Kochi, Kerala, India - June 2019

This workshop explores the following themes: Inclusive Public Spaces (gender, youth and children), Accommodation and Housing (slums and homegrown settlements), Mobility and Transport (migration patterns and entry points) and Marine and Coastal Ecology (Ecosystem, economy and identity).

The workshop will have a central location, from which participants will spread for fieldwork in various parts of the city. We will be doing extensive outreach in neighbourhoods and communities before the events, so as to engage residents and identify local partners. This workshop is open to everyone, regardless of educational background and native language.

The output of the workshop - which will be co-authored by local residents and the guest participants will be processed by our team and put up for public exhibition that will generate further feedback and interaction with the public. This will then feed into a report which will be a document that will become a collectively authored resource.

The workshop aims at raising awareness of the challenges and opportunity in the Great Kochi Development Area. It will also allow a huge transfer of knowledge from users and local actors to planners and city officials. It will produce concrete proposals for improvements and interventions in the city, which can be followed upon by the city. The workshop is only the first of more such participatory initiative in Kochi.

This workshop is organized in partnership with urbanista, the Municipality of Kochi and the German development agency (GIZ). It starts from the Folklore Cultural Theater on 4th June 2019 and spreads out into different neighbourhoods of Kochi until 9th June 2019. Detailed break up of the workshop will be announced soon.