Observations on incremental development
Photo 1. House near Sion Station Mumbai. The yellow house on the right, in the back, was gradually extended with many add-on rooms. Studying the details of where buildings connect, reveals the historical sequence of this incremental development. Builders have to work around problems resulting from choices made in earlier days. Often compromises have to be made and these compromises are very informative. In the centre of the photo above, the small two storey extension partly covers the window of the bigger house. It tells us that the top of the bigger house, which is a vertical extension itself, is the older part.
Photo 2. Darukhana, Mumbai. Ship repair area. Two-storey extension (front) of steel clad workshop (behind). The façade on the left shows how removal of parts of the façade is also a form of incremental development. Note the small candy stall on the far right, another ‘incremental development’. In fact, these incremental developments are part of the natural growth of buildings throughout their lifetime.
Photo 3. Agripada, Mahalaxmi. Apartment blocks representing formality, engulfed by informal settlements. The phenomenon of encroachment reveals weaknesses in the current formalized style of architecture and urban planning. The design, or should we say fabrication, of this building type is doesn’t generate sufficient life around them. The space is dead in terms of urban dynamics and it might be considered natural that newcomers settle on these barren lands. Even the use of the word encroachment may be disputable in such cases.
