‘The Garden of Festivities’ is a project that attempts to unite livelihood concerns with an ecological imagination that grows from the Kolis collective, ancestral knowledge and expertise. The project's first step is a participatory landscape intervention on the last remaining commons within a habitat they are struggling to preserve.

Koliwada's are fishing hamlets in Mumbai city and unlike most settlements, they extend beyond terrestrial boundaries. The waters of rivers, creeks and seas, all form part of an amphibious habitat that is integral and deeply familiar to the Kolis.  

We recently travelled from Mumbai to Chiplun and then onward to reach Sawarde, a small village in the Konkan region. While we enjoyed the abundant landscape we also discovered some sobering realities. 

Through the series of participatory events with the IFRC staff members, and its neighbours, urbz drafted a conceptual framework for the park which reflects the most common sentiments among its users. 

Over six months, several events were planned for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Geneva. The process promotes discussion, brainstorming, ideas and aspirations of the IFRC staff members, and their neighbours for the future park. 

urbz is leading a participatory landscaping process for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) through a series of workshops, walks, talks and exhibition. The end result will be a publicly accessible IFRC Park in the center of Geneva.