Samidha Patil is an architect, urbanist and partner of the urbz Collective Mumbai. She graduated with an MSc. in Urban Management and Development from the Institute for Housing and Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam, for which she was awarded a fellowship by the Dutch government. She specialises in urban housing, equity and social justice. She brings in elements of participation in architectural projects to develop community-centric designs. For the past 10 years, she has worked with several communities, municipalities in India and international organisations globally.
Her work is at the intersection of urban planning, environment and governance. She has worked closely with state and municipal officials of multiple smart cities in India to develop urban-scale interventions and development frameworks related to urban mobility, housing, environment, ecology and economy. As an urban researcher, she works on several research projects, ranging from adequate housing for the urban poor to climate change to mobility.
Samidha studied architecture from Bharati Vidhyapeeth College of Architecture, Navi Mumbai. As a true blue Mumbaikar, she understands the need of affordable housing which is hard to come across in the city. She joined urbz to break away from traditional architecture practice to engage more with the community and pursue her interest with affordable housing. Her other interests are in indigenous building technology and vernacular art and architecture which she believes should be sustained with modern technology.
19.0351534, 72.8404432
Kolis Krib
Articles
Following the Water: NYUAD returns to Dharavi Koliwada
The Handstorm workshop in Dharavi, with the Engineers for Social Impact from NYU, Abu Dhabi took place for the second time this year in October, 2025. We walked through the lanes of Dharavi Koliwada, observing Water in the diverse and unexpected paths that it took to and from people’s homes. Students diligently followed the water, listening carefully to the stories it had to tell.
Inhabiting the night: Light infrastructure in an urban village
As part of the ABCD project, street lighting emerged as an urgent need for the residents of Dharavi Koliwada. A need that was addressed through a year-long collaboration between urbz, the Dharavi Koli Jamat, local electricians and residents. Read about how the process unfolded and what comes next.
Reclaiming Landscape - Collective Memory and the many lives of Dharavi Koliwada
Koliwada in Dharavi, connected to the Mithi River, embodies a unique amphibious landscape shaped by traditional practices,
ecological stewardship, and community resilience amidst urban challenges. The Garden of Festivities project highlights the
settlement’s fight for sustainable coexistence with Mumbai’s shifting coastal terrain.
Garden of Festivities - Ecological regeneration in a concrete jungle
‘The Garden of Festivities’ is a project that attempts to unite livelihood concerns with an ecological imagination that grows from the Kolis collective, ancestral knowledge and expertise. The project's first step is a participatory landscape intervention on the last remaining commons within a habitat they are struggling to preserve.
Customs House - Continuity and Transformation in Dharavi Koliwada
As part of the ABCD project, we have been busy transforming a historical site in Dharavi Koliwada into a study space. We recount its history and revival.
Hands across the ocean: An unexpected collaboration between Australian carpenters and Dharavi’s building experts.
Dharavi Koliwada was abuzz with news of the 8 Australians helping to build the Customs House study space for students. From ferrying huge blocks of basalt stone to putting together a teak wood chair, the team from Sullivan Carpentry did it all.
A Koliwada in Dharavi
This article presents the Koliwada in Dharavi through the evolution of its built and natural environment, tracing the Koli's fight for their land, how the community is leading the development of their neighbourhood and our role in it.
re:arc selects urbz!
Following up on the biggest news we had in our yearly update, we want to share more about how we got to kickstart our dream project in Dharavi Koliwada. Here we go.
2024 - Here we are !
We take a moment to reflect on urbz's achievements in 2023 and our objectives for 2024. We started in Mumbai in 2008 where we are busier than ever. Over the years we expanded our activities to Goa, Bogota, Geneva and now Paris. For 2024, we make the good resolution of communicating better and more frequently with our friends and followers!
Paan fried fish: Industry meets Environment
We recently travelled from Mumbai to Chiplun and then onward to reach Sawarde, a small village in the Konkan region. While we enjoyed the abundant landscape we also discovered some sobering realities.
Works
Homegrown Street
We are taking the Design Comes as We Build project to the next level - the Homegrown Street!
Dharavi works
Dharavi Works is a series of projects designed in Mumbai by urbz in partnership with local inhabitants and contractors.
Habitat 100: A chawl redevelopment project
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.
Circulatory Urbanism
For the past 5 years, urbz has been following families who's lives are spread between Mumbai and their ancestral villages in the Konkan (Western India).
1000 Voices
1000 Voices is a project that aims to document and understand Dharavi, Mumbai, through the perspective of people who, through their presence and activities, reproduce this fascinating homegrown neighbourhood day after day.
Fiction in Urban Practice
Fictional imaginaries help us move towards an important starting point in urban practice - 'recognition'. A way of seeing that transforms our understanding of urban spaces.
IFRC Park
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.
