Refining instead of Redeveloping

While reading David Harvey’s article, I was surprised by the pattern of growth and collapse we have been witnessing across centuries. It has been happening all over the world at different points in the history of mankind. How urban landscapes have been subjected to change due to an accumulation of surplus capital and the intense network of backlashes it has caused time and again is astounding. This brings to light a repetitive pattern that ties together economies from all over the world into a singular cycle based on human tendency to multiply what is accumulated.

David Harvey mentions Dharavi, one of the largest squatter settlements (better known as slums) in the world. It was born out of a similar series of events beginning with the huge influx of rural Indian population to the suburbs of Mumbai as well as the removal of factories from the central city area of Mumbai to the adjoining suburban regions in the 1880s.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/18/best-ideas-redevelop-dharavi-slum-developers-india#img-4

What began as an informal settlement has grown into an organic social and economic fabric intensely interwoven with social and community spaces that help sustain a very large economy based on small scale industries. While this may embody some of the most valued ideals of urban planners today it isn’t without its problem in terms of density of population, hygiene, lack of adequate public amenities. Change is definitely needed but certainly not in terms of the clean slate, start afresh approach most developers are approaching it with.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8g0MsDROiiJwmGY_v3doMlJZe_L92am7EB6FMq3G8-rGeadg72vZa5AMr3PG-xthhA-v2cB78eWD_osa2vAR1WV84VPZrrgtw-v2lyld1onvcVzovypwRKPJDPfFN8lzckG8CCtPo04/s1600/Fig+3+Cahier+contested+urbanism.jpg

As Jane Jacobs mentions in her article “The use of Sidewalks: Safety”, there is an intricate ballet of the pathways and sectors in Dharavi where the people and the dense social networks that crisscross through this urban settlement each have a distinct part, contributing in many tangible and intangible ways. Uprooting an entire community/ population at this scale destroys their way of life, their source of livelihood and their social and economic networks through which they have sustained for so long. Attempting to displace them and fit them into cookie cutter apartments and high-rises will definitely not replace the valuable community they have grown into since 1882.

A link to a related article helps understand steps that Mumbai’s Urban Design Research Institute is taking to help come up with a solution to redefining Dharavi.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/18/best-ideas-redevelop-dharavi-slum-developers-india

The problem was presented to the Global design community with the only rule being that each team should be inter-disciplinary (going back to the recurring theme in our class discussions, further amplified by the Pritzker award recipients this year.) Many proposals were received, each rooted in community activities, introducing housing and water systems, connectivity, street-led upgrading of housing and communal facilities.  But what stood out was the proposal with the intent to bring back ownership of the land to the people, thus involving the former landowners, neighborhood agencies and communities, and moving forward in a very people-based, humane method of urban design.