urbz : user-generated cities

This text explores some reflections Andreas Ruby started to develop when participating in the workshop "Limites x Limites", organised by Aidec and ConstructLab, which questioned the uses and design of a future park in Geneva's iconic neighbourhood "Jonction".

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

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

Philosopher and long-time urbz mentor, Yehuda Safran visited us at our Geneva office. He spoke at length about internationalism, abstraction and architecture in the context of Geneva. Here is a transcript of the conversation.

In conclusion to the study on placemaking in urban villages, we speculate some possible interventions that could enhance everyday environments.

This article explores situations that may emerge if Dharavi ceases to exist.

In continuation to the last article on place making in an urban village, we explore Diwale goan to understand various collaborations.

Study of the multifunctionality of houses in Sangam Gully through visuals

We explore place-making in an urban village in Navi Mumbai- Diwale gaon.

Digitalization can transform how SMEs operate in Dharavi. Made in Dharavi is a digital application that will support small-scale businesses in Dharavi to make them locally productive and globally connected.

urbz is working with the employees, directorate and assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Museum to imagine the future of their HQ

An ongoing project on the ecological transition and how it can foster quality public spaces

urbz is helping a cultural squat to formalize it's relationship to the city of Geneva

After the relaxation of the lockdown, our interns worked on the Homegrown street project. This article presents their work and experience.

SMEs are the key drivers of economic growth in the country and they need to start selling online in order to scale up and receive the true wage and value for their products. This presents a unique opportunity for local businesses in Dharavi to tap into the digital market to sell their products and grow with the existing social and business community.

urbz founders Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove reflect on community-driven placemaking in the Indian metropolis.

Read on Azure magazine

We have come to an end with our series on Makers of Homegrown cities and the Vithal Bhaskar graphic novel. This post presents one finale to both.

In the latest issue, we take a trip with urbz interns as they visit the Vithal Bhaskar site.

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.

 How can social and digital empowerment fuel positive growth for Dharavi's SMEs?

In issue 8 of the Vithal Bhaskar graphic novel, we are tearing things down and building them again!

urbz is invited to host a workshop at Archipelago: Architectures for the Multiverse, a bilingual and hybrid event taking place in Geneva on May 6-8. We explore the city as a collection of fragmented left-over spaces, which need to be reassembled and given new meaning.

In this article, we go across the border to Orangi, a town in the western district of Karachi, Pakistan, a city that was once part of the colonial Bombay Presidency. Bombay and Karachi used to be referred to as twin cities. In this article, we will look at the Katchi Abadis of Orangi, where residents have built not only their homes but also streets, lanes, and sanitation systems for the neighborhood.

A year after the first lockdown, in light of the second, deadlier Covid-19 wave, we talk to residents of Dharavi to understand how it is impacting them.

In Issue 7 we take a look at how the team resumed work after a long pause.

Dharavi is a prime real estate location due to its closeness to public transport systems, business districts, as well as ecological hotspots. The proximity of living quarters to where individuals work, often from within households, brings both benefits and challenges to households and businesses.

We continue across the border to Karail, a basti (neighbourhood) in Dhaka, Bangladesh to understand homegrown settlements and their formation. 

In the 6th Issue, we do what we do best - workshops! Take a peek into the one we organized with the residents of Vithal Bhaskar to discuss the design.

Dharavi is a frenetic engine of entrepreneurship characterized by variety, innovation, recycling, and reuse. While the Indian economy is in a historic slump that is predicted to take years to recover, residents and workers in Dharavi are starting to return to the city as industries and their allied supply chains are beginning to open up.

As a continuation of the Makers of Homegrown cities series, we come closer to home and take a look across our borders. Homegrown settlements in Kathmandu Valley are dotted along the highly revered Bagmati river. This article delves into the establishment and lives of the Paurakhi Basti.

Dharavi embodies an efficient pre-industrial live-work paradigm. This is now desired and interpreted in post-industrial societies, and more so in the Covid-19 era, as a sustainable lifestyle.

In Issue 5 we follow the urbz team as they negotiate the site and ensure that all residents needs are met through the design.

More than a third of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is estimated to be self-built by the inhabitants, mainly in the periphery of the city. In this article, we learn from Andrés Sánchez of urbz Colombia about the emerging forms of organisation and constant transformation in these self-built neighborhoods.

Issue 04 - The Brief, illustrates all the preliminary steps taken by urbz and residents of Vithal Bhaskar Chawl to ensure that the design meets their social and spatial needs. 

Colima city in Colima State of central-western Mexico is home to disjointed and fragmented homegrown settlements, also known as colonias. In this article, we learn from Tobias Jimenez about the origins and functioning of a colonia on the outskirts of Colima city. 

Issue 3 is out now! We open Pandora's box to discover the residents concerns.

In this article, we situate ourselves in Chile and examine homegrown neighbourhoods in various terrains.

The second issue of the graphic novel will take you through the history of building and rebuilding of the Vithal Bhaskar Chawl.

The second article in the Makers of the Homegrown series takes a look at Ciudad de Barrios (City of Barrios) in Caracas, Venezuela. It is a compact and clustered neighborhood with a multitude of residents engaged in producing homes, urban space, and the city.

We are excited to present the first issue of a graphic novel about the Vithal- Bhaskar Chawl in Dharavi Koliwada. This issue sets the historical context for the issues to follow - where we draw and tell you more about the participatory redevelopment project initiated by the residents.

The homegrown neighbourhood is an expression of local organizational skills and maximum optimization of resources in the creation of built environments. In this series we attempt to understand its chief personnel, their tools and the processes involved in the making of such settlements.

In this article, published in The Architectural Review, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava discuss the significance of local builders and contractors in preserving the functionality of the neighbourhood.

We at urbz researched the circumstances in Dharavi from April to November. We now present a collection of four pandemic-focused articles, fifteen Dharavi Weekly issues, and five Dharavi Fortnightly issues.

The urban design competition EnteKochi 2020 focused on integrating a participatory approach within the planning process for the city of Kochi. The competition was planned for, announced and conducted during the pandemic induced nation wide lockdown. This article provides a glimpse of the process. 

Inviting contractors from all over Mumbai to collaborate on designs for homes in Dharavi with residents, architects, and artisans.

urbz @ Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art, Washington University in St. Louis.

Through the workshop, graduate urban design students applied the concept of “in-formation” to various social and cultural contexts.

The ‘New Ways of the World’ exhibition was a rich showcase of the ways humanity inhabits spaces presented through a fusion of architecture and social realities.

In this issue of the Dharavi Fortnightly, we aim to understand the experiences of people now returning or seeking to return to Dharavi, the connections they have to their hometowns, and ways in which they are keeping these connections alive in the fast-paced world today. 
 

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Dharavi has received much attention from the media, first for a steep increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and then for it’s commendable strategies to control and deal with its spread. In this issue of the Dharavi Fortnightly, we interviewed 30 people that included NGOs and beneficiaries to understand people’s strategies to deal with in-migration, unlock process and the new rise in

While public transport is slowly resuming in the city, it is still inadequate to meet user needs. This issue of the Dharavi Fortnightly seeks to explore how restricted mobility due to the lockdown has affected the movement of people and goods within and around Dharavi.

One month after the extended lockdown ended on August 31st, we speak to our respondents to know how they are coping. Based on their responses, and first-hand observations of our very own team member in Dharavi, it seemed like life had bounced back to normal. We explore how the Tool-house, a live-work housing typology, may have contributed to this. 

As the new normal sets in, and Dharavi gears up to resume business as usual, its vital workforce is on their way back or have been here for some time now. With various discourses about India’s lockdown policy claiming an exodus of workers from cities, our first issue of Dharavi fortnightly attempts to present a parallel narrative through the lens of circulatory urbanism. 

This issue of the Dharavi Weekly takes you through 11 personal accounts of religious and cultural celebrations from the people themselves, as a culmination of our now, 15-week long endeavour to document their lives. Moving forward, The Dharavi Weekly will transition into a fortnightly issue wherein we hope to give to you, our readers, a much more in depth ethnographic representation of these communities. 

For this week’s update, we spoke to 27 young adults from Dharavi, aged 18-25 years, about their experience in the lockdown and how they deal with it.

This week we take a look at water-related issues and uneven distribution systems across neighborhoods. 

In this 12th weekly report, respondents spoke about the importance that phones and devices have taken in their everyday life.

Workshop at the Geneva Sculpturegarden Biennale around Yona Friedman's "Museum without building".

This is the 11th weekly report which shows how the children have adapted to the conditions in the last four months, an understanding of the various ways in which the pandemic has impacted them could pave the way for holistic policies integrating their input.

This is the 10th weekly report in which we try to understand how the non-COVID health issues pose a concern as important, if not more, than the COVID pandemic. 

This is the 9th weekly in which we have conducted 19 interviews with community leaders and civil society organisations of various scales who have worked tirelessly during the last 4 months of the lockdown to provide relief to those worst affected by the pandemic in Dharavi. 

This is the 8th weekly report in which we try to understand how the myriad forms of businesses and individuals have been impacted during the lockdown, how they have coped with the situation, and how they are preparing to resume their economic activities. 

This is the seventh weekly report on how Dharavi is recovering against all odds.

This is the sixth weekly report on how women in Dharavi are coping with the pandemic and the lockdown. 

Los colectivos Urbz Colombia y Chaal Chaal Agency (India - Colombia) proponen el taller online sobre Micro Urbanismo emergente.

This is the fifth weekly report on how Dharavi workers and families are faring away from Mumbai. This report highlights their journey and life back home in the time of Covid-19. 

This is the fourth weekly report on how Dharavi's schools are coping. This qualitative study is based on 41 in-depth phone interviews with teachers, headmasters, parents, and students.

This is the third weekly report on how Dharavi is coping with Covid-19. We concentrate on the food distribution effort initiated at community level. 

This is the second weekly report on how Dharavi is dealing with the pandemic and the government's response to it.

This is the first of a weekly report of how Dharavi is coping with Covid-19

urbz et l'Incompiuto. Retour critique sur notre expérience avec Alterazioni Video et Forbury architecture. Article publié sur Tracés 7/2020.

Indian cities are habitats for a vast number and variety of animals. It has taken a lockdown to spotlight these creatures living in and around our cities. 

The waste of a resource that could help India cope

 Social distancing in a participatory process

How a public health emergency prompted a man-made disaster

March 24th, India went into a 21 day lock down to maintain social distancing. How is this top down mandate being followed by people living in high density settlements? Our collaborators, friends and colleagues have been updating us about the ground realities.

Based on a multi-year research with the Mobile Lives Forum on the linkages between Mumbai and Konkan villages this essay, first published in the magazine FuturArc, describes an Indian model of urbanization.

In this article we discuss ways of making an immersive mangrove experience available to people. We propose varying degrees of engagement, from a full blown Koli experience to Mangrove Machans. 

The mangroves of Mumbai are a metaphor for Dharavi - both have managed to survive and thrive in areas where others cannot, are tolerant of difficult conditions, are extremely productive, have far-reaching influence and provide the foundations for larger ecosystems.

Over the last few months, we at urbz have been talking about interventions to engage with the ecological and economic aspects of the mangroves. So we went on an expedition to explore the mangroves near Dharavi.

Antonio Moreno, young Petareño, known by everyone in "El Encantado", South Petare as the son of Micheal Jackson, was offered the seed investment, the necessary machinery and a place in the shopping mall “Centro Comercial Terrazas del Avila” to start his very own bakery, the opportunity of a lifetime but he asked himself - why would he open his bakery in a shopping mall, if his own street didn’t have one? 

The “Urban Actions and Emergent Architecture:Community Architecture 2019” first Encounter was held in the city of Bogotá, Colombia on the 25th and 26th of October of 2019. This was the first event to ever bring together community leaders, architecture colectivos, professors and students to discuss around the topic of community development initiatives.

This series of articles seeks to shed light on the origin of the unplanned settlements that are home to more than half of Caracas’s population, but whose stories have never been told. Multiple inhabitants were interviewed and shared their stories of struggles, overcoming hardships, constant improvement and self governance that are the origin of unplanned settlements in Venezuela.

"I was fortunate enough to be a part of the urbz network through my internship with them in Mumbai. I then travelled to Bogotá, Colombia as part of their network. Having lived in Mumbai, combined with my experience of life in Bogotá, naturally led me to compare the two cities; their multiple similarities and not so many differences". 

This series of articles seeks to shed light on the origin of the unplanned settlements that are home to more than half of Caracas’s population, but whose stories have never been told. Multiple inhabitants were interviewed and shared their stories of struggles, overcoming hardships, constant improvement and self governance that are the origin of unplanned settlements in Venezuela.

Dharavi has been an interesting setting for many Mumbai based films. This article discusses a few films from the past decades that feature Dharavi as a place central to their narratives.

urbz is working on the design of a house for a joint family of 38 people, on a plot of 330 Sq.mts (3500 Sq.ft) in the dense urban settlement of Dharavi Koliwada, Mumbai. 

Cities around the world are acknowledging that local expertise, knowledge and skills are an effective mechanism to generate ideas, plans and strategies that can be implemented by themselves or by civic authorities and planning agencies. Earlier this year, urbz was part of such an endeavour where we conducted Urban Typhoon workshops in Kochi, India.

Local knowledge may be the best response to natural disaster and bureaucratic inefficiency (The Hindu 17.08.2019)

This is the first of a series of articles shedding light on the origin of the unplanned settlements in Caracas, which are home to more than half of the population. These stories have rarely been told. Multiple inhabitants were interviewed and shared their stories of struggles, talked about how they overcome hardships, and organize for improvement and self governance. 

How a second generation tamil migrant made Mumbai his second home

Connecting humans to each other and the environment is the 21st century’s biggest challenge. (The Hindu 25.05.2019)
 

India’s most loved profession needs a reality check (The Hindu 27.04.2019)
 

We discuss whether the alternatives to the centralised food supply system in Mumbai lead to an ecologically and economically fair development.

What looks like a city of aesthetic or economic contrasts may actually be a marker of the relation between urban space and individual agency.

An Insight into Dharavi and the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP)

A Swiss city re-imagines public space and experiments with direct democracy in the process (The Hindu 16.03.2019)

Why Fort Kochi is a lesson that urban planners can integrate into a larger vision for India (The Hindu 02.03.2019)

What the world’s largest city can teach us about local development (The Hindu 16.02.2019)

Continuing our study of the Mumbai Metro and its impact on homegrown settlements

A comparative study of both contexts

How we locked ourselves in a box (The Hindu 02.02.19)

urbz team studied street food and public spaces in Mumbai

All habitats are made up of the sounds of water, as they flow in and out of people, kitchens, bathrooms and sewers (The Hindu 20.01.19)

Exploring the visual anatomy of Dharavi's fishing village

How the Mumbai Metro line 3 could affect Dharavi.

Exploring the visual anatomy of Dharavi's fishing village.

Circulatory urbanism featured in the Milan Triennale's (2019) exploration of the threads that connect humans to their natural environments.

Can collective intelligence save us from self-destruction? (The Hindu 06.01.2019)

urbz joins the collective Incompiuto and the Architecture of Shame platform to reclaim an unfinished train station and railway track in the the South of Italy.

A town which has roots in the Neolithic Age struggles with the ups and downs of modernity. (The Hindu 09.12.2018)

Gracias a la invitación de la Universidad San Martin de Porres en Lima – Perú el equipo de Urbz Colombia tuvo la oportunidad de organizar el Taller Fronteras de Segregación, hacia una integración social de espacios fragmentados.

the urbz Mumbai team traces back its lunch to the village

This innovative plan for a new neighbourhood in the town of Versoix in Geneva will be presented at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel (S AM).

How the metro line is affecting a neighbourhood in Mumbai

urbz was involved in the design of a new community building in Dharavi.

Radha is a passionate tuition teacher, and she is proud of her contribution to the education of many students. She discusses the importance of education in Dharavi.

Stylistic confusion and the great Mumbai mashup tradition. (The Hindu 08.07.2018)

Madhu, a tuition teacher, speaks about the importance of education and about her everyday life in Dharavi.*

Le 11 juin 2018, urbz présente ses travaux sur la forme du futur quartier Lachenal-Dégallier (dit Delta V) aux habitants de Versoix. Un résumé en texte et image.

Tvisha is a school teacher from Dharavi who talks about the difference in private and public education in Dharavi, and her experience living there.*

Cities should understand the value of nightlife. (The Hindu 24.06.2018)

A new series of Make in Dharavi focuses on the neighbourhood of Kumbharwada, famous for its pottery. We look at how the potters respond to the pollution generated by their kilns - and brainstorm with them.

"What could be generated by the living generation is an open work; it depends entirely on our collective good will, on the readiness of this generation to embrace a future without precedence." Architecture theorist Yehuda Safran reflects on the Delta V neighbourhood project in Versoix, Geneva.

Un projet de quartier participatif à Versoix!
A participatory urban planning project in Geneva, Switzerland!

The Rise of Navi Mumbai viewed from the Konkan (The Hindu 29/04/2018)

A new series of Make in Dharavi focuses on the neighbourhood of Kumbharwada, famous for its pottery. Part 1 looks at the history of the area and some of the issues it's facing today.

The 2nd Workshop in Emerging Architecture and Urbanism in Altos del Pino, Bogotá, supports the initiatives of the community for the construction of public toilets and improvement of public space.

Groupthink dominates social networks and participatory projects (The Hindu 18/4/18)

A unique collaboration between New York University, Abu Dhabi Campus (NYUAD) and urbz, wherein engineering students engage with projects that address the issues of the residents of Dharavi at the grassroots.

This animation presents what Dharavi could look like if it was allowed to continue develop incrementally. All designs in the video were conceived by contractors living and working in Dharavi, Mumbai, as part of the Design Comes as We Build project.

Two powerful archetypes — the village and the city — are resolved in a third one: the slum (The Hindu 18/3/2018)

The more diversified a neighbourhood, in terms of its uses, its composition and its physical expressions, the more efficient it is in terms of economic and cultural dynamism. (The Hindu 4/3/2018)

How the city of Ottawa’s participatory neighbourhood revitalization project has inspired the community to take the lead in choosing their future

A global trend may be more fantasy than substance. (The Hindu 17/02/2018)

urbz is designing a new building in Dharavi for the Koliwada Jamat.

The local governance of a century old fishermen village in Dharavi in the heart of Mumbai.

Revisiting a familiar typology 

From Mumbai to Ratnagiri. (The Hindu 3/2/2018)

The overlooked importance of local construction activity. (The Hindu 21/1/2018)

A traditional drink made from wild flowers can become a strong local economy for tribal India (The Hindu 6/1/2018)

How garment manufacturer Muzaffar makes in Dharavi. (Make in Dharavi III)

An account of urbz Seoul's strategic planning for the island of Ulleung, in the East Sea

How garment manufacturer Aameer makes in Dharavi. (Make in Dharavi II)

Listening to children could help us plan better cities for all (The Hindu 16.12.2017)

How garment maker Samit makes in Dharavi. (Make in Dharavi I)

Emerging political boundaries can help us rethink other categories. (The Hindu 3/12/2017)

Update on our latest project in Dharavi for an elevated community space

How one of Sao Paulo’s largest favelas became a nice neighbourhood

How renewed attention to urban-rural linkages may reshape the urbanisation debate. (The Hindu 5/11/2017)

One small indomitable neighbourhood holds out against the planners (and changes the plan). (The Hindu 22.10.2017)

Anyone who has commuted on trains during rush hour knows there’s something deeply tolerant about the Mumbaikar (The Hindu 07.10.2017)

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)

The work of urbz was honoured by the Swiss President, Doris Leuthard, through an award given to Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava

Workshop da construção civil / Civil construction Workshop in Sao Paulo

Creating a network of local and international actors to learn from Ulleung-do’s natural heritage while living in it.

3-day workshop in Geneva on October 13, 14, 15 to produce a participatory neighbourhood plan.

Nature holds something far more precious than wood, coal and minerals — something which industrial practices have been destroying in their crude quest for cheap bucks. (The Hindu, 10.09.17)

urbz is honored by Curry Stone Foundation, which selected it as one of 100 innovators in the field of social design.

A 5 day workshop on the remote Ulleung island generates ideas and discussion for an alternative to the traditional fast paced development in South Korea. 

A record book of 20 houses built by the mason Ataide Caetite in the Paraisopolis favela, which reflects on how the economic and cultural dynamics are reflected in home construction and design.

On how nature and economy share a common destiny (The Hindu, 27.08.17) 

The "Tool-house for the Future" workshop explores the possibilities of reimagining cities from the point of view of live-work arrangements.

Mapping your own circulatory trajectory to make your story a part of the #MumbaiReturn exhibition!

The organisation of the G20 reflects its democratic deficit. Not only did the G20 summit turn parts of Hamburg into a virtual fortress, it also made hostages of thousands of peaceful protesters and residents. (The Hindu, 16.07.17)

Transcript of interview in the Hindustan Times.

urbz Brasil on its inception, approach, methodology in São Paulo

The inception of urbz Colombia and the flow of local movements in Bogota

Reviewing Sondgo and its functioning residential and work places, thirteen years after the initial plans were drafted. (The Hindu, 19.06.17)

NYU Abu Dhabi returns for the third year of handstorming resulting in some exciting projects in Kumbharwada, Koliwada, Transit Camp and the 13th Compound

Privatisation, if seen as an exclusive way to regularise settlements, increases the risk of political manipulation and real-estate speculation. (The Hindu, 29.03.17)

With one foot in the village and the other in the city, migrants have done more to urbanise India than any development scheme (The Hindu, 12.03.17)

Students from SAL worked with urbz and Dharavi residents to understand the connections and interconnections that make up the neighbourhood and its relationship the city.

A project that started early in the year with local contractors and carpenters to design ideal Dharavi Homes opens to the public. 

80 students design their own vision of one-day workshop where participants had to plan and design their own architecture studios/living space in a homegrown settlement of their choice. 

Why is there a Bareilly street in Dharavi when Bareilly is infact in Uttar Pradesh? 

Hubert, Eloise, Lucie and Chloé have all moved to Bordeaux from different parts of France and live there currently. But what's 'home' for them? 

Recognizing patterns and processes are crucial to urban practice. The role of architects as agents of incremental growth needs to be emphasised over that of creators of a future that doesn’t yet exist.

Local contractors design their ideal Dharavi homes which are exhibited at Zaha Hadid's Maxxi in Rome. 

A prize winning proposal to recycle plastic waste along Mumbai's coastal village of Versova, uses fishing nets and the involvement of the local fishing community.

urbz was invited by Arc en Rêve to show our work on Circulatory Lives at the Constellation.s exhibition in Bordeaux.

After months of preparation, our humble gallery space opens its doors to the public. 

Handstorming is the alter-ego of its more cerebral version and geared towards a collective hands-on experience that makes and constructs in real time and space. It was the main mode of operation in our workshop with NYU AD students and produced some impressive and practical tools and objects.

What do spray painted cats on walls, masked motorbikes and a pop-up staircase have in common? The Khotachiwadi Imaginaries workshop.

Beyond the Bungalows of Khotachiwadi: call for participation at a workshop in an urban village at the heart of South Mumbai.

Every kaccha house transforming into a pukka house is a story worth telling – one which is extremely significant to residents and the development of the city at large.

New incremental solutions for a house we built earlier. 

Dry hard data on circulatory migration in India hides vibrant, lively stories. 

What do young Mumbaikars have to say about their family's rootedness to villages on the Konkan?

In the urbanisation race, India seems desperate to catch up with China. Yet this highly networked country can build a future where cities do not rule supreme.

Many families live in between two households: one in the village and another in the city. 

The biggest growth in urbanisation is not taking place in the metropolis but in small towns that are networked with villages.

Cutouts from URBZ’s mural at the Uneven Growth exhibition opening at the MAK Museum in Vienna.

An urban village trying to safeguard its heritage value in the sprawling metropolis.

People who developed their own engineering skills without the help of any formal education to come up with a floating neighbourhood.

When pavement dwellers are chased away, which happens often, they have no other option than making a new home on another the sidewalk. 

Many people involved in urban issues in Mumbai (and elsewhere) have tried their hand at making the definitive proposal for Dharavi. Read more about ours in collaboration with sP+a

A series of collages juxtapose Dharavi's landscape with other international scenarios to question if Dharavi's context is actually omnipresent. 

Conceptualised by designers in collaboration with users and local artisans, the Handstorm workshop takes objects used in everyday life and gives them a spin to be more functional to the users.

"My experience in Dharavi made obvious to me the essential gap between pre-conceived / pre-fabricated ideas of a place, and the actual, live, reality of it".

Experiments with EPS to build our new office in Shivaji Nagar. 

While New York and London house the people that move from city to city, all acquainted with the etiquette of an urban lifestyle, Bogotá and Bombay are cities of villagers on the road to urbanization. 

Planning the planned city of Navi Mumbai. 

In both Colombia and India, homegrown settlements are present but differ largely in their social make-up. 

Ching’s story is emblematic of the reconversion of urban village habitats into commercial and manufacturing activities more adapted to their newly urban environment.

urbz' publication on Dharavi published by Strelka Press

After a handstorm workshop to make a variety of user-oriented objects and with a pilot house on its way, a report about the updates of the Homegrown Cities Initiative

The start of a collaborative initiative that seeks to interweave technical and scientific aspects of architects with knowledge of the local mason and the lifestyle of inhabitants. 

Housing must be seen as a process rather than a product: its values lie in the relationship and inter-action between the actors, their activities and the produced house.

Tracing the history of the BDD chawls and what its location and typology mean for future development of the city. 

Cities and graphic narratives have a special connection. So much so that landscapes from an artist’s imagination can infect urban practitioners who may want to translate them into concrete entities. 

The Handstorm workshop brought together various actors from all around the world to build things that could improve the neighbourhood based on discussions with residents and with the help of local artisans

What if traditional rural settlements were historic urban nuclei?

While residents may live here and work elsewhere, this neighbourhood also shows a high level of its own economic activities.

All you need to bring along are your hands, a desire to produce something useful and beautiful which you feel the residents would love to use and loads of enthusiasm.

Touring Dharavi, it becomes obvious to many visitors that people in Dharavi might be poor in relative terms, but they are not very ashamed.

The Handstorm Workshop will draw on energies that flow from creative manual involvement, acknowledging that it is always wired to the brain, to form a collective of power that attracts attention from the rest of the city.

Future fitting is a high-tech, forward-looking, and design-orientated version of “retrofitting”, which can be applied in growing cities from Shenzhen to Mumbai. MoMA workshop notes.

In Rio “pacification” is a code word to describe the invasion of neighborhoods by squads of policemen walking around their guns pulled out, ready to shoot. 

It is commonplace in Brazil that ‘favelas’ are a pervasive part of the urban landscape. Recently however, alternative, bottom-up models have emerged that slowly change this scenario.

Does Dharavi reveal a contemporary urban model that defies functional urbanism?

The competition for land, rather than the traditional competition for tenants, was especially exacerbated in sites of growing industrialization and development like Bombay. 

In collaboration with local pedreiro Ataide, the urbz team helps build a house in Paraisoplis right from digging the foundations. 

How to provide housing for all classes of people who need it, taking their varied livelihoods  into account, while balancing their relative abilities to invest in housing? 

While documenting the work of a local Mumbai contractor, Marie Malchow questions if a different conception of space operates during the construction process. 

The tool-house as starting point for designers to learn from local skills, practices and aspirations.

Architecture relies on inputs of the occupants to incrementally design a house extension in Sakinaka. 

How local, community owned and managed housing co-operatives, can be a vital step towards improving the neighbourhoods, bringing good quality civic infrastructure and making the city genuinely ’slum-free’.

The new mosque will be built on the site of a 30 years old mosque nestled in the dense middle section of the neighbourhood.

A workshop in Murbad, a village in Maharashtra documents the lives in rural area to find out what the 'New India' can take from it. 

Pedreiero Ataide opens up his house in Sao Paulo's homegrown neighbourhood, Paraisopolis to architecture students to learn the intricacies of on-site construction and renovation. 

While Warli art has become as gentrified as an art gallery in a heritage urban precinct, the reality it represents is hugely significant.

Ajanta with its drop-dead frescoes – from some 2500 years ago was like a fashion-sutra in stone – documenting jewellery, accessories, make-up, hairstyles and costumes – while capturing the narratives of the many lives of Buddha.

What does the mutation of colonial Bombay into global Mumbai mean for architectural forms and public life?

What began as a regular jostling and tugging of the idea in a brainstorm soon took off as an imaginative exercise that encouraged creative and personal readings of the concept and the making of its visual expressions. 

This workshop uses creativity to make sense of emergent and misunderstood urban formations in India.

urbz Chile presents Citycamp (Only proceed if you can read and understand Spanish) 

The Konkan connection to Mumbai is only part of a larger universe in which the city’s force of gravity pulls together many other such regions.

urbz comes to Torino! 

Dharavi has developed around temples built on land offered by Muslims,  mosques built on Koli property and churches that spring up between the two. 

From a small Italian village, to a city like Milan, to a metroplis like Chile and finally to Dharavi, Francesco finds similarities and differences among the different scales.of habitats. 

This seminar explores the shadow history of Tokyo's rise as the largest and the wealthiest agglomeration in the world.

Can design input be streamed into a process rather than given as a starting point to the construction process? 

An architectural and design practice that works with local builders and residents to create projects embedded in neighbourhoods’ cultural and economic fabric.

Chiplun’s residents today speak of their connections with Mumbai against this history – which reveals a relationship that is really deep. Chiplun became a gateway for us not just into the Konkan region and its tryst with the railways – but a paradoxical gateway into Mumbai’s heart – back again.

The urbz office located in a building on M.G. Road, Dharavi, demonstrates how the conviviality of the live-work dialectic actualizes itself in this particular case.

The connections we evoke between our work in Dharavi, Mumbai and Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo seem to have became a distinct new arc in this multi-city story. 

The so-called slums of the city are in many ways attempts at increasing affordable housing units through a different construction and financial system.

Architecture academics makes it difficult for the student to understand the practicality of the profession. This hands-on approach was taken by urbz and the team so that the students could understand the depth of it.

Our street exhibition in Brazil mashes up landscapes from Dharavi and Paraisopolis leading residents to guess which part of the image is their neighbourhood. 

A Paraisopolis-Dharavi Institute of Urbanology to be held next year, where architects and public servants come and learn from residents. 

Happy New Year!

Mumbai Contra-CT Workshop report

What if neighbourhooods that have been dismissed as slums for decades actually offer viable options for affordable housing? 

Local newspapers doubled, tripled and eventually quadrupled with classifieds about the shiny, affordable, chic new buildings with swimming pools coming up in every empty corner.

Giving a voice to the kids is urgent and inevitable. In this series, the kids speak about their neighbourhood and lives.

Affordable Housing Seminar and Workshop

Similarities between urban villages in Mumbai and Italy. 

Drooging around the informal economyexploring the city’s streets that are dedicated to the production of goods and objects

The small streets in the big city are one of the most important features of Mumbai’s fabric.

A trip to Auroville's Centre for Scientific Research shows a variety of possibilities for practices to place themselves in between research and on-site application. 

Daily early morning BMC, the local civic body of Mumbai will release water for mere 2 hours, and Dharavi witness the chaos caused by it at the main community water supply connection. 

Lowcost housing by Architect B V Doshi, whose planned vision grew very incrementally.

Local contractor Amar Madhukar Nirjankar constructs the most affordable house for one of his clients in Bhandup's homegrown neighbourhood.

Some interesting collages from the urbz mashup at Festarch in Italy. 

Merging streetscapes and architectures from Mumbai, Perugia and beyond

Urban typhoon In Khirkee

While Khotachiwadi is well known for its Konkan-Portuguese-style bungalows, its chawls and their residents have often been left out of the picture.

The coming together of speculation-driven real estate development and the idea of “public space” has produced weird urban species.

Ahmedabad in the race of developing cities of India where inspite large availability of land the property prices are shooting up.

With Nader Seraj, we take the urbz mashup to Perugia

Micro homes which integrate spaces of work and are well connected to the street economy seem to be far more viable on the longer run at all levels.

Times of India writes about the research initiated on the sacred space of Dharavi initiated by urbz. 

Street vendors in Dharavi

How growing your own plants can be a very simple thing to achieve even in extremely dense area such as Dharavi.

The number of religious sites in Dharavi is practically infinite. Small shrines and large temples dot the courtyards and roadsides with incredible density.

“Re-Imagining the World Class City" questions if the World Class City should be re-imagined at all. 

In the chaotic, overcrowded and over dynamic environment of Dharavi, space is the main resource. Every inch of space has its use and is exploited to its fullest.

Olivier Pascal-Moussellard wrote one of the most compelling descriptions of Dharavi to date which was published in Le Monde.

On Tuesday December 7, was successful the first Gallery Sessions: Opening. This session was broadcast live via streaming. 

The Dharavi Shelter reopened on Sunday with a new roof, new windows and back door, and an exhibition of the kids’ photos.

The Dharavi Shelter reopened on Sunday with a new roof, new windows and back door, and an exhibition of the kids’ photos.

Introducing the Galeria Sessions

Galería Sessions is a Talk, discussion and debate Space around latinamerican cities.

Entre los días 23 Nov. y 26 de Nov.

For reasons more than one, Khotachiwadi is across various Bombay newspapers. 

The unique protest, titled ‘Requim for  Khotachiwadi’, was initiated by the village residents to protest against the breaking down of the 150-year-old structure, which had been sold to builders.

“While we don’t want to commercialise the locality, we want to create a cultural space for Mumbaikars, who don’t have many neighborhoods such as this”

It is slightly more expensive but healthier as it doesn't contain asbestos.

Mr. Lodha and members of the Khotachiwadi Welfare and Heritage Trust delivered a letter to the municipal commissioner calling for a heritage law to be enacted.

From tackling various problems from street structure, to water and many different activities let by theaters groups, cookbook specialists and much more, the Khirkee workshop presentation was in full swing. 

In order to achieve a creation in the truest sense of the term, the artist must generate new beginnings or devices that will prevent mere reproduction.

Khirkee, being an “unauthorized colony”, the authorities are not taking any responsibility regarding the water system.

The Urban Typhoon is reaching everyone, locally and globally !

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. 

Our intent is to find a solution which is very low-cost and uses materials and products that are available in Dharavi.

Urbz has developed a new website for PUKAR, a Mumbai-based urban research and action collective.

As Europeans landing in Mumbai, we experienced culture shock immediately !

Un evento en donde confluyen Arquitectura, Arte y Performance y que tiene como objetivo repensar Chile de cara al tricentenario.

A little bit of the Dharavi Shelter goes to Switzerland!

The Urban Typhoon workshop invites artists, architects, activists and academics from all over the world to ideate with residents, grassroots groups and other users of Khirkee Village, New Delhi.

A poetic introduction to the daily movements and sounds of an incredibly diverse neighbourhood, which is being transformed in fast-forward mode.

When coming into a community for the first time, neighborhoods can be akin to lines drawn in invisible ink.

Discussion 

"Walking around the streets of Dharavi and Mumbai I have noticed how small things can make a big difference to lives and the image of a neighborhood”

An event to preset all the processes and output from our mashup workshop in Istanbul.

The participants spent the week using different tools to explore Sishane-Galata, interpreting the vision of the residents and integrating them into their own projections for the neighbourhood. 

Whether in fantasy – like the sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica or in real life – ‘aliens’ who are just like ‘us’ and who become threatening because they are a natural part of the landscape 

Challenging all misconceptions, the atmosphere of cultural liberalism in the streets of this neighbourhoud is so much more prevalent than that of any American city and most European cities.

Can Goa show the way for the rest of the country in a transformation from a rural to an urban economy, thereby offering a convincing urban alternative to the mega-cities?

Fortunately, not all forces brought about by globalization are synonymous with cultural and economic homogenization.

Local children have produced stunning photographs through the Shelter photography activities.

Students, Architects, Engineers, Craftsmen, Handymen, will come together to build an evolutionary, flexible and light dukaan or streetshop

Our mission is to continue to facilitate the development of creative initiatives in this space and collaborate in the connections of people to places – in this case a vibrant neighbourhood that is currently being planned without its residents’ participation.

The idea of waste is probably a misconception. In Dharavi virtually everything is reused. The contribution of the recycling industry to the economy is thus big that words like residue and leftover might be trashed themselves. The recycling business provides three major components of economic activities.

Weeks of conversing with street vendors of all kinds, documenting and networking with them translated into a most unusual workshop series inaugurated last week in Dharavi. 

Instead of squeezing oneself in chawls (tiny tenements with shared bathrooms), the idea of a one-bedroom hall kitchen (or two or three) appealed to the city’s upwardly mobile population. 

Producing clothes in high quantity is one thing, washing them all is another. An insight into Mumbai's famous Dhobi Ghat.