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)
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