Students showing a scheme for the incremental development of the Dharavi Shelter.

Last week a group of students from Leibniz University in Hannover (Germany) came to Dharavi’s New Transit Camp and devised incremental development strategies with residents. In order to do that, the students learned as much as possible about the familial and architectural history of the houses and the streets they investigated. They documented the construction process of various houses paying particular attention to small, user-generated innovations that make each houses livable and practical in this infrastructure-deprived environment. Then they proposed possible improvements keeping the imperative of affordability in mind. Suggestions for these improvements were derived from discussion with the residents as well as creative input from the students. The students presented their work to all the residents on Saturday March 6 during the Dharavi 48 event and flew back to Germany, where they will spend the whole semester working on their schemes.

Prof Renate Bomberg with her students presenting their ideas for incremental improvement in front of the community.

This workshop was organized by URBZ as part of the Trans Urban seminar/workshop in India.

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Date: March 2 – 5, 2010 (Tuesday – Friday)

Time: 3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Venue: Sir. JJ College of Architecture, Conference Room, Mumbai.

Schedule:

March 2 (Tuesday) Cultures of Living

3-5:30 p.m.

Speakers:

Prof. Erich Lehner: ‘Cultural identity in Architecture’.

Dr. Ulrike Herbig. ‘Cultures of Living – A students view of adaptations.’

March 3 (Wednesday) Mobility

3-5:30p.m.

Speakers:

Dr. Reinhard Seiss: ‘Increasing Automobilisation and Urban Life.’

Prof. Giuseppe Longhi: ‘Mobile’ living culture and city form.’

March 4 (Thursday) Urbanism in Germany

3-5:30p.m.

Speakers:

Joachim Rosenberger: ‘Planning procedures for optimised city developments in Germany.’

Sanna Richter: ‘Urban updates: trends and challenges in Germany’

Renate Bornberg: ‘Village updates: Lessons learned from indigenous Rural Germany’

March 5 (Friday) Diversity of European Habitats

Michael Rieper: ‘Housing Models: Experiments in Everyday Life.’

Ar. Catalin Berescu: ‘Small Slums and the Roma.’

Ar. Giacomo Minelli: ‘Rehabilitating Historic Centers.’

These presentations are being organized for TRANS URBAN 2050 and the Sir. JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai. For details kindly contact us.