Great news… URBZ just acquired an office space in Dharavi! We will be running most of our operations from this space, including developing this website, planning our workshops, our architectural and design work. The office will also house the Dharavi School of Urbanology. This will be a space of urban research of the most grounded kind.

The Dharavi School of Urbanology uses its base here to understand and comment on urban processes everywhere. It invites researchers to understand Dharavi’s intricate history and functioning so as to gain insights on how urban space emerges to create multiple possibilities city life in other parts of the world. You can see a compressed history of urban processes here that unfolds into a multi-dimensional explanation of the inner workings of several global cities. Workings that go beyond the landscape of favelas and informal settlements and into the streets of glitzy new townships in Shanghai, along the gridded avenues of Manhattan, through the labyrinthine streets of Tokyo and the deceptively sparse urban energies of small townships every where.

We invite scholars from all over the world to come to Dharavi and compare the knowledge embedded in its intricate networks with their own experiences from other cities. This alchemy of ideas and insights will fuel it’s grounded intellectual agendas.  The Dharavi School of Urbanology makes a tentative start through our tool-house office in in this locality – as small as the tiny post industrial tenements  that  neighbour it  – and as bristling with potential and energy!

Our team includes residents who possess an intimate understanding of the place, besides being passionately involved in its issues. We also have international urban experts who provide advice on research projects as and when needed.

Do look up our section on pedagogy for related activities.

We have always felt that Dharavi is a living laboratory of urban practices that we should learn from rather than “redevelop”. This neighbourhood, wrongly known as the largest slum in Asia, is in fact a user-generated city of the most elaborate kind. What really turned it into a slum is the attitude of the authorities, who have refused to provide it with the same infrastructure and public services as any regular neighbourhood in Mumbai (water, sewage, electricity, garbage collection). Despite all this, or in spite of it, Dharavi has come up with its own solutions and processes. It is by no means a perfect place, but we feel that it has a lot of potential -if allowed to develop on its own terms. In any case, we are not here to develop Dharavi, but merely to learn from it and work in its spirit. In plus of being one of the most interesting parts of Mumbai, it is also one of the few places where we could afford to rent an office space. The real-estate market in Mumbai shows no sign of getting anywhere close to affordability, even in these times of a global financial meltdown.

It will take us about a month to get the space ready. We want to create a security exit and somehow replace the asbestos roof. We also need to paint it and add a toilet. Once this is all done, we will be welcoming visitors, artists, interns and Urbanology fellows. We are planning on organizing monthly events in the community space in front of the office, which has a stage and is used regularly by the community for public functions and weddings. These will include movie screenings and parties.

To send us postcards and visit us, use this address:

URBZ / Urbanology
Block No. 4/6/12
New Transit Camp, Dharavi
Mumbai 400-017, INDIA

Here are more images of the office and the street:

URBZ MASHUP participants Anthony Radosti, Kristen Vanblargan and Shinya Sato just produced an amazing video on Golden Gai (in Shinjuku), which is one of Tokyo’s oldest black markets dating from the occupation years. This short film features an exclusive interview of Donald Richie, who is one of the most respected critic of Japanese cinema and writer on Tokyo. A must see.

More videos at www.vimeo.com/urbz

More on Golden Gai is being uploaded at the moment on the URBZ MASHUP site.

The neighborhood of Shimokitazawa represents Japanese counter-culture more than any other place in Tokyo. Indeed, this is probably one of the first places that young architects, designers, artists, djs, or activists visiting Tokyo are taken to by their Japanese friends.

The narrow and crowded streets of Shimokitazawa have a perfume of freedom and anti-conformism. In Shimokitazawa styled-up youth look alternative and lead alternative lifestyles. Indeed that is one of the rare places in Tokyo where counter-culture meets politics.

The constituencies of Shimokitazawa are diverse. With its unique character, the area attracts many students, artists and other creative types. Meanwhile, affluent homeowners have settled around its center making the development of luxurious department stores a very lucrative prospect for investors.

Thanks to the two train lines stopping through, residents are just minutes away from Shibuya and Shinjuku Stations, which are two of the major centers of Tokyo. Hundreds of thousands of commuters living in South-East Tokyo pass through Shimokitazawa everyday.

Recently, a plan dating from 1946 for a 26-meter wide road throughout the neighborhood was resurrected by Odakyu, a large railway owner and real-estate developer. The government of Setagaya ward, which includes Shimokitazawa, championed the new road plan.

Planning in Tokyo is characterized by strong top-down interventions mainly in the form of infrastructure investment. At the same time, Tokyo is often described as a city of villages, composed of small neighborhoods of 3000 inhabitants or less, known as “chou”. The chou however, serves typically at diffusing information and decisions coming from above to the local level rather than bottom-up communication. In Tokyo, it is very rare that local communities succeed in stopping or even changing the plans of the government.

Some grassroots groups have emerged in Shimokitazawa to oppose the plan and to propose alternatives. Their constituencies extend far beyond local residents. Many people, including musicians, architects, and academics, from Japan and abroad recognize the importance of preserving Shimokitazawa, with its rich urban subcultures and relaxed atmosphere.

Beyond the fate of the neighborhood, the urban policy of the city is in question. Many cities around the world begin to recognize that citizens must be involved in the planning of their communities.

Nihonbashi: Video and design based study of Japan’s important landmark that lies buried under highways.

Nihonbashi Poster

Shibuya: One of the most vibrant cultural, shopping and business hubs of Tokyo. The part of the city where youth catch the 25th hour of this non-stop city.