URBZ continues its experimentation with local knowledge production, collective creativity, individual expression and radical pedagogy in Istanbul with the Mashup Workshop, which will bring together local residents, travellers, thinkers, creators, doers and other enthusiasts in the neighbourhood of Sishane-Galata.
Just as many other parts of Istanbul, Sishane-Galata needs to redefine itself in a context that keeps [...]

The Dukaan Workshop took place in Dharavi, Mumbai on June 13, 2010. The article below was published in the Mumbai Mirror on June 16, 2010

Have you ever looked carefully at the little fruit shop jutting impossibly out of the corner down your street? Or the paan wala perching precariously on a tiny piece of real [...]

URBZ co-founders (with Geeta Mehta) and the authors of the airoots/eirut blog, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, have recently introduced a new notion of the “neighbourhood in-formation”; an analogy that questions the widely used settlement classifications and urban typologies that are presented most commonly as ‘slums’ and ‘informal settlements’. As readers soon discover, what is [...]

Local children have produced stunning photographs through the Shelter photography activities. The classes, which occur twice per week, have allowed children to discover the fundamentals of the art, all the while documenting and participating in their own community space.
These photos were produced with donated 35mm cameras using black and white film.
The shelter has recently received [...]

A recent post on the URBZ site presented a series of conversations with the street vending community of Bombay. A follow-up workshop to this exercise, The Dukaan Workshop, has been announced for the 13th of June, 2010.

In the spirit of the ‘user-generated city’, this activity pointed towards a particular user of the urban system. The [...]