Rapid urbanization in Sylhet, a growing second-tier city in Bangladesh, has led to significant environmental and social challenges. With a population of nearly 3 million and an area of 26.50 square kilometers, Sylhet faces increased building density, improper waste management, and inadequate public spaces. The city’s urban ponds, traditionally serving as vital communal spaces, are now threatened by rapid urban expansion. Known as the sacred capital of Bangladesh, Sylhet's urban landscape is also influenced by its major religious groups, Muslims and Hindus, whose religious spaces shape the city's fabric. This research investigates how these urban ponds can be leveraged to create inclusive urban environments, addressing both social cohesion and environmental sustainability.

One of Bangladesh's sustainable development goals is to ensure access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services for all by 2030, including upgrading slums. Given the presence of an informal settlement in the design assignment, various strategies, like slum clearance, slum upgrading and slum redevelopment, have been researched to involve the current urban poor dwellers, aiming to develop a project where different income groups can coexist.

This thesis explores how lessons from Sylhet's urban ponds can address housing inadequacies and reduce segregation in the city. It investigates the social dynamics around urban ponds and their environmental benefits. Socially, it analyzes how the current uses of these ponds affect community interactions among diverse demographic groups. Environmentally, it evaluates the role of ponds in mitigating climate change effects and their significance for urban resilience.

The design task aims to create an inclusive living environment in a densely populated area, using urban ponds as focal points to foster harmony among diverse cultural and income groups. Ultimately, this research contributes to urban planning by providing insights into the use of urban ponds to enhance social inclusion and environmental sustainability, offering a blueprint for future urban development in Sylhet and other cities in the Global South facing similar challenges.

In recent decades, Bangladesh has been facing a rapid spread of urbanization with significant growth of its population. This phenomenon has impacted the housing situation in metropolitan regions, leading to a surge in informal housing, overcrowding, and the establishment and expansion of slums. A tangible indicator of this urban development is the escalating waste issue, far from going unnoticed given the amount dumped on riverbanks and wasteland. Solid waste has become one of the most prominent environmental problem in developing countries.The waste production increases significantly in line with the growth in consumption. Consequently, regions with higher population density generate larger volumes of garbage, necessitating appropriate infrastructure for its management. Sylhet City, in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh, is grappling with these challenges due to uncontrolled and unplanned rapid urbanization. The municipality faces difficulties in collecting and disposing of increasing amounts of waste. Difficulties have been linked to various factors, including inadequate funding, a poor community involvement, and a lack of implementation of laws. The repercussions extend to social, economic, health, and environmental dimensions, with a particularly elevated vulnerability in informal settlements.This is exemplified in the slum build on the southwest banks of the Surma River, next to the Keane Bridge in Sylhet, reflecting a broader issue faced by Bangladesh and South Asia. This project aims to gain deeper understanding of the needs of riverine communities to explore how design and infrastructure interventions can enhance living conditions on riverbanks. By integrating recycled waste as building components and focusing on circular design principles, the project seeks to propose sustainable solutions for urban development and waste management.

Bangladesh, characterized by its flat landscape and the dynamic Ganges Delta, faces severe climate change impacts, including devastating floods that threaten livelihoods and biodiversity. Urban expansion, particularly in cities like Sylhet, exacerbates environmental degradation, leading to the loss of green spaces, water basins, and biodiversity. This project focuses on the town of Bolawara, examining the conflicts between rural ecosystems and urban growth. The research aims to develop architectural and agricultural strategies that promote the coexistence of humans and nature during the rural-to-urban transition, addressing climate resilience, biodiversity preservation, and sustainable development.

The proposed architectural project presents an approach to urban housing, focusing on adaptability, sustainability, and community integration. The design emphasizes a strong core structure with a flexible, modular exterior, enabling incremental expansion to accommodate diverse income levels and evolving family needs. A standardized system ensures uniformity, efficient space use, and compatibility across housing types, promoting a cohesive community environment. The project integrates income-generating spaces within housing units, supporting economic stability. Additionally, shared community areas and sustainable practices, such as vertical farming and comprehensive waste management, foster social interaction, environmental stewardship, and self-sufficiency. The plan ultimately aims to create a culturally rich, self-sustaining community where architecture bridges people and nature, enhancing both individual and collective well-being.

This thesis explores the pivotal role of women in the urban development of Sylhet, a city in the northeast of Bangladesh. It focuses on their participation in the planning and organizing a new urban project near a pond in an area characterized by diverse income levels and religious backgrounds. The central concept revolves around the formation of women-centric communities within this project. By empowering women to take the lead in establishing essential domestic functions and organizing their households, the study aims to highlight the potential for women to contribute significantly to creating cohesive and functional urban settlements. This approach addresses the immediate needs of providing shelter and essential amenities and fosters a sense of community and ownership among the inhabitants. The research underscores the importance of including women's perspectives in urban planning in Bangladesh to achieve sustainable and inclusive urban growth in Sylhet.

Co-housing project and development scheme for Nala Sopara
The main objective behind this project is to explore potential solutions to the housing problem in Mumbai. To achieve this objective, I have developed a structured approach. This will consist of extensive research into the nature of the problem at every level. These ‘levels’ consist of the meta: Neoliberalism, the structural: Hyper-commodification of housing, and the tangible: the lived experience of those individuals who are embroiled in the extremes of these processes. Another facet of research will be into existing community based housing initiatives, both in India and around the world. The culmination of these inquiries will be the creation of an architectural design brief which will inform the design of a housing model. It is expected that the outcome of this thesis will be the development of an effective design brief template and subsequent housing model, which can better address the housing situation in Mumbai. Beyond Nalasopara and Mumbai, it is intended that the thesis research will also respond to the growing global issue to do with free market housing. This would not be a model per say; but rather, a way of thinking about the core of the problem before addressing individual cultural dimensions.

Exhibition 2 February – 30 March 2018, Art Entrance Gallery, Mumbai, India@en

In the past decades Mumbai has experienced a huge increase of citizens who, drawn by the economic opportunities of the big city, come to Mumbai for chances of a better life. The city is struggling with the effects that this has on the city. A big part of its population reside in informal settlements, living under impoverished circumstances. This graduationproject revolves around improving these circumstances through the development and design of durable, affordable, qualitative social housing that is able to reach high densities while maintaining a qualitative level of living.

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 – it is situated on a slender peninsula - the city expended along its railway lines towards the north and east, creating new communities around its stations. One of these border communities is Nala Sopara, located in the Vasai-Virar area about 50km north of the central fort district of Mumbai.
Due to the affordable land Nala Sopara grew exponentially over the last two decades from a small village settlement to a city on itself with over a million inhabitants.
To release pressure from the hearth of the metropole the state government is planning new infrastructural corridors. As a result, a new trainline is planned to connect the Vasai Virar area with Navi Mumbai which crosses through the eastern part of Nala Sopara, an area which is characterized by an urban sprawl of low-rise structures called baithi chawls.
Due to the clear relation between public transport and densification in the city one can argue that the area through which this trainline crosses will drastically change, as it already did in Mumbai and the central part of Nala Sopara.
My project tries to offer an alternative to the existing schemes of densification in relation to infrastructure. It aims to be an inclusive and resilient strategy for mass affordable housing in contrast to the current market driven neoliberal approach, and furthermore tries to embed itself in the existing context and future infrastructural development.

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 deal with the profitable outcomes? Should be the housing solutions considered as a commodity? If the answer is positive, how one should deal with the consequences? The thesis proposal offers a trade-off that more than focus on profit, tries to improve the current living conditions of the redevelopment outcomes.

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 India, it is only a logical cause that its capital is now growing at an unprecedented pace. In only fifty years’ time, the population of Mumbai has tripled, with no apparent end to be seen. Almost needless to say, the city is struggling with these numbers. What might be even more striking is the fact that in the same time span, the percentage of people living in slums has risen from roughly ten percent to as much as fifty percent of total population. And although slum dwellers form half of the population, their homes only take up 6% of the total land area. The conditions in which many of these dwellers live, are alarmingly unhygienic and according to the Census of India unfit for human habitation.
Many of them will end up in so-called “Chawls”, five story high apartment blocks, closely packed together. From an economic perspective it is almost impossible to compete with the developments of the Chawls. It is simply not possible to house any more dwellings on a piece of land, without making substantially higher buildings, which would no longer be economical. The developers have maximized their profits, with hardly any regard for the dwellers needs.
When visiting the village of Nalasopara, a mere 2,5 kilometres away from the Chawls, the stark contrast between the two becomes obvious. Whereas the village accommodates in many of the social and economic needs of its inhabitants, the Chawls are very monotonous and lack the richness in sociospatial layers. A large variety in hierarchy of spaces can be observed in the village, constituting a layering in the way spaces are used and the interactions between people taking place. This hierarchy is not present in the Chawls, resulting in a scarce variety of spaces and how they are used. Although most of the dwellers have broken the bonds of village community, that does not mean the spatial practices originating in the village are also thrown away. Moreover, the “village way of life” has certain qualities, which can serve also those who do not originate from the village. Not paying attention to those, which is happening now, is a lost opportunity. These qualities could be used to overcome the problem of the lack of sociospatial layers and not meeting the social and economic needs of the dwellers.
This project represents an attempt to overcome some of the issues described above and will show a design that tries to combine the qualities of the village together with the reality of the Chawls. It will show a design that introduces hierarchical spaces in the overcrowded areas of the Chawls, to blur the boundaries.

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 constructions. In the case of the redevelopment the original baithi chawl is demolished and replaced by a four or five story chawl using the exact same footprint; increasing the
density four times. Newly built chawls are developed on vacant lots using about the same urban layout as the redeveloped baithi chawls; creating a density of about 1300 units per hectare. Both developments contribute significantly to the provision of housing for the economical weaker
sector and the lower income group.
However, these developments create an urban fabric of chawls that is extremely cramped. In The chawl area’s the open space has been reduced to an absolute minimum. The buildings get placed closer and closer together to create the highest possible density, but leaving hardly any ‘open-to sky space’. As advocated by Correa these open-to-sky spaces
are a crucial aspect of housing in warm climates: ''Successful housing is a seamless continuum of spaces that goes all the way from the
most private, to the semi-private, to the public. This is why it creates communities''. In this graduation project, an alternative scenario is developed that takes into account the importance of open space and amenities.

In the next three decades, the lanet’s rate of urbanization will increase at a fast rate, adding 2,5 billion new dwellers to the current urban o ulation. To accom¬modate this demogra hic growth, the world needs to tackle the many challenges of sustainable and fair urban develo ment. Right now, urbanization in the Global South ha ens in mainly unsustainable ways, with a roximately 850 million eo ¬le living in slums in 2014 (1/3 of all urban dwellers). Rethinking the current systems of affordable housing roduction is a major challenge that needs urgent actions. The stakeholders involved in housing roduction, in general, and the architectu¬re disci line, in articular, need a critical evaluation of their rocesses, methods and strategies to answer some ressing questions. Where will all these new urban dwellers live? More im ortantly erha s, how will these new urbanites dwell? What will be the role of architects and urban lanners in this rocess? The graduation studio Mixing Mumbai: Affordable Housing for Inclusive Develo ¬ment aims to stimulate the artici ants to contribute answers to these questions, engaging with ressing dwelling and urban issues in develo ing territories, as well as with the increasing cross-cultural character of contem orary architectural rac¬tice.

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 problems, which should be addressed. These problems have been revealed during site survey and archival research. Considering the architect as a design factor with a limited amount of authority to change existing policies, how can the architect redefine the existing solution of in-situ redevelopment schemes in order to contribute to major developments? To what extent/How can an in-situ redevelopment scheme be used to generate an inclusive urban space? The design hypothesis is tested on an area of slum settlements in close proximity with many low-rise, high-density blocks in the North of Mumbai.

Charles Correa Over the course of his 50 year career, Charles Correa realized an impressive number of important and influential projects in and outside his native country India. However, alongside his cultural and other institutional work, housing, and especially housing for the poor, remained for him one of the key - if not the primary - responsibility of an architect. Correa’s oeuvre, especially in housing design, is remarkable for the consistency with which he addressed the various complex issues of generating habitat where forming intelligent responses to climate, culture and resources remained at the heart of all his work. Through both his built and un-built projects, deceptively simple ideas expressed with great clarity of thought help identify clear lineages between ideas and projects, whether they were for single-family homes or townships, built for the poor or for the rich. The exhibition It is the intention of the exhibition to pay tribute to Charles Correa’s legacy as one of the most prominent and inspiring authorities on housing design as well as highlight the main concerns and themes that guided his work. Through drawings, photographs and sketches from the Correa Archives, as well as models produced here at the faculty, the exhibition will chart the development of Correa’s ideas on housing, from his seminal Tube House linear model, based on the idea of a climate-responsive architecture, to the complex courtyard clusters of Belapur, focusing on the ideas of creating community and opportunities for growth and change in time. Through the exhibition, we hope to highlight these important paradigms and their development over time through a number of projects that remain key references for students and architects today.@en