An afternoon rendezvous with Vasu Mama, as he narrates about his long-lived and rich life in Dharavi, his current routine post retirement, his values, ideas and opinions about Dharavi and its future.

NeuLand is a community garden in Cologne: a successful urban farming project in need of attracting a larger community, especially since its recent re-location to a new site. The six GDI students (Jonas, Kryzsztof, Vanessa, Stanley, Momodo, Beilei) who worked on NeuLand paid a lot of attention to the idea of circularity at every level of their engagement. Inspired by the circularity of seasons and

The Langer Tisch is an art installation by Uschi Huber and Boris Sieverts in Cologne, Germany: a long wooden table placed on a very long strip of grass. It embodies everything a successful public artwork should be—practical and inclusive, yet also utopian and provocative. Like a lot of public art, it strives for survival. The six GDI students who worked on this site (Samuel, Nathan, Roy, Ninji

Spaces have inner and outer lives that inevitably make for a multi-dimensional experience. We just need to observe, listen and map all their layers with dimensions and care. This is especially true in a place like Ebertplatz – a complex square and transport hub in Cologne whose future has been in the spotlight of a polarizing public debate for years. The six students of the GDI workshop who worked

In Portugal, Architects are revolutionising participatory urban planning by actively immersing themselves in a collaborative efforts with local municipalities. Through our interaction with Mariana Licenciada, we try to understand the negotiation process, the limitations within existing frameworks and how Res Do Chao has embedded co-Design as a tool in their participatory approach. 

Policies can be supportive or prohibitive, depending on who they serve. A public policy student tries to understand how marginalised communities navigate urban realities from the lens of the architects and urban planners who work with them. 

Streets, typically seen as the arteries of daily hustle, transform into a public stage during ceremonial processions where tradition and resistance are celebrated in unison. For communities of Dharavi, these processions denote a larger familial solidarity highlighting the struggles of urban life against the erasure of culture during calls for redevelopment. A declaration of presence that co-opts

We must recognize our collective strength and resources: every locality has human capital (skills), existing constructions (assets) and a rich natural ecosystem. This article is based on a keynote presentation at PlaceMaking Switzerland on the impact of participation on urban form.