1000 Voices
Authors
1000 Voices
Authors
Dharavi has creativity and diversity deeply embedded in its landscape. It houses schools, hospitals, mosques, temples, pottery studios, craftsmen, leather industries, textile workshops, food production units, markets of all sorts, people from all over India and much more. This mix creates a unique urban settlement, facilitating interactions and arrangements just as unique. Dharavi combines spatial density with temporal intensity - if no one quite understands how so many people can be accommodated over the 590 acres of Dharavi, it is even harder to figure how people manage their time. Days seem long enough to juggle jobs, businesses, industries, social work, friendships, festivals, carnivals, commerce, community, families, children, drawn-out chai breaks. Our project, 1000 Voices, aims to understand this grand terrain through the perspective of people who, through their presence and activities, keep on reproducing it day after day.
Articles in this collection
An afternoon rendezvous with Vasu Mama, as he narrates about his long-lived and rich life in Dharavi, his current routine post retirement, his values, ideas and opinions about Dharavi and its future.
Pramod Vishwakarma, a carpenter working with the urbz team, talks to us about his connection to the dual places or worlds he belongs to and his indecisiveness over what 'home' truly means to him.
Tahir Bhai takes us through his journey of self-exploration, bitter-sweet memories of his Kismat (fate) and being a spect-actor in Dharavi’s emergence as a socio-economic powerhouse.
We sat with Arun, who runs Arunodaya (a rehabilitation center) to discuss his work and past.
Pushpa has been living in Dharavi since she was born. Our day starts with her bright smile as she sells pulses right outside the urbz office. We recently had a little chat with her.
The announcement of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project brings unanswered questions with it. To gain insight into the housing rehabilitation process, we spoke to Suryakant and Mohammed, whose homes were rehabilitated by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) some years ago.
Related projects
In The Shapes of Third Places series, we delve into the work of the three student groups of GDI 2025, exploring how their creative and insightful approaches have helped us gain new perspectives on Third Places.
The urbz team is working with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC) in Geneva on a participatory landscape design involving staff, neighbors and partners.
Concertation pour le réaménagement d’un quartier de villa en ville de Genève
Consultation for the redevelopment of a villa district in the city of Geneva
©Arthur Crestani, Rue de la Conversation. Juillet 2024.
urbz has spent the last fifteen years in the neighbourhood of Dharavi, actively participating in the user-driven evolution of its material and social life. This has given us the confidence to conceptualise and embark on a project called “The ABCD of Dharavi Koliwada” - An Action Based Comprehensive Development Plan that aims to support the incremental development of the neighbourhood.
Place, Work, Folk is a fortnightly column in The Hindu Sunday Magazine by Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, which is inspired by Patrick Geddes and analyzes current urban issues in India and beyond.
We are excited to be working on a new architectural project in Dharavi Koliwada. Our friend, collaborator, and contractor Joseph Koli, approached us to work on his latest project - the redevelopment of a chawl owned by brothers Vithal and Bhaskar Koli.
Respiration, Hôtel-Dieu, Nantes. Automne 2024.
urbz researched and reported on the ground realities in Dharavi during the COVID-19 pandemic. This series of reports was published from April to November, 2020. We have compiled a collection of four pandemic-focused articles, fifteen Dharavi Weekly issues, and five Dharavi Fortnightly issues available for download.
urbz planned a makeover of the campus of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, where approximately 1,500 employees are based. With around Around 20,000 employees in over 100 conflict zones worldwide, the ICRC is one of the most important humanitarian organizations in the world.