1000 Voices
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Authors
1000 Voices
Authors
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
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
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.
We are taking the Design Comes as We Build project to the next level - the Homegrown Street!
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.
Réaménagement des rues Pré-du-Marché et du Clos-de-Bulle
Redevelopment of Rue Pré-du-Marché and Rue du Clos-de-Bulle
Respiration, Hôtel-Dieu, Nantes. Automne 2024.
©Arthur Crestani, Rue de la Conversation. Juillet 2024.
urbz conduit une démarche participative de 18 mois visant à réimaginer les deux plus grands espaces publics de Lausanne.
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.
urbz a élaboré un plan global pour le siège du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) à Genève, où environ 1500 collaborateurs sont basés. Environ 20 000 autres collaborateurs du CICR travaillent dans plus de 100 zones de conflit dans le monde.
Remember the Urban Typhoon workshops in Kochi? These workshops were part of the EnteKochi citylab. We are now back with the Entekochi competition. This is a national level Urban Design Competition, aiming to jointly ‘design the future city’ of Kochi. It is envisaged to plan and then facilitate the implementation of an integrated civic project.
The Kochi Municipal Corporation called all creative minds to participate!
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.
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.
urbz is working on the development of a set of tools and methodologies for participatory planning for the city of Cali in Colombia.
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
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.
The exhibition Koliwada Charcha is an attempt at understanding the essence of Dharavi Koliwada's architectural and visual language.