A few weeks ago, our Sunday was spent painting clay pots that we purchased from the nearby Dharavi neighbourhood of Khumbarwada, which is only a five minute walk from the Dharavi Shelter and the Transit Camp.

From some of our small donations that we have received up to this date, we managed to buy some pots, paints, brushes and wire. The children from the Shelter organised themselves into groups and painted the clay pots producing some incredible patterns and designs. A local resident then came in to help us hang the pots in the entrance patio of our Shelter and at the same time we began painting the bricks on the entrance wall in the patio.

This activity was one of a series of activities we are want to carry out to transform the Shelter and develop it into an incredible and beautiful space for art, creativity, exchange and learning.

The following images have some more of our plans to convert the remaining space we have surrounding the existing structure. We have included approximate costs for each of these activities.

Your contributions are most welcome!

Samuha is a collective of artists based in Bangalore (Bengaluru). URBZ is helping them design a temporary workshop/exhibition and party space in the neighborhood of Richmond Town. [gmap] This design is a participatory work in process:

The main idea was to provide large spaces where different functions would not be segregated from one another, so that more fluid forms of multi-media, 2D, 3D and perfomance art could take place: the stage can be viewed from two different places, 2D artwork can be displayed in the lecture hall, on the stage area, in the café-bar area, as well as in the atrium and stairs. Art pieces, 2D or sculpture can essentially hang anywhere in the building (walls and even ceiling).

There are huge empty walls, and since the entire structure is made of scaffolding, there nothing easier than to attach panels, banners, picture, objects, a projector or even to hang large objects from the ceiling structure or on the facade. There is a total floor area of 4800 sqft.: 2800 sqft on the ground floor. 2000 sqft on the first floor. The building footprint is 3000 sqft (66′ x 59′). -LECTURE HALL: 1500 sqft, with a stage area of 500 sqft. 150 people can sit.

EXHIBITION SPACE: 2000 sqft, without counting the Atrium, Stairs to first floor and other potential spaces that can be used to exhibit work.

ATRIUM-GARDEN-HANG OUT SPACE: 800 sqft

CAFE-BAR: located within the exhibition space, sitting space could be anywhere in the Garden /Hang out space.

WORKING STUDIOS, 2000 sqft., organized in two parts:

OPEN TABLES AREA:  65′ length of table which could accomodate 50 ppl working -semi-closed working spaces: 29 semi-closed studio spaces with table and chairs.

Organized in small clusters with small open chill-out area / garden space in between 25 x small_25sqft. the unit can accommodate 2 pple, a total of 50 ppl 3 x medium_50 sqft. the unit can accommodate 8 pple, a total of 24 ppl 1 x large_100 sqft_the unit can accommodate 15 pple, a total of 15 ppl -A total 140 ppl approx can work on the first floor and more ppl can work on the ground floor, in the Atrium, lobby or sitting around the garden to use the wireless.

Two small BATHROOMS 25 sqft approx.

The Structure:

We have been working on many different options before choosing to go with scaffolding to provide structure and a basic skeleton. We went through pallet racks wood rods and bamboo, but it seemed  that scaffolding offered the most possibilities. The main constraints on the structure are a load of 100-300 people and building a floor or two that can bear the same amount of load. Also, the floor and ceiling heights are flexible.

We designed the whole structure as ’space-frames’, meaning that the building is made as a large box with thick hollow walls. It will give a huge atrium and great light. The space frame could be covered with fabric and custom-made plastic sheets for waterproofing. The material should be pretty cheap, and we could even work directly with some recycler in neighboring slum settlements and local workshops for the sewing.

The whole building will look like a box from the outside with few windows and doors punctuating the volume, and at night, the building would look like a light box.

We already mentioned it above, but this building made of scaffolding would allow one to curate art works in infinite ways. It would even be easy to display huge banners on the outside walls of the building. All of the electrical equipment could run through the space-frame walls to provide outlets in any place within the building. Lamps and projectors could be attached to any parts of the ceiling with a simple clipping system.

Some facts about scaffolding:  Easily available in India and to be rented, therefore a cheap solution, easy and quick mounting, easy to dismount and remount -lightweight but extremely resistant -comes as a kit of parts, all the joints are available, and it provides limitless possibilities.

Construction and moving from city A to B: The whole building should be easy to put together. The structure should be put together by a skilled worker, but there are plenty of other things to build that would allow anyone to come and participate. We are sure that we could get a whole workshop of architecture students to come and help as well.

The URBZ team comprises architects and planners. These skills are put to use for  spatial research on neighborhoods as well as urban design and architectural projects. URBZ believes that physical and social contexts provide the best possible source of inspiration for such practices.

URBZ explores new ways of producing collaborative and open designs, using online tools and connectivity to maximum effect. It conceives urban designs, plans and visions through collective and individual inputs, giving a central role to the end-user in the brainstorming and production process.

We think of architecture and urban design as skills that emerge through the process of living , skills which can be harnessed and systematized through collaboration with formally trained personnel.

Our architectural projects are spaces for collective knowledge and cultural practices without compromising on professional concerns. At the same time, this particular dimension of our work is aware that it treads on thin ice.  After all, architecture, urban  design and planning as professional spaces, like the practice of education or law, are deeply intertwined with economic arrangements that often complicate our intentions. Cities have become so much about real estate development and projects of structure and form.

And yet, those very professions produce practitioners who are visionaries, are acutely aware that they have power that can go both ways and are willing to take risks to change the rules.

URBZ is all about the changing of these rules.

Shimokitazawa, is the first among the sites that opened itself up to our involvements through the Urban Typhoon workshop 2006.

Well-known for being a vibrant area, home to many bars, restaurants, and speciality stores, just minutes away from major hubs such as Shibuya and Shinjuku, it is threatened by government plans for a large road right through the neighborhood. The new plan would result in transforming a low-rise, local scale, community orientated neighborhood into a commercial center similar to so many others in Tokyo.

The workshop aimed at creating a testimony to the unique urban and cultural value of Shimokitazawa, with its narrow streets, dense pedestrian traffic, and dynamic cultural activity. The workshop was an experiment in global participatory planning, which produced alternative urban plans for Shimokitazawa. More than 130 Japanese and international urbanists, architects, artists, photographers, and local residents worked together for a week and produced a multicultural, multidisciplinary and multimedia portrait of Shimokitazawa and visions for its future.

See the Website of the Urban Typhoon Workshop Tokyo

Download the PDF report (18.8 MB)

URBAN TYPHOONS are events during which local communities from particular neighbourhoods get together with urban practitioners from around the world to produce visions and ideas for a collectively authored effort at urban planning and transformation. The workshops are based on the premise that communities and neighbourhoods have the basic skills and talent to participate more effectively in the processes of urban planning or in simply making appropriate choices that affect their future and the future of their cities. During a ten day interactive event, resource-persons work in teams comprising of local residents and practitioners from everywhere to develop specific themes.

The first Urban Typhoon workshop was held in Shimokatazawa, Tokyo, Japan,in 2006. The second one took place in Koliwada, Dharavi, Mumbai, India in 2008.

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.

URBAN TYPHOON Koliwada, Dharavi, Mumbai 2008

URBAN TYPHOON, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, 2006