Since 2016, students of the Engineers for Social Impact studio at NYU AD (New York University's campus in Abu Dhabi) have spent one week handstorming in Dharavi, Mumbai. The idea is to research, observe, ideate and handstorm during the week-long workshop, the learning of which are further researched and developed in the studio upon their return to Abu Dhabi. These annual Handstorm workshops in Dharavi generate incremental innovations that improve the quality of life in this massive settlement.

This is the first of a series of articles shedding light on the origin of the unplanned settlements in Caracas, which are home to more than half of the population. These stories have rarely been told. Multiple inhabitants were interviewed and shared their stories of struggles, talked about how they overcome hardships, and organize for improvement and self governance. 

This is the third weekly report on how Dharavi is coping with Covid-19. We concentrate on the food distribution effort initiated at community level. 

Metal enclosures within Homegrown Developments of Dharavi

Spontaneous workshopping through a 10-day-long Exhibition featuring community projects as part of the ABCD of Dharavi Koliwada

All you need to bring along are your hands, a desire to produce something useful and beautiful which you feel the residents would love to use and loads of enthusiasm.

Local contractor Amar Madhukar Nirjankar constructs the most affordable house for one of his clients in Bhandup's homegrown neighbourhood.

Exploring the visual anatomy of Dharavi's fishing village.

Over the last few months, we at urbz have been talking about interventions to engage with the ecological and economic aspects of the mangroves. So we went on an expedition to explore the mangroves near Dharavi.

In this article, we situate ourselves in Chile and examine homegrown neighbourhoods in various terrains.