Nice article on Dharavi in Motherland featuring an interview of Rahul & Matias of URBZ.

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.

Khushboo chawl, Khotachiwadi

We recently organized a week-long studio on Khotachiwadi, a heritage precinct in Girgaum, Mumbai, with students from the School of Habitat Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). This was part of a course taught by URBZ members Rahul and Matias on the politics of urban space. The studio took place at Studio X near CST, with fieldwork in Khotachiwadi every day. In Khotachiwadi we often met at James Ferreira’s house who generously hosted us.

The studio focused on the chawls of Khotachiwadi. While Khotachiwadi is well known for its Konkan-Portuguese-style bungalows, its chawls and their residents have often been left out of the picture. This is a shame because, as most visitors and residents acknowledge, the diversity of habitats, architectures and cultures is one of the most interesting aspects of this much loved neighbourhood.

TISS-SoHS students brainstorming at Studio X

Throughout the studio, we discussed the history and culture of Khotachiwadi, the meaning of heritage in a rapidly changing city, the importance of having diverse habitats, rent control and how it allowed people across classes to stay in places like Khotachiwadi. We talked about architectural styles and urban typologies and the role of local economic activities in preserving neighbourhood life. We discussed mixed-use patterns in old neighborhoods of Mumbai and how urban plans and zoning codes are typically based on segregating functions. We also talked about urban villages, political identity, East Indians and their origins, the role of the Shiv Sena in local politics and a few other things.

The students visited the chawls, interviewed residents and published their texts and photos on http://khotachiwadi.urbz.net. They asked residents about their personal histories and stories and their current situation; the way they perceive the possibility of edevelopment; their relationship with bungalow residents; their aspirations; the possibility of envisioning a common future with other residents of Khotachiwadi belonging to different castes and histories.

Residents of Khotachiwadi celebrate the Diwali in front of the 150 years old Khanderao chawl. The Diwali Sammelan festival was started over 75 years ago by Mangesh Rane ji who is the oldest resident of Khotachiwadi.

Chawls are a very typical architectural typology in Mumbai, dating from the city’s industrial days, derived from the structure of army barracks, evolving into residential sites for industrial workers and finally being reshaped in use by the in-coming families of migrant workers to eventually become bustling middle-class neighbourhoods The chawls can be anything between 1 to 5 stories high and are typically organized around a large veranda connecting single rooms, with the whole floor sharing a common bathroom. Many of them have been converted or destroyed in the past decade or so. Some of the chawls of Khotachiwadi are more than 150 years old, a few families have roots there going back more than four generations and some have individual toilets in each home.

The neighbourhood of Girgaum, to which Khotachiwadi belongs, is well known for its historical chawls. Thanks to the Maharashtra Rent Act, which has frozen rents in South Mumbai at their 1947 level, many families have been able to stay in this part of the city where rent for a new 50 sq.m flat can easily reach Rs 50,000/month or higher. Often accused to be the root cause of all urban problems in Mumbai because it never allowed owners to maintain their buildings properly, the rent control act has also been instrumental in maintaining people from all socio-economic background in South Mumbai.

These and other themes were explored and discussed by the participants of the studio, the output of which is available on http://khotachiwadi.urbz.net

Yehuda Safran studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art, the Royal College of Art and University College, London. He taught at the Architectural Association, Goldsmith’s College, Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London; as well as fine art and theory at the Janvan Eyck Academy, Maastricht, Holland. He has published essays on many aspects of the theory and practice of art, architecture and film – in Domus, Sight and Sound, Lotus, a+u, AA File, Springer etc. His book on Mies van der Rohe was published last year by Blau in Lisbon and Gustavo Gilli in Barcelona. He curated, inter alia, the British Arts Council touring exhibition ‘The Architecture of Adolf Loos’ and the ‘Fredrick Kiesler’ show at the Architecture Association. He was a trustee of the 9H Gallery and a founding  member of the Architecture Foundation in London and was a member of the College International de Philosophie, Paris. Currently he lives and works in Paris and teaches architecture and theory at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he directs the AARieL, Art & Architecture Research Lab. He is also visting Professor in Mendrisio Academy of architecture in Switzerland and at the Nanjing Institute of Architecture in China.

Aslı Kıyak İngin graduated from Mimar Sinan University as an architect. She has post graduated from Istanbul Technical University “Developing a method for the analysis of formal and spatial structure of traditional cities: The Example of Ayvalık” and She has graduated Design Culture and Management Certificated Program in Istanbul Bilgi University. She works as a designer and design manager at The Celik Dizayn Lighting Company in Istanbul. She was vise president of Istanbul branch of Industrial Designers Society of Turkey. She is currently the head of Human Settlements Association. She is involved several projects in different fields in city, architecture, design, art and production.“Made in Şişhane” is one of her projects about Galata-Şişhane main and oldest lighting district of Istanbul, and an alternative approach for city transformation which is used district’s potential like dynamic network, design, creativity and small scale manufacturing. She has been working for an old Romany District named Sulukule in The Historical Peninsula for the last 4 years. She organized with a group of people 40 Days and 40 Nights Sulukule Events and established Sulukule Platform to protect the district and local people from the demolishes and removing the people and show the sustainable and participatory models for the neighborhood development.

Geeta Mehta is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University in New York, and a co-founder of URBZ.  Geeta received her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, M.S. in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, and B. Arch from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. She has taught and practiced urban design in USA, Japan, India and Vietnam. Geeta is the co-author of several books including Japan Style, Japan House, Japan Living, Japan Gardens, and New Japan Architecture. Her upcoming books include “City Connect: Regeneration, Equity and Sustainability in the 21^st Century”.

Ozlem Berber was born in Eskişehir, Turkey, 1975. She completed her B.Arch. in D.E.U., School of Architecture, Turkey, 1998 and MSci.Arch. in I.T.U., School of Architecture, Turkey, 2000 with her thesis of “An Investigation on Architectural Knowledge”. She has participated in various national and international projects like “Rotterdam Architecture Biennial” in 2005, “Istanbul City Ateliers” in 2005, “Archiprix International Exhibition & Workshop” in 2003, “Istanbul City Ateliers” in 2002, “Turkish Architecture Student’s Meeting, TMÖB” between 1995-2002; as organizer, tutor and/or participant. She has awards from architecture project competitions; applied graphic designs and publishing works as editor and/or writer. For now she is working as a research assistant and continues her Phd. in I.T.U. School of Architecture.

Didem Danis has been teaching sociology at Galatasaray University since 2005. She received her Ph. D.  degree at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, in November 2008, with a thesis about the social networks of Iraqi transit migrants in Istanbul. Danis’ two main research areas are international relations and urban fragmentation, and she had published several articles on both topics.

Rahul Srivastava has studied Anthropology in Mumbai, Delhi and Cambridge (UK). He taught at Wilson College, Mumbai, worked as the first Director of PUKAR, Mumbai and subsequently was invited to be a research fellow at Nara University, Japan and New School University, New York. He writes fiction and commentaries on urban issues and new knowledge practices via airoots.org, organizes knowledge initiatives on urbanism around the world and is a founding partner of URBZ and Urbanology. He lives in Goa and Mumbai.

Ayca Ince She studied urban and regional planning at Mimar Sinan University, received her MSc (“the role of the cultural intermediaries in the Turkish Music Industry”) from “Cities, Space and Society Programme” in London School of Economics and Political Sciences (2001), and her MA (“spatial change in Istanbul with the support of the cultural Industry”) from Sociology Department in Mimar Sinan University (2003). She worked for 4 years as a research assistant in Management of Performing Arts Department in Istanbul Bilgi University. She became a member of Cultural Policy Initiative in 2005 and coordinated a project called “Promoting research and accumulation on cultural policy in Turkey” between 2006-2007.This project resulted with an introductory book on Turkish Cultural Policy that she was the co-editor of. Now she works as the project coordinator of “The Invisible Cities’: Building Capacities for Local Cultural (Policy) Transformation in Turkey” at Istanbul Bilgi University and teaches “Audience Development” and “Arts, Culture and Community” courses at Cultural Management Programme of the same university. Ayca Ince is currently a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

Matias Echanove studied economics & government at the London School of Economics, urban planning at Columbia University in New York and urban information systems at the University of Tokyo. He has researched urban culture, participatory planning and information technology in New York, Tokyo and Mumbai, and has organized workshops, studios, seminars and conferences in various cities. He’s a contributor to airoots.org and a founding partner of URBZ and Urbanology

Dr. Evren Uzer is an urban planner & designer based in Istanbul, Turkey and Gothenburg, Sweden; working on disaster risk mitigation, participatory housing and interventions in the public space. She is working at ITU Housing Research and Education Center at Faculty of Architecture in Istanbul. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from ITU. She, together with designer Otto von Busch, works on artistic research projects under the name “roomservices”. She is also co-founder and member of Istanbul-based public space interventions group, “imkanmekan”.

Ebru Erdonmez Born in Uşak (Turkey) in 1974, she studied Architecture at the University of Yildiz, and started her academic career as a research assistant at the same university. She finished her Master Thesis at Istanbul Technical University of Istanbul, with the topic “Transparency in Architecture”. She finished her doctoral thesis at Yıldız Technical University with “The Role of Open Public Spaces on Being Society”. She is working as Asst. Prof. Dr. since 2006 at Yildiz Technical University.
She worked as Guest Professor  at Siegen University, Germany in 2006-2007 Erdonmez has won prizes in a number of international and national architectural competition. (UIA- Unicef International Design Competition etc.) She has been organizing a number of international and national student workshops and scientific meetings .Some of her articles published in books are; Erdönmez E., Ökem S.,”Public Transformation Of The Bosphorus Facts and Opportunities”, Public Istanbul Spaces and Spheres of the Urban, (Ed. Eckardt, F., Wildner, K.), S: 187-205, Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, 2008, ISBN: 978-3-89942-865-0, “Pseudo Utopias”, Le Cahiers de La MSHE Ledoux Autour de Ledoux: Architecture, Ville et Utopie, s: 345-360, Presses Universitaires de France- Comte ,ISBN: 978-2-84867-234-2-EAN, ISSN: 19560222, 2008, Erdönmez, E., Ökem S., “Affects Of Open Public Spaces On Socıety” Erdönmez E., Akı A., Megaron, Architectural Journal of Yıldız Technical University, Year:1, Issue:1, 2005. Her topics are  “Architectural Design”, “Urban Design” and “Environmental Design”.

Tara Kuruvilla is a currently a Junior at New York University, majoring in Art History.  She is happiest on museum and gallery crawls in different cities of the world and firmly believes art can make the world a better place. Her interest in Urban Planning and Arts Activism have led her to an internship at URBZ, where she is organizing the Istanbul Mashup 2010.

Ruya Ipek Saner is a Turkish-American student in the Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design program at Columbia University GSAPP.  She graduated with a B.Arch from Rice University in 2008. Aiding in coordination and translation, Ruya Saner will also participate in the presentation of the workshop output at Columbia University.

Büşra Bağcı was born in Denizli, Turkey, where she attended Türk Eğitim Vakfı Anatolian High School. She is now continuing her education at the Izmir Institute of Technology, Faculty of Architecture.

Erdal Kondakcı 28.02.1989′da Bulgaristan’ ın Kırcaali kentinde doğdu.1990 yılından bu yana İstanbul,Küçükçekmece’de oturuyor. Pertevniyal Lisesi’nden mezun. İzmir Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü, Mimarlık bölümünde bu dönem 1.sınıfı tamamladı.

Eser Yagci is an architect She is currently supervising the “Urban Dreams V/Kent Dusleri V” Workshop, Karakoy Group, and seeks to develop her Phd Dissertation on “Expressive Dynamics of Place: Architecture and Anarchism.”

Ola Nielsen is a landscape artist who has worked in Denmark and Sweden, who most recently got involved in a one year studio focusing on Pune, India. His interest lies in a cities potential, and he is keen to contribute his expertise as a landscapist to the workshop in reimagining Sishane-Galata.

Alp Ruben is a graduate of Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, based in Istanbul, Turkey. He is currently completing his studies at Viyana Teknik Üniversitesi

Tolgay Keskin was born in Antalya, and is now living in Istanbul. He feels that his perspective as a latecomer to the city will offer contribute a fresh new outlook to the Istanbul Mashup. His talent lies in the artful capturing and presentation of life, and he hopes to develop this skill via the workshop.

Eléonore Boissinot has been studying history and geography in France and India, and done fieldworks on the informal housing in Amman and Bombay. She is interested in mixing various disciplines, meeting inspiring people from all kind of backgrounds, and exploring urban spaces with photography and video, especially through documentary filmmaking.

Jeanne Fouchet was born in Paris, where she is currently completing her Bachelor’s degree in Plastic Art in Paris 8 Saint Denis University. She enjoys working with photography, drawing, painting, and is especially fond of “mashing up” several mediums and disciplines in her productions.

Işıl Karataş Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı 2008 mezunu. Şu anda Kadir Has Üniversitesi’nde yüksek lisans yapmakta, aynı zamanda yüksek lisans asistanı olarak çalışmakta.

Meram Irina Pienaru is a recent graduate in Architecture at University of Architecture and Urbanism of Bucharest. She has lived in Italy for a year, and participated in workshops in Spain, Italy and Germany, in addition to a training program in Minsk. Istanbul holds great interest for Meram as it was the first city she ever visited abroad, and she looks forward to returning for the URBZ Mashup workshop.

Vildan Öztürk is a graduate in Graphic Design from the Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts, following which she worked as a graphic designer and art director at advertising agencies for 4 years. She is currently doing her masters degree in design at Kadir Has University, where she is a teaching assistant.

Zeynep Gülşen is a landscape architecture gradute working as the asistant event manager in Yapi-Endustri Merkezi [The Building Information Center] where she inputs her educational background and  personal skills to design and manage architecture/design/building/urban oriented events. She has completed her BLarch in Istanbul Technical University with the graduation project called as ‘Yedikule  Gazhouse Area-Urban Open Space Design’ proposing “Sinaai Yedikule” that aimed to create an interactive urban laboratory by giving back the area’s role of once the energy spreader, urban catalyst.  Than she has involved in Istanbul Bilgi University’s Design Culture and Management one-year certificate program. Following that year she went to Domus Academy, Rome, to continue her master degree  in Cultural Experience Design and Management where she completed the program with a conceptual project under the topic of “Urban Space as Medium for Sustainable Communication”. During her studies which took place in Turkey, U.S.A and Italy she had participated to many meetings and workshops while worked in different fields of design from an architectural office to a non-profit organizational film festival, from a communication agency to a culture&art foundation and an architectural publication. Having a passion to music and cinema, she is interested in pretty much everything that creates a participatory cultural dialogue within interdisciplinary design approach in the urban life and believes that this mash-up experience is going to create a strong collaborative production and awareness for the city.