Affordable Habitat

Mobile Workshop – 4th Holcim Forum 2013 – Mumbai, India

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    4th Holcim Forum in Mumbai, India 2013: Blue Mobile workshop - Retained diversity: The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) is an NGO working to secure housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. SPARC began work in Mumbai’s pavement slums, where they formed a network of women’s collectives called Mahila Milan (“Women Together”) & entered a partnership with the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF).

This workshop will investigate the different economic, legal, planning, and cultural conditions affecting informal settlements and their traditions of combined living/working spaces.

Last updated: April 12, 2013 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

SPARC resettlement site

The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) is an NGO working to secure housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. SPARC began work in Mumbai’s pavement slums, where they formed a network of women’s collectives called Mahila Milan (“Women Together”) and then entered into a partnership with the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF). The site at Mankhurd is a Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) township that provides permanent residences for low-income inhabitants, including homes for former slum dwellers.

SPARC has successfully assisted two separate groups: pavement slum dwellers and railway slum dwellers, to organize themselves and demonstrate their right to MHADA housing. This site will allow participants to meet and discuss issues facing the urban poor, to have first-hand feedback from former slum dwellers, and to see the living conditions in two architecturally different housing types.

Dharavi

Located on prime land in the centre of Mumbai, Dharavi is spread over 400 hectares. Home to over one million inhabitants, it is flanked by railway lines, a mangrove, canal and busy roads. This informal settlement is also significantly productive with home based enterprises and industrial workshops engaged in manufacturing, service and food sectors. Many of these units demonstrate amazing efficiency in the business of recycling. The architecture is a mosaic of housing typologies - tiny shanties, dense tenements and concrete buildings.

Dharavi is a haven of work and affordable housing to its residents. “Be the Local”, a group organised and run by local university students who are themselves residents in Dharavi, will conduct the tours with focus on living and working in this informal area. Workshop participants will experience the diversity of people and architecture, and witness the diversity of this self-sustaining economy that houses thriving commerce, services, and industries.

Mobile Workshop Facilitators: Ameya Athavankar and Keya Kunte