Last week, we followed the trail of incremental development as hard-wired into BV Doshi’s little publicized Aranya project, which was started in the early 1980s in the city of Indore (Madhya Pradesh, India). The Indore Development Authority had commissioned a low-cost housing initiative for economically weaker sections of the city. This “site and services” project was supported by the World Bank, which in those days believed that incremental development and users’ involvement was key to providing shelter to the economically weaker sections of society. Also involved in the study that lead to Doshi’s plan was the very interesting Minimal Cost Housing Group at McGill University. Doshi’s Vastu Shilpa Foundation has published studies that lead to the project along with Aranya’s master plans. These are very important documents for people in the field of affordable housing, as they show an alternative path to urban development.

On the left, one of the 60 model houses designed by Doshi in Aranya. On the right a plot in construction. Construction is ongoing in Aranya propelled as everywhere else in India by the housing market boom.

Locally known as sector 78, the Aranya project has yielded a rich harvest of affordable housing in habitats that continue to evolve and grow thirty years after its launch. Aranya features some really attractive parts shaped by individual footprints of homes that people invested with their savings and passion. These footprints are framed by the street layouts and boundaries originally conceived by Doshi. What families have done individually in them is quite impressive. A small 32 x 12 square foot base has evolved into an impressive 900 square feet house that reaches into the third floor. The economically poorer parts reveal layers of economic activities all along the narrow streets.

Small plot, big house. This house is owned by retired civil servant who finds that Aranya is one of the best place to live in Indore. He likes the calm and local scale of the neighbourhood.

Many of Doshi’s initial intentions and ingenious innovations have not survived the implementation of the project, yet Aranya has become a lively neighbourhood, providing an attractive environment to its residents, mixing housing with economic activities. The population initially targeted by the project was a rather tightly audited, flat and abstract notion of the poor and needy. They were in many ways already pushed aside by the government agencies coordinating the project from its very inception and they participated intensely in speculating on the plots. Subsequently, many plots ended-up in the hands of people different than those they were initially intended for, but still, the ease with which Aranya mixes typologies and demographics is striking.

Interestingly, the development was to be cross subsidized by the sale of larger plots, many of which were bought by investors who had no intention of building anything on them, seeing them instead as long-term speculative investments. The town’s center was also left undeveloped as money ran short. Keeping these spaces empty has dragged down the development of the entire neighbourhood. In contrast smaller plots have been very intensively built on. A part of the neighbourhood where Doshi has built model houses has largely been taken over by government servants, who have often entirely rebuilt the original houses. Other parts have developed slowly over time, at the pace at which their owners could save and reinvest. Today, the low income population of Aranya is a minority, partly because they have been short-changed in the earlier phase when the plots were being attributed and partly because many have sold out since they were allocated the plot through a lottery process.

Commercial streets and activities spontaneously emerged in parts of Aranya that were originally intended to be residential.

Aranya is in many ways an affirmation of the ideals of incremental growth in the area of urban development. It is an encouragement to all those involved in the business of affordable housing to work with the possibilities of self-development and infrastructural support rather than the conventions of state (or private sector provided) mass housing projects. We are now going to do a post-occupancy survey of Aranya together with the Vastu Shilpa Foundation. We hope that this will help us understand better the challenges and potential of incremental development schemes.

More photos here.

Our  time spent in Mumbai  is already over… it went so fast! Here is some of the output.

We worked on the URBZ building, measured each floor and drew the entire structure. We have to thank Rahul, Matias, Himanshu, Venkatesh, Bhau who have helped us during these  three weeks.

We produced a simple architectural board to show the initial stages of our work. We have given a print of it to each family living and working in the building and one will be kept in the URBZ Office.

On  Saturday 9th October, we had the chance to present our study in Dharavi in front of 50 architects from White Arkitekter AB who were visiting from Sweden. There was also a great exhibition of pictures taken by children from New Transit Camp (where the URBZ office is located).

On the board we have tried to show, in a very simple way, how the building is structured:

-              Ground floor: two shops and a flat on two levels

-              Second floor: three flats

-              Third floor: one flat and the URBZ office

16 people live here (plus someone who sometimes sleeps in the URBZ Office).

Initially, it was difficult to get people’s trust and visit their homes. Little by little we got to know each other and we started understanding the way people live here. Architecturally, each space is pretty small (8 to 18 m2) and the facilities are basic.

This building is on the main road in the New Transit Camp neighborhood, Mahatma Gandhi Road. This road is intersected by  small lanes. This is the only part of Dharavi which has a gridded layout, since it was once a planned transit camp. The lanes are 1 to 3 meters wide on the ground. The upper floors of the buildings often touch each other as they eat up every available space. Consequently, the lanes often lack  light and ventilation.

The water is usually stored in tanks (from 250 to 500 liters) that people keep over the bathroom space. In the ground floor apartment  the tank is positioned in the small lane next to the house. In that same lane there is a pump, which is hand-operated by the owner once a day for one hour, early in the morning. It fills up the tanks in each flat. Water is included in the rent.

People use this water for drinking, washing, cleaning and cooking. All toilets  are located on the right-hand side of the building in order to get access to the pipes which bring fresh water and evacuate used water.

Water comes from municipal pipes, which run on the side of the streets. One of the main issue in Mumbai (not only in Dharavi!) is that these pipes often run next to the sewer, which is an obvious concern about contamination.

Water tank in the URBZ office (the toilets were built in one day).

Water pump.

Each house has electricity and each blocks on the lane has an electricity meter to which all the cables are connected. This comes from the New Transit Camp initial infrastructure, which was provided along with one story high houses). These were first converted into permanent living spaces and then developed into working spaces. The neighbourhood now has buildings up to four stories high.

We have also discovered that TV cables and Internet connections (when they exist) are not just flying loose in the intricate web of cables stretching from building to building. They all end up in a control room located on 90 Feet Road. All the cables converge to the top floor of a tower building where they are controlled.

After spending time talking to people and trying to understand the way they live (thanks to our interpreter and friend Venkatesh), we have discovered a complex set of relations that gives lives over here some qualitative aspect that are usually difficult to find in such a big city.

Each person knows their neighbor well, the doors are always open when someone is inside, the outside space is a natural extension of the “private space”, the small lanes and the street are public spaces in which relationship are created, maintained and consolidated over time. A village/community lives in each of these buildings!

Would all this be possible in the 20-25 story building proposed by the Dharavi Redevelopment Project?

People here are asking for innovative solutions that can respond to their basic needs : cheap and good construction materials, minimum living spaces, privacy and spaces that allow relationships to continue to be strengthened.

Are we, trained architects able to design responses to these needs without destroying these neighborhood?

Miriam and Fabio

Pictures of our survey of New Transit Camp:

This is Miriam and Fabio, architectural students at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. We have landed  in Mumbai, more specifically in New Transit Camp, one of the many neighbourhoods of Dharavi.

We will spend almost two months in India, the first one in Mumbai and the second one in Bangalore researching architectural materials, usages and techniques.

As Europeans landing in Mumbai, we experienced culture shock immediately! The research started with  direct exposure to a totally different culture, languages, religions, ways of living, eating… Walking through Dharavi, entering in people’s houses and feeling foreign to everything around is a very special experience.

With URBZ we are in the process of analyzing an incrementally developed structure in Dharavi. We are mapping it in detail and  trying to understand – for instance- how water reaches the second floor, how electricity is distributed, which construction materials are used and how the building was developed and changed through time.

It seems that all we will need is a few simple tools and lots of goodwill. Actually, we have been here for days. We don’t speak Hindi or Marathi (most of the people here don’t  speak English) and is not so simple to enter someone’s house asking questions about their life and home, measuring the small rooms in which they are living and working. That’s why we are starting with the building where URBZ’s office is located. We have been introduced to the neighbours who, although they don’t always understand what we are up to, are very welcoming.

The type of approaches we are used to can’t work over here. We are right now  simply presenting ourselves and our experiences, hoping that the people we talk to reciprocate. We have already learned so much and we are sure that at the end of this experience we will come back with much more.

We have illustrated this post with some of the drawings we are currently producing. This is the 3 storey building where the URBZ office is located.

Miriam and Fabio

Walking around the streets of Dharavi and Mumbai I have noticed how small things can make a big difference to lives and the image of a neighbourhood.  I am not thinking in terms of the slogans of charities stating that small changes can make a world of difference; of course water, electricity, drainage and other amenities essential to modern living should be seen as basic requirements.   Rather I have been looking at the minute changes or additions to buildings and shop stalls that just make things easier and more pleasant.

Overhangs create an extended and sheltered external space (left) Makeshift canopies line the streets (right)

Such a simple design feature as an overhang or porch roof over the front door can make a huge difference.  You barely see a self built house in Dharavi without an overhang over the ground floor or a small porch roof over the front door, and all along the street are makeshift covers where one has not been incorporated.  It provides protection from the sun and the rain to make a day outside in the elements easier to bear, or simply a sheltered place to sit and watch the world go by.

Metal bars over the windows offer an extension to small living spaces

One of the first things I noticed around Mumbai was the bars on a lot of the windows.  To me these conjure up images of high security against the fearful outside world.  But in fact they offer an extended living space, a place to dry clothes in an apartment lacking outdoor space, or a windowsill to keep plants on to offer a speck of greenery.  A look at a row of houses like this offers a glimpse into the lives of its inhabitants.

An umbrella fixer sits under his makeshift shelter (left). A metal hoop provides tension for the shelter (right)

Another minute addition that allows street sellers shelter from the sun and rain, and to create a defined shop space, are metal hoops hammered into the pavement.  These provide a source of tension to attach rope to which provides the structure of a temporary shelter.  Other street sellers have opted for a brick or heavy piece of rubble to tension the rope, but a small metal hoop is a far more elegant solution, with less potential for a domino effect fall along the crowded streets.

Colourful streets of Dharavi.(left) Street art in Khotachiwadi (right)

Colour can totally change the feel of a street.  Whether the walls of a house have been washed a bright blue or an artist has added to their touch with a mural, it brightens an otherwise dull concrete and metal street and has the added bonus of hiding the dirt!  There is a series of murals along the walls of Khotachiwadi in South Mumbai, left over from an Urbz mashup event a few years ago, and on my first walk through I noticed them and immediately warmed to the area.

A row of trees along New Transit Camp planted by one of the residents.(left) Greenery brightening a street of Dharavi(right)

Adding plants or greenery to an area also lifts it.  Along the main street of New Transit Camp are a row of trees planted by a guy who has lived there for nearly 50 years.  He has watched them grow up and now they contain stories of the past and the development of NTC.  A row of plant pots outside a house shows that someone thinks about their neighbourhood and has put time and a bit of tender loving care into making it look nice.

Finally, a street lamp.  Which, as Nabeel Hamdi has shown, can induce a whole host of changes.

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 estate sandwiched between a bus-stop and a compound wall? Or the condensed universe of a cobbler in a tiny crevice in an invisible part of the city seemingly impossible to inhabit? What unifies them all are the most astonishing design elements that have evolved over practice by the concerned artisans or street traders, who have managed to sculpt space for from thin air. As often happens we take these things for granted – unless you are part of the design and architecture world in which learning from these practices makes you watch carefully. However few allow themselves to learn from these moments – because prejudices come in the way. Instead of appreciating the creative modes of survival we dismiss them in a larger story of encroachment. Even though everyone knows that the real culprit are often the extortionists who collect hafta and keep the hawkers on a tight leash of uncertainty.

Once when you are driving down the empty roads (relatively speaking) late at night to the airport or railway station, pay some attention to these spaces – tiny cupboards hanging from walls and trees, tool-boxes tucked away between street corners and buildings and plastic bags containing entire worlds.

When Llorenc Boyer and George Carothers – urban practitioners working in the city – decided to follow up on suggestions about these amazing spaces and learn more from them, one was not quite sure where this would lead. But weeks of conversing with street vendors of all kinds, documenting and networking with them translated into a most unusual workshop series inaugurated last week in Dharavi. Christened the DIY Dukaan –( Do It Yourself) the series saw residents like Shaukat Ali and other traders from the neighbourhood to improvise existing design needs responding to new ideas and suggestions. What followed was a most intriguing day in which steel pallet racks, bamboos, pieces of plywood, wire meshes, nuts and bolts were brought together to morph into the most unexpected models for street vendors to use. What seemed to be in great demand were portable structures that could fold up so they could escape the municipal vans harassing their perfectly legal activity. Or ones they could store their stuff and take home in. Participants got to know that there are legally permitted structures measuring 2 by 3 feet which the BMC allows anyone to use to trade goods, provided the space is proportionate to public use of pavements.

Eventually the very act of taking that little structure seriously opened up many questions about trading on the street, balancing needs of public spaces and the creation of legitimate networks free from state extortion so that the city’s millions of entrepreneurs can do their thing in a way that helps the city at large.

At the end of that hot, humid but exhilarating day two neat little models emerged – one that was a simple foldable table that could be hung on shoulder straps and the other a box that could store material, open up into a structure to sell goods and which could grow into taller spaces allowing for protection from rain and sun.

The sheer explosion of ideas and energy that preceded and followed the creation of these little artisanal wonders convinced all observers that this could well be the start of a new journey to make the city and its special needs the basis for practical and effective interventions. There are certainly many waiting for the next session in the workshop series.

Click here for another article on the Dukaan Workshop by Malvika Tegta published in DNA on Saturday 12, 2010.