Aranya: A Story of Incremental Development
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.
George Carothers Carothers trained as an urban planner at the University of Waterloo and later worked as a researcher of urban studies at the University of Toronto, exploring issues of urban design, community development, and participatory planning. His research and interests in urbanism have taken him to numerous cities, villages and huts around the globe, as a participant in international conversations on development and urbanization. George holds a masters degree from The Bartlett, UCL, where he investigated dialogues of participatory planning and development in Dharavi. George is currently involved in the Dharavi Shelter and the Adaptable Structures projects. He is a contributor to 
Dipti Hingorani studied structural engineering and architecture at Sheffield University and completed her diploma in architecture from Oxford Brookes. She practiced in Spain and the UK and also worked in Pune working with women self-help savings groups. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Development and Emergency Practice at CENDEP, Oxford Brookes University, investigating case studies on alternative participatory and inclusive processes for slum-upgrading and rehabilitation in Mumbai and Pune. She is also actively involved with the Dharavi Shelter project in Mumbai.
Julia Siedle studied urban design at Columbia University in New York, and architecture at PBSA Duesseldorf and ESA Paris. She has been involved with the design of water management systems in both the academic and professional realms, and is interested in the interweaving and organic growth of physical with social infrastructures. With Mumbai experiencing a severe water crisis, she is currently researching the potential of micro scale water management strategies.
Sytse de Maat graduated in architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Parallel to his career as a professional architect he works on his fascination for the human habitat. He gave lectures in Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Mumbai. His aim is to open the eyes of students, professionals and his clients for the aliveness of their environment and help them participate in its evolution. Observing and sharing his observations is his most important strategy. Photography, blogging, and lecturing are his tools. Christopher Alexander’s “The Nature of Order” is his current inspiration.
Francesco Strocchio Recenlty graduated from Turin Polytechnic with the degree thesis New Transit Camp – An informal design process in Dharavi, Mumbai. He studied architecture and building restoration in Italy and Finland (Turku University of Applied Sciences,) and worked in Finland and Spain at Stenman Oy and PO2 Arquitectos firms. Presently he is working in the OfficinaTre in Alba (Piedmont, Italy) and is taking part in the project SITUA.TO inside the program of Turin’10 European Youth Capital. SITUATO proposes different practices and tools to read the complex social and urban changes in Turin through concrete actions to improve the quality of public space through the inputs of city-users and their practices in urban planning. He was part of the HINDUSTRY URBAN RESEARCH GROUP working on urban design and studies of Indian mega cities with a special focus on the relationship of social and architectural issues. With this group he participated in 2009 at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam through the project ‘Coesistance as survival: Enhancing the existing synergies in the Koli community, Dharavi, Mumbai. He is involved in the work of the cultural association L’ARVANGIA, that tries to bring attention to the identity of the Langhe territory and culture in Piedmont, Italy
Alberto Botterois enrolled in the master’s degree in architecture at the Turin Polytechnic, He participated in the Erasmus European mobility project in Belgium, where he learnt about the International panorama of architecture on different scales. In Feb’08, he graduated from Turin Polytecnic with a thesis about reciprocal frame systems inspired from “BuckministerFuller”. During the last years he attended some international workshops (”A new Lingotto’s railway Bridge-Station ” in Turin with the RPI (USA); “Abandoned Sacred Spaces” in Bruxelles and “Canelli Planning” in Italy with MIT). In Sep’09, He participated in the HINDUSTRY URBAN RESEARCH GROUP at the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam through the project Coesistance as survival: Enhancing the existing synergies in the Koli community, Dharavi, Mumbai. In Oct’09, he was in Mumbai working on his thesis degree about an informal design process in Dharavi. Presently he is working for the CarloRatti office in Turin, taking part in the international competition for the Olympic Games 2012 in London through ‘TheCloud proposal’.