New Horizons

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

Katchi Abadis of Karachi

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.

Spatial dimension of businesses in Dharavi

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.

Basti of Karail

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

Vithal Bhaskar Chawl - The Workshop

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.

Supply Chain Networks

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.

Sukumbasi Bastis in Kathmandu

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.

Social and Economic Resilience in Dharavi

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.

Barrios of Bogota

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.

Vithal Bhaskar Chawl - The Brief

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. 

Colonias of Colima

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. 

Makers of Ciudad de Barrios

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.

Vithal Bhaskar Chawl - Prologue

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 makers of the homegrown city

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.

Dharavi 2020: The Covid-19 challenge

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.

EnteKochi Review 2020

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. 

In My Backyard - Informal Cities Workshop

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.

New Ways of the World : Lille Exhibition

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.

Dharavi works

Dharavi works is a series of projects designed in Mumbai by urbz in partnership with local inhabitants and contractors.

ICRC Campus

urbz is working on a comprehensive plan for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) HQ in Geneva. About 1200 people work in Geneva and another 20,000 work in over 100 conflict zones around the world

The IFRC Park will be open to the public

IFRC Park

The urbz team is working with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC) in Geneva on a participatory landscape design involving staff, neighbors and partners.

Gendered Mobility and Climate Action

This project is undertaken under the C40 Women For Climate mentorship program, Mumbai in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra. The Mentee, Vidisha Dhar, is supported by Lubaina Rangwala (WRI), urbz

Covid-19 in Dharavi

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 urbz has been researching its effect on the people of Dharavi. 

Handstorm in Dharavi

Our annual Handstorm workshops in Dharavi with the "Engineers for Social Impact" from NYU Abu Dhabi generate incremental innovations that improve the quality of life in this massive settlement

Urban Typhoon Kochi, June 4-9, 2019

June 4-9, 2019

The Urban Typhoon workshop in Kochi is open to all citizens and visitors interested in working in urban areas and are willing to engage with communities participation. Together we will explore

Koliwada Charcha

The exhibition Koliwada Charcha is an attempt at understanding the essence of Dharavi Koliwada's architectural and visual language. 

Point-du-Jour

Public consultation for a densification project in Geneva / Démarche de concertation pour un projet de densification au Petit-Saconnex, Genève.

Circulatory Urbanism

For the past 5 years, urbz has been following families who's lives are spread between Mumbai and their ancestral villages in the Konkan (Western India).

pots in kumbharwada

Make in Dharavi

This series of interviews portrays the economic life of Dharavi in Mumbai through the activities of its inhabitants.

Delta V

Project de quartier participatif à Versoix, Genève (09.2017 - 02.2019)
Participation planning project in Geneva, Switzerland.

Proyecto Manila

Building a Community center by understanding social dynamics and participatory planning in a homegrown neighborhood in Bogota

Shinbisum

Generating new models for participatory development for Ulleung island in South Korea

Khotachiwadi

urbz has been involved with the heritage precinct of Khotachiwadi for nearly a decade. We have organized many events workshops there and produced a strategic plan for the area among other things.

Mashup workshops

The mashup workshops take many different forms and happen in all kinds of places. They take specific neighbourhoods as sources of inspiration and unleash a maximum of creativity onto them!

Homegrown cities

This experiment in affordable housing led to the co-designing and construction of a small house in Shivaji Nagar, in Govandi. A neighbourhood in Mumbai that is struggling against all odds to keep growing and

The Design Comes as We Build

urbz invited local builders from Dharavi to design the best possible house they could imagine. These designs were translated into physical models by artisans. 

Homegrown Things

We produced everyday-life objects based on the specific needs of residents and the skills available in the Shivaji Nagar area in Mumbai.

Place, Work, Folk

Place, Work, Folk is a fortnightly column in The Hindu Sunday Magazine by Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, which is inspired by Patrick Geddes and analyzes current urban issues in India and beyond.

Bareilly Street

Studies, workshops, street exhibition and plans towards making a small square in Dharavi children friendly

Genève

urbz est un collectif spécialisé dans la programmation urbaine et la gouvernance participative.

Urban Typhoon

Urban Typhoon is a 5 days long workshop taking place working with local associations to generate programmes and plans for the improvement or preservation of neighbourhoods.