Taking the Slum Out of ‘Slumdog’ | urbz

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Submitted by Kareena on May 29 2025

Citation

Taking the Slum Out of ‘Slumdog’, New York Times OP-ED, JAN 2009

Publication Author

MATIAS ECHANOVE

RAHUL SRIVASTAVA

Publication Date

Feb 21 2009

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Workshop Guadua y Periferia en Siloe. Este taller se enfocó en la consolidación de la segunda etapa de Teatro Verde de la corporación @lomeritos.siloe organización del Siloe que promueve el arte y la cultura en el territorio. Este proceso a contado con la coordinación de @nataliadulceytaller77 y el apoyo de @casagrafo y @urbznet. Gracias a todos los participantes por apoyar la consolidación de este espacio comunitario.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of “The Homegrown City” by Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, founders of urbz.

Slums, informal settlements, and other unplanned habitats are seen as the antithesis of the metropolis. The book explores how neighbourhoods and their inhabitants have been unfairly dismissed when they should, in fact, be understood as partners in the story of cities and urban development.

The book is being published by Verso Books, London and will be available from 13th January, 2026. You can click the link in our bio to pre-order your copy now!

#thehomegrowncity #urbznet #dharavi #radicalurbanism #design #architecture

Updates on Garden of Festivities Construction Process !!!

1. President of the Koli Jamat, Domnik Kini, performs the Bhoomi Pujan, in the presence of other members of the Jamat and the urbz team

2,3. The excavation of the landfill begins

4. The debris piled up to a mound more than 2 metres high!

5, 6. Construction of a stone retaining wall to hold the debris.

7,8. Tank repair in progress

9. Children appropriate the tank as a place of play

10. Collective vision for the project

#gardenoffestivties #urbznet #kolicommunity #dharavikoliwada #urbanlandscape #mithiriver #architecture #makeinindia #greeningthecity

Ocupação 9 de Julho

São Paulo, Brazil, is one of the biggest cities in the world. Similar to Mumbai, India, a significant portion of its population struggles to access affordable housing. Unlike India, Brazil explicitly recognises a fundamental right to housing. The right to housing, in combination with articles in the constitution which assert that unused property must perform a social function, has encouraged disadvantaged communities, both rural and urban, to organise themselves and occupy unused buildings/lands for housing or agricultural needs.

The large number of abandoned buildings in downtown São Paulo have become sites of resistance, claiming access to space in the city centre. Typically, economically marginalised communities are pushed to the peripheries. People in desperate need of housing have leveraged the constitution to occupy these buildings. These occupations are undertaken by individual families or highly organised groups of families with clear leadership and support from housing activists comprising lawyers, engineers and architects.

One occupation has grown to become an exemplar of how community participation can not only provide housing and livelihood to its inhabitants, but also goes beyond social and spatial boundaries to include and engage the entire neighbourhood and the city. Ocupação 9 de Julho boasts of an all-women leadership that has transformed the narrative around occupied housing from a place of dire straits to a vibrant cultural engine of the city. We had the honour of meeting Carmen Silva, whose vision and determination guide the project. We were glad we could make it for the delicious Sunday lunch, which the residents cook and host at the building, served with Carmen’s potent recipes for Caipareñha cocktails !!!

#occupação #mumbaistosaopaulo #urbznet #homegrown