activities they also contribute to URBZ’ sustainability and are therefore paid programmes.

The internship fee  covers residential rent (in Dharavi/ Panjim), cost of internet, use of office space and the support provided by the URBZ team in community involvement as well as research and intellectual mentorship.

For further information please contact us.