Connectivity along drainage canal and ’60 feet road’

Dharavi is a heart-shaped agglomeration of primarily informal settlements at the heart of Mumbai, India, with over 800,000 inhabitants. As a highly dense place with commercial and residential units located at the very edge of roads (and sometimes contesting them), river branches and drainage canals, connectivity amongst the nagars and movement of people is not always easy. Even though main streets are clearly defined, the inner pathways and small streets born as a result of random growth of residential/commercial areas within nagars are disposed randomly and a great number of them culminate in dead-ends.

Considering this, the intervention proposed aims to respond to part of these issues by focusing in the creation of connectivity links, apart from the already existent ‘Mahim Phatak Road’, ‘60 feet road’, and ‘90 feet road’, from and to the railway station; more specifically, this proposal focuses, mainly, on the connectivity along the ’60 feet road’ which is limited by the drainage canal, which runs beside it, and does not facilitate pedestrian transit apart from one little precarious bridge made of pipes and other scrap material.

The intervention is about bridging communities between the ‘13 compound’, ‘Along Western Railway’, ‘Muslim quarter’, ‘Kunji Kuerne Nagar’ and ‘Koligaon/Agarwada/Rajivindira’ nagars, enabling people to access them more easily.

“Successful development depends on good access and connections. The connections between a site and its surroundings are important for even the smallest of developments.” Urban Design Compendium (p.28)

individual design

Abstract

How to do things makes the difference whatever your concern is; public space, axis, resettlement… to approach the complexity of Dharavi, it was crucial to take into consideration the livelihood of people there. Culture and justice are key words in producing built environment and empowering community through public participation is crucial to achieve social justice and to save people’s assets.  Therefore the challenge of design response would be how to produce an applicable solution without destroying the social, economic and cultural asset of Dharavi’s lives.

The belief in the mutual influence of built environment and socio-economic behavior priorities the physicality of space as a main director in my design. The term “the logic of the space” was proposed as an applicable and flexible solution which cans response to this belief as well as to the complexity of Dharavi’s lives.

tareq

Railway Dwellers Business- social mobile hubs:

 

The closer to the railways ,the more improvised the building.

The methodology that promotes my proposal revolves around the idea of crafting a process for designing new urban forms, rather than crafting a singular object in the urban environment in Dharavi. The proposal is not a resolved architectural object, but rather points in greater networks of social space and urban discourse, exploiting loophole and uncertainties, attempt to allow more groups of people freedom of action. On addition to planting these nodes in the heart of Dharavi I have chosen to focus on the boundary lands which are the most vulnerable and open space in Dharavi. The battle for space in the city will always occur along the railways since these long land borders are difficult to defend since the railways clear illegal constructions in their fields, within a very short time. There are spaces along the border of Dharavi against the railway which have been used as garbage dumping and also there are spaces where people of Dharavi use due to the lack of open space for their businesses such as cloth colouring or urban farming. These territories are narrow and elongated, the boundaries of their area is above average length.

 The intervention is a node that will introduce quality to the area and connect Dharavi to unused economic potentials and would create more productivity to the area since there is a lack of commercial space in Dharavi. This light weight touches could create a total impact with the surrounding activities and would attract people from outside of Dharavi to access these goods via the railway. It would also give another meaning to the railway boundaries of Dharavi with a lot of flexibility and this question would come in to mind that what if the public programmes aren’t stationary?

Koliwada: Centuries of history in the making

Most people know Dharavi to be the largest slum in Asia. However, when peeling the layers of this chaotic seen, you begin to unravel centuries of history, culture, networks and human inventiveness.

A focus is given to the specific area of Koliwada. Once a fisherman village, Koliwada is known to be the oldest part of Dharavi. The first dwellers settled there almost 450 years ago before the government of Maharashtra came to exist. Unlike many of its neighbours, Koliwada holds the unique and distinct characteristic of a village.

Goathan laws were implemented in Koliwada in order to manage the land through land use and zoning schemes. These laws restricted Koliwada to build to a certain height, but this was recenntly changed. By neglecting Koliwada, their infrastructure was never upgraded and a proper sewage system was never implemented. This led Koliwada to become part of the larger squatter settlement.

Going against the Dharavi Rehabilitation Project proposal, I have decided to look at Dharavi as a place of Heritage and culture, rather than a shantytown. I propose an upgrading scheme in which the community is heavily involved. A community based organization will be formed and supported through international and grassroot NGOs as well as community saving groups and educational institutions.
My inspiration is drawn from 4 guidelines set out by Charles Landry which promotes the idea of creative cities. These guidelines are fascilitating cultural identity and creative strategies, mentoring city and cultural leaders, mediating urban change processes and focusing on finding imaginative solutions. Keeping these in mind, I have decided to focus on three main interventions; infrastructure, heritage and housing.

When doing my research I found that the first thing the people wanted to change was infrastructure. The streets are an essential part of Dharavi. Not only do they create connections from Dharavi to Mumbai, but they also connect markets to markets, homes and other community nodes. In a sense, the street addresses the specific needs of the people. It creates spaces of interaction for all generations, along with commercial spaces to support livelihoods through market activities. It is therefore essential that the first step be  sealing of the roads and implementing a proper sewage system. This will increase health standards, as well as bring social and economic benefits.

In order to preserve the identity of Koliwada, an intervention is proposed to conserve the existing self standing structures. These structures can serve as cultural centers in which the community archives may be kept and the culture documented and exhibited. The past doesn’t need to be erased in order to achieve a brighter future, but should be used as a vehicle to foster the evolution of the city’s identity.

When it comes to housing it is important to understand the unique needs of the people an their culture. I propose a housing scheme consisting of medium and high rise buildings. Within these structures there are two focuses which I wish to make clear. Firstly the the front of the building should be reserved for livelihoods, whereby people may rent a shop or create an informal market to sell their home produced goods .  Secondly, there is a need for safe community space within the building, where people could socializes and interact in a friendly seing as well as appropriate their near home spaces without feeling threatened.

This project aims to preserve Koliwada’s unique identity by taking small steps to upgrade the current situation while also acting as a catalyst to the growth of Dharavi and the Greater Mumbai

mobile space & mobile facility

The high density of population and built structures in Dharavi have created so much pressure on this land. People have shown an opposition toward the proposed development plans based on their fear of losing what they have already achieved in this slum. It is more than a decade that a huge amount of debates are taking place for this plan and the main reason is the high cost of land in this slum. Otherwise there would be no track of this slum in the media like so many other slums in the world that are not widely known publicly.
While these debates take place still people continue to live in the same situation and there is no large scale intervention that improve their quality of life.
The main concept of my design is MOBILE SPACES, offering small scale intervention for the slum dwellers who are prone to the threat of eviction. The concept of mobility is also scaled up into providing portable facilities for short term period .

A Social Enterprise for Incremental Housing

This project is the result of a deeper investigation of a location-specific response that aimed to meet the needs of a community living in a high-rise building. The proposal took form of an independent grid structure as an addition to the existing building and allowed incremental expansion of living/working space. It was conceived as a combination of a subsidized fixed »support« structure and self-funded flexible »infill« system.

The transferable principles and mechanisms behind the operational and spatial model have now been further explored. The concept of social enterprise has been adopted as a framework where a housing program is also an income generator and a source of knowledge creation. By starting a production process of prefabricated construction elements from locally available recycling materials it expands livelihood options. And with the development of self-funding, design, construction, management and maintenance skills it also acts as a platform for empowerment and capacity building.

The social enterprise is a multi-stakeholder structure of equal members based on democratic decision-making processes and participatory dynamics for the production of goods/services on a continuous basis. But instead of maximizing profit the aim is to serve the community – part of the production surplus needs to be reinvested in the benefit of people (subsidies) /development of community based activities.

Using existing social structures (The Alliance, KRVIA, NIRMAN) as facilitators in negotiations with regional and municipal authorities, the social enterprise transforms the involved low income residents from beneficiaries to partners with rights, opportunities and obligations.

The Publics

Dharavi exemplifies a unique notion of the ‘kinetic city’ against the static. An agglomeration of buildings that do not stand alone but effect and are affected by the functions of the community and its spatial needs around the clock. Where one small space serves medium to large sized families who commune together in sleep, work, play and other activities, dwellers are free to customise their finite boundaries with infinite capacities.

“The Publics” design intervention looks at the (re)creation of new and old public spaces to enhance and support the livelihoods of the residents of Dharavi. It focuses on an area of Dharavi called Chamra Bazaar where this place will be used as a model for possible similar future development for other areas of Dharavi. Moreover, acknowledging that space is very much limited, and overcrowding is a problem, the intervention aims at suggesting new housing types that cater for higher densities, and are supported by the maximisation of the surrounding negative space.

The process of implementation of the redevelopment will be incremental. The intervention aims to recognise the opportunities such as unique livelihoods and productivity as well as constraints such as density and lack of the lack of basic amenities. Representation is also key to this redevelopment for the residents which means community participation in aspects of decision making, building processes and maintenance is important to consider. Therefore the spatial plan aims to create platforms for new alliances from top-down and bottom-up actor groups for the redistribution of resources for the rest of Dharavi and Mumbai as a whole. The Publics are to be spaces where organic growth meets top-down involvement to create a permanent place for the people.

“Opposed and complimentary, they include the need for security and opening, the need for certainty and adventure, that of organization of work and of play, the needs for the predictable and the unpredictable, of similarity and difference, of isolation and encounter, exchange and investments, of independence (even solitude) and communication, of immediate and long term prospects.” (Levebre, 1996)

Empowerment through infrastructure

Current redevelopment plans according to the DRP claim to respond to the needs of the community in Dharavi however in reality little has been shown to give confidence to the residents that their needs will be met. Strict eligibility criteria is adversely affecting the most vulnerable of community by forcing them to move out of Dharavi as they are unable to provide requested proof of residence. My process is designed to help strengthen existing institutions and build resistance to contest DRP. With this process existing communities use their organisational and leadership skills to improve their living environment and quality of life. The first step to slum redevelopment is to upgrade the infrastructure. This will be done by the community resulting in employment opportunities through labour intense work. Upgrade of the infrastructure through the community, as opposed to municipal top-down approach, will help slow down gentrification of the redeveloped area. Municipal approach is likely to take into account accessibility by vehicle and not take into consideration current, pedestrian arrangements in Dharavi. Improving infrastructure acts as a catalyst for strengthening existing institutions, increasing productivity and building resistance against DRP.

The process provides the communities with the opportunity to form an alliance in order to contest DRP more effectively. Although the process includes marginalised people, I also acknowledge that there is a possibility that DRP will cause forced eviction. However the process is flexible enough to be used in any informal settlement and is inclusive even if people are forced out of Dharavi.

Dharavi Community Bank

The Dharavi community bank both generates and stores community capital in a society which is cash poor and resource rich.  Unlike a conventional bank no money is contained therein; it is a bank of resources where all the community is eligible to join and all members are equal.  The only requirement is contribution to the resource pool.

Registered members are free to ‘trade’ in skills, goods or resources, in exchange for ‘credits.’ The value is decided upon by individuals through the barter system.   Credits are accumulated by the bank through a levy on each exchange, which is saved as community capital to be used in community agreed projects to improve Dharavi. Projects are proposed by the elected executive committee and approved by membership vote in referenda.

The bank is self-sufficient and managed autonomously to suit the needs of the community. The community bank can be implemented in any site or multiple sites and can be scaled up or down.

The location of the bank becomes a Hub, a public space administered by the community based organisation, Mahila Milan. It is multi-functional and flexible.

Sustainable community links are created through a network of people interacting and sharing resources to improve their lives on their terms. By acting as a catalyst for the community the Hub unleashes the potential for individuals to be united and challenge the plans proposed by the Dharavi Re-development Project. The community bank establishes an alternative democratic development arc without reliance on money, by using accrued community capital.

Encountering borders

From bird’s eye view the wide and impermeable borders that surround Dharavi on all sides are obvious. When zooming into these areas with the help of photographs they no longer seem like the expected voids but like zones of encounter where the formal and the informal use of the city overlap. While the built-up edges of Dharavi’s structures are clear-cut, the use of open spaces between these edges and the physical barriers of the formal infrastructure are more diffused. Despite and because of their conditions, the inhabitants use them flexibly for various temporary activities, similar to the open public spaces inside the settlement, making maximum use of available area mostly related to their livelihoods: herb-gardens, recycling processes, laundry drying etc.

While the centre of a slum is a relatively secure place, often reflected in more solid housing, the edges are vulnerable in terms of safety and possible demolition; the implementation of the DRP would most likely start from here.

For this project I am interested in these zones of encounter as one part of an incremental upgrading scheme for Dharavi. The slivers of land between the outline of Dharavi’s houses and the obstacle of the formal infrastructure will be the place for proposed interventions in order to bridge the gap between Dharavi and Mumbai (spatial, visual, economical and social) and make Dharavi an integrated neighbourhood of the city based on its identity and character. The interventions should give additional space for community and livelihoods, protection, water and light on unoccupied land and impact on the implementation of the DRP through the new interface and by reversing the formal order of development.