In between "handshakes": A critical demolition as a redevelopment strategy

The project itself work as a conclusion of the research and design balance. After several improvements, now it puts in discussion the outcomes of the housing redevelopment strategy. Instead of offering a different alternative to the existing redevelopment trend, it raises questions about what to do with the old redevelopments proposals. How to...

Blurred boundaries: The Reintroduction Of Hierarchical Spaces In The Baithi Chawls Of Mumbai

India is the second most populated country in the world, counting for over 1,3 billion people, a number that is rapidly increasing. In line with the rest of the world, India is, next to its increase in population, seeing a rapid urbanization, with Mumbai in the centre of it all. Considering the increase of population and the urbanization of...

Transit City

One of the cities where the rapid urbanisation of the global south is most eminent is Mumbai, the economic capital of India. Due to a rising economy over the last century millions of people migrated to the city. This urbanisation led to an enormous density and therefore prices of land exploded in the inner city. Due to its physical constrains –...

Leaving space: an alternative for the chawl redevelopment in Nala Sopara

In Nala Sopara, In the Mumbai metropolitan region, we can find many one-story dwelling blocks called ‘baithi chawls’. Due to the increasing demand for housing in this area, the developers have shifted their focus to the build of four to five-story chawls. We can distinguish two forms of chawl development; the redevelopment and the new...

Open Building Approach Toward Inclusive Urban Space

Squatter settlements in a large percentage of the city are due to growing population and urban migration. To tackle this problem in India, Upgrading and Redevelopment have been two broad approaches with their own advocates. Assuming in-situ redevelopment as the most relevant existing approach to face slum settlements, it has caused additional...

Design of mangrove rehabilitation projects on tropical coasts

Mangroves have been proven to be an asset to coastlines because of their myriad advantages relating to coastal protection and stability. Unfortunately, in the past, due to economic necessities or other reasons, many of these mangrove swamps in tropical areas came under threat and were subsequently destroyed. As the awareness about the positive...

Integrating Informality: A Case for an Informal Settlement in Mumbai

As Mike Davis has so poignantly pointed out, Mumbai is often considered to be the global capital of slumming with an estimated 10 million squatters living in the city. These informal settlements now account for more than sixty percent of the total population, and have grown largely as islands in the city, cut-off from their surroundings with...

ReCentering Mumbai: Appropriation of Thane Creek

The thesis explores a strategic spatial proposal for a ‘Wetland Economic Zone’ in Mumbai’s salt-pan/ mangrove/ wetland area on Thane creek. The strategy questions the city’s blanket zoning attitude, and integrates primary sector economies like food production in sustainable practices but using the genius of the place, serving socio-economic...

Toilet tragedy - Toilet treasury: On the design of sanitary amenities for the slums of Mumbai in India

Squatters in Mumbai are facing many disadvantages in daily live, of which the lack of and miserable state of sanitation is one. This graduation project contains two parts: 1) an analysis of the sanitary situation in the slums of Mumbai and 2) a design proposal for future sanitation amenities in this context. A summary of the analysis is included...