NEW TRANSIT CAMP SOCIAL CLUB

The building will be a symbol of how Dharavi could be redeveloped in a different way: no high-rise building, no masterplans coming from above our heads, but projects that can improve the quality of life in Dharavi. To us, developing Dharavi means taking into consideration what is already there. This must be done in a way that is economically sustainable. So the basic concept of the project is: 1) Develop don’t destroy, 2) make a small architectural landmark that will act as a statement showing that an alternative model of development in possible, 3) make it work within the economic dynamic of Dharavi.



Dharavi is not a junkyard that can be bulldozed. The tabula rasa approach is not an option. As we know people live here, they work and play like everywhere in Mumbai. This is a normal neighborhood confronted with special challenges. Several parts of Dharavi don’t look different from so many other areas of Mumbai, which are not referred as slums. Any (re)development project should start by evaluating the strength and the potential of Dharavi and consider the people living there as the main users and stakeholders.

The building we designed should be a new facility for the community. In the initial phase we are considering the use of pallet racks system, which is a relatively cheap, fast, adaptable and modern way of building inside Dharavi.

The preliminary project proposes two different spaces: a large space on the ground floor for elderly residents (using the structure that has just been built) and a space for street children on the first floor. A tower provides vertical circulation. It also functions as a landmark for the area. The top of the tower is used to broadcast free internet wireless to New Transit Camp Nagar (and may be to the whole Dharavi), and diffuse Dharavi’s very own dharavi.organic wiki website. Two open spaces are planned: a patio on the backside of the plot and an open terrace on the roof.

Pallet racks system. Picture from Bangalore Jaaga Creative Common Ground

Look at the other pictures from Jaaga to understand more about the construction system.

The pallet racks system allows us to build the tower and the first floor in a flexible and adaptable way. A second floor can be easily added in the future. For the ground floor we are simply keeping the existing brick structure.

The project moves quickly and many things keep changing. These are just preliminary ideas for the buildings. We will continue working on them. We also aim at using inputs from other architects and builders coming to the URBZ office. If you are interested in helping this project in any way, please contact URBZ. What we need the most at the moment is funding. Anything would help. We can already go a long way with $20,000 to 30,000.

(text from URBZ web site)

ITALIAN MAFIA TAKING OVER DHARAVI!

Matias Echanove, Rahul Srivastava, Alberto Bottero, Maddalena Bregani, Stefano Boeri, Francesco Strocchio in URBZ office.

Suspect activity has been observed in Dharavi in the last days, particularly around New Transit Camp and the URBZ office. An unusual number of Italians have been seen walking around the neighbourhood, some of them taking pictures and even measuring a vacant plot on Mahatma Gandhi Road. Is the Italian mafia spreading its tentacles all the way to the most contested piece of real estate in the world?

It turns out that the visiting Italians comprised of many different groups, all related in one way or the other to URBZ’s activities. First came Francesco Strocchio and Alberto Bottero, two graduating architecture students from the Politecnico di Torino and as part of HINDUSTRY Urban Research Group, who were sent by Michele Bonino and double-agent Subhash Mukerjee of Studio Marc, who, it turns out had participated in the Urban Typhoon workshop in Koliwada (2008).

Francesco and Alberto have been working on the design of a Social Club for street children and elderly residents in New Transit Camp. This is a project for which URBZ and HINDUSTRY are looking for funding at the moment (just in case you know someone willing to give for a good cause!)

Moreover some days later we had the possibility to meet Stefano Boeri, who was visiting Mumbai and decided to meet Rahul and Matias to speak about the work they are doing in Dharavi.

We spoke with him as well with him concerning the work we are now carrying on and we will look forward for possible cooperation concering Dharavi.

Possibly new projects will go on also thanks to his help and and his enthusiasm!

Read more on URBZ website...

New Transit Camp Community House _ Dharavi set

Transition Camp..(Dharavi, Mahatma Gandhi Road)

Here are uploaded a preliminary design for the we are working at.
The building will be used by street children and elderly people.

link: Preliminary Presentation of NewTransitCamp Community House
New Transit Camp - Site Project

Rotterdam Biennale Exhibithion

They exhibithion will last until the 13th of December!!!
Go to Rotterdam and visit it!

//Parallel cases is a part o the IV Architecture Biennale. take the ferry boat from the Erasmus bridge to reach the RDM campus (last stop)!!!

See IV rotterdam biennale//parallel cases _shots

News from Dharavi

Here we uploaded the first snapshots of our experience in Mumbai: pictures of Dharavi, Koliwada and Greater mumbai!
Just have a look!

Click on the following link: mumbai first snapshot

hindustry in mumbai

Hindustry is nowadays working on a small project in dharavi....news are coming soon!

Rotterdam on show!

coexistance as survival_image

coexistance as survival_text

COEXISTENCE AS SURVIVAL
Enhancing informal synergies in the communities of Dharavi, Mumbai
"Parallel Cases" exhibition, International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, 2009

a project by:
First School of Architecture, Politecnico di Torino + HINDUSTRY urban research

Students:
Marco Boella, Alberto Bottero, Manuela Martorelli, Francesco Stassi, Francesco Strocchio

Tutors:
Michele Bonino, Pierre-Alain Croset (Politecnico di Torino)
Tomà Berlanda, Subhash Mukerjee (HINDUSTRY)

Acknowledgements:
Pukar – Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action & Research, Mumbai
Urbz – user-generated cities

Dharavi, one of the oldest and largest slums in Asia, might disappear.
The long-lasting indifference that allowed its uncontrolled growth came to an end, as the ever-expanding Mumbai swallowed it: from being a forgotten peripheral slum it became a potential real estate goldmine in the heart of the city, to be erased and redeveloped.
But Dharavi is resisting: the imperfect but deep-rooted Indian democracy manifested in a resistance of unexpected sturdiness. Dharavi is stating that any renewal is impossible without understanding.

It is easy to misunderstand, though.
Its extreme density, the striking poverty and the chaos, conceal the precision of the mechanisms that it managed to develop through the decades, in order to continue its existence. Some times informally, some times even illegally, Dharavi was able to create its own economy, a specific ecology, a somewhat turbulent but organized society. It works.
But observing such mechanisms is impossible if we don't find a way to look deeper. For our group, understanding Dharavi means trying to acquire neutral eyes, abandoning the inevitable exoticist gaze caused by the place's stunning “extremes”.

Our project seeks to build those neutral eyes, able to investigate and “unveil” the logics behind the slum's apparent confusion.
An intentionally narrow sectional model of Koliwada - the oldest settlement within Dharavi - is used to show how even the tiniest “slice” of the village hosts an impressive number of activities and functions, inextricably overlapped and tied together.
A series of thematic “masks” can be scrolled in front of the model, masking parts of the section and focusing specific events, activities or stories hidden in the generic urban intensity otherwise visible. Suddenly isolated, these stories can be observed in their synergic strength, they make sense.
They are for us the starting point for any reasonable urban design project, the next step that our group is currently working on.

koalition or the fishnet_images

koalition or the fishnet

Urban Typhoon Workshop Koliwada-Dharavi
Dharavi, Mumbai, March 16-24, 2008

Organiser: Pukar, Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research

tutor: Subhash Mukerjee

students: Tomà Berlanda, Marco Boella, Dhaval Malesha, Manuela Martorelli, Shaira Sequeria Shetty, Sanjay Pratap Singh

This workshop is being organized together with the residents of Dharavi Koliwada and PUKAR and will bring together local and international participants including architects & artists from India, Chile, Mexico, Barcelona, New York and Tokyo. The objective is to produce creative designs for Koliwada as well as a multimedia testimony to the unique spirit of the community. The workshop will be organized in about 10 different teams composed of local and international participants. The Urban Typhoon workshop invites students of the city and practitioners from India and abroad to brainstorm on the future of Koliwada and through it, alternative communities around the world.
The Kolis are interested in opening the design process to more creative ideas, which could integrate aspiration to a modern comfort with a deeper sensibility to the activities, culture and history of their community, while paying attention to the larger contexts of Dharavi, Mumbai, India and rest of the world. The material produced during the workshop, as well as the innovative participatory practices experimented with, will be of use to any redevelopment scheme, whether it ends up being lead by the community, NGOs, the government or a combination of the three. The workshop’s outcome will help local community groups and progressive governments to elaborate new strategies, mobilize broad constituencies, and put participatory planning into practice.

cutting edge bombay_the team

cutting edge bombay_the exhibit

cutting edge bombay_the statement

Learnig from cities workshop, 10th Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2006
SPECIAL AWARD FOR SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE
I Facoltà di Architettura Politecnico di Torino

coordinator: Pierre-Alain Croset
tutors: Michele Bonino, Subhash Mukerjee
consultant: Rahul Mehrotra, Bombay
special thanks to: Massimo Fantini
students: Tomà Berlanda, Marco Boella, Rita D’Attorre, Valeriano Foti, Manuela Martorelli, Rachele Michinelli, Marianna Nigra, Caterina Pagliara, Federica Patti, Paolo Remogna, Francesco Stassi

Bombay has always had a problematic relationship with water. Since the 18th century the city’s growth has gone through several land reclamations, that finally joined the original seven islands together.
As land was added, Bombay’s form was defined as a single compact body, thus losing the characteristic fragmentation of its coastline. Islands dissolved, the coastline moved West, homogeneous and compact. Backbay is the only area where the filling in has not completely happened. Around the big water void diverse social groups are near and divided, struggling every day to conquer square metres of free space.
The project states the need of maintaining this water void, redefining it in its geometry to give it a form: cutting its edges to reveal its potential as a public space. Respecting local differences, as an alternative to the banalizing process of the land reclamations. Water becomes the public space, the space for the negotiation of the needs and the interests of every part of society, place for communication, for social activities and of intermodal exchange.