rupali gupte & prasad shetty：propositions to see cities

Propositions to see Cities

Notes from Mumbai

Rupali Gupte & Prasad Shetty

Ideas of cities have been dominated by two imaginations:, one of a technological utopia supported by super infrastructure and a robust information system

or the opposite, a city engendered by catastrophes of environment, poverty, and deterioration.

Inherent in both these imaginations of coherence and catastrophes, is the idea of time as a singular linear rhythm, of space as an entity with fixed coordinates and of people as homogenous and inert mass.

Both these imaginations have led to the city being imagined as a project – A Mission Impossible to be undertaken. Government and Civil society alike have taken it upon themselves to fix the problems of the city. The city is now a mission.

Transactional Capacities

This is the development plan of Mumbai. What appears as one line in plan, in real life thickens out to show a complex occupancy.

Grant Road, Mumbai shows a thickened occupancy.

Grant Road, Mumbai showing four levels of occupancy in the place of a single thin line in the city plan.

hawkers

One foot

shopsShop

extensions

Shops

Chawl

rooms

rented for

storage

Haribaug, Parel chawl housing with one room tenements and common areas for occupation

Poonawala chawl, Parel housing with one room porous tenements and common areas for occupation

Poonawala chawl housing, Parel

Poonawala, Parel chawl housing, bridges that connect two buildings act like public living rooms

Poonawala chawl housing, Parel, the porous house

Kumbharwada Dharavi, Mumbai, a potters colony where work, living and selling takes place together.

Beherampada,Mumbai, a multi level self built housing, where work, manufacturing, living and selling and leisure takes place together.

Community Space, Praying HallOwners House

Workers Dorm

Embroidery Units

Library

Grocery shop Utensils renting enterprise

Embroidery Units

Beherampada, Mumbai

In contrast are the resettlement colonies in Mankhurd, Mumbai, where only living can take place with no transactional capacities

TRANSACTIONAL CAPACITIES vis-à-vis THE DEGREE OF BLUR (and corresponding TYPE / FORM)

Skyscraping Apartments

Apartment BlocksOld Labor HousingDilapidated Bazaar HousingIncremental Settlements

Transactional CapacitiesDensities, number of activities,

networks, transactions, care, livelihoods, cultural settling, security, accommodation of

diversity, etc.

ResourcesSocial & physical

infrastructure, space, energy consumption, pressure on

infrastructure, etc.

Degree of Blur

Mohammed Ali Road Neighbourhood, Mumbai, where transactional capacities give the city its energies.

Transactional Objects

Charkop, Mumbai, A Transactional Object – A vendor uses the fence of a private building to store her wares.

Poonawala chawl, Transactional Object – a Duchampian door that serves the dual purpose of shutting the living room space and the kitchen storage at different times of the day.

Null Bazaar, Fort & Girgaum , Mumbai, Transactional Spaces: The pne foot shop, the shop inside a shop, the shop under a stair

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A one foot shop that occupies a foot of space inside the adjacent building and one foot outside.

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A one foot cupboard shop

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A one foot betel leaves shop

Transactional Objects at the 56th Venice Art Biennale: One foot shop

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A day and night one foot shop

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A shop that touches the city at one point

Bhindi Bazaar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A box shop

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – Box shops that advertise services of plumbing and carpentry.

Tool Box

Astrologer’s Chair

Staircase Shop

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A basket used to transport goods

Bhuleshwar, Mumbai : A Transactional Object – A basket used to transport goods and sleep in

Basket Bed

Settling

Grant Road, Mumbai : Idea of a blurred Urban Form and Slow Settling where negotiations between different occupancies make the city.

Bandra East Skywalk, Mumbai, after a large infrastructure project is built

Bandra East Skywalk, Mumbai, the city slowly settles underneath

Bandra East Skywalk, Mumbai, a picnic on the skywalk

Parel, flyover, a playground underneath

A toilet built as part of a Slum Sanitation programe

slowly settles, with the caretaker using the space for community functions

Incrementally upgrading the space himself

Incrementally upgrading the space himself; an aircurtain that acts as a fan

Slowly consolidating itelf.

A landscape appears outside

A meeting of small contractors that convene on matters of upgrading.

A new slum house newly built by one of the contractors who has solved the ventilation problem.

In another instance, instead of a large toilet block, built by Non Governmental organisations

Lower level government officials helped upgrade self built settlements

with toilets inside the house, turning it into a liveable neighbourgood

.

Trips and Kicks

Our next contention is that cities are made with people who have trips and kicks. This is the instance of a man who lives in a very small tenement but whose trip in life is to find people who have left their vilages and have got lost in cities.

He is not bothered of his loss of job or his small apartment. He has another absurd goal in life, which he lives for

The toilet caretaker has another trip, to upgrade the toilet and make it into a community centre.

And trips of lower level government staff who against interests of upper officials and Non Governmental organisations.

Other trips in the city include collecting of outdated computer parts which are sought afterby others whose trip is to repair.

Trips to repair, workshops under staircases in Lamington Road, an area that specialises in computer peripherals mostly from China.

Trips where three friends take care of each others shops

Trips where the landlord rents out his wall for a one foot shop and hangs out outside it.

Trips where a shop keeper of LED lights, influenced by a Bollywood film gets his tailor father to stitch him a suit made of lights.

And walks around the city with his lit clothes.

Trips: the story of Pradeep who has lost his jobs in the repair market for sound recorders

Because computer parts are now becoming more microscopic. But he still says he enjoys his job.

He has subdivided his shop now and rents it to his friend to store his goods

He collects Gods of all faiths

Shows how he has been told by a finance expert how he is a fool to keep his shop as he is losing money but still keeps it because he enjoys the work.

Trips where in his spare time he designs for himself the most ergonomical chair.

And redesigns a watch which he can read more clearly.

And designs pens out of left over acrylc

And designs pens out of left over brass pipes

And makes several iterations of it.

Being Nicely Messy‘On Futures’

TWO DOMINANT IMAGINATIONS OF FUTURE

THE APOCALYPSE THE HIGH-TECH

Images: http://good-wallpapers.com/misc/14759 ; http://lava360.com/30-breathtaking-future-city-concept-art/

IDEAS AROUND URBANSATION

UBBANIZATION AS A PREDATORY PROCESS URBANISATION WILL PRODUCE CRISES

Images: http://cybergeo.revues.org/24798, http://blog.shiftboston.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/the_urban_crisis.jpg

ELSE WHERE IN THE WORLD

Colonial Business District

Inner City Area with old dilapidated built fabric

Eastern waterfront

(port & industry)

Dense Incremental Settlement

near a railway station

Western waterfront

(elite residential

areas)

Suburban areas with

incremental settlements

New Business Process

Outsourcing Areas

City edge

Suburban neighbor-

hoods (middle

class areas)


Outsourcing Areas

City edgeSuburban areas with


Suburban neighbor-

hoods (middle

class areas)

Western waterfront

(elite residential

areas)



Eastern waterfront

(port & industry)



From ‘BEING NICELY MESSY’crit.in

LOOKING CLOSELY AT THE MECHANICS OF FUTURE URBANISATIONThe Case of Mumbai



Eastern waterfront

(port & industry)



Western waterfront

(elite residential

areas)

Suburban neighbor-

hoods (middle

class areas)

Suburban areas with



Outsourcing Areas

City edge

Further dilapidation of

old building stock

Small piecemeal re-developments of individual properties

Large scale urban

renewal

Growth in culture industry

Growth of informal

enterprise

Dilapidation of buildings

Conservation, Eviction and cleaning of

arcades

every condition in the cityhas a possibility of a different future… of many futures depending on who is imagining it and how it is imagined




Eastern waterfront

(port & industry)



Western waterfront

(elite residential

areas)

Suburban neighbor-

hoods (middle

class areas)

Suburban areas with



Outsourcing Areas

City edge



arcades

Growth of informal

enterprise

Further dilapidation of

old building stock


Large scale urban

renewal

Growth in environment &

heritage Tourism

Large scale assembly of

land & urban

renewal

Piecemeal changes in

property

Growth of intensity in

the settlement

Growth of new

enterprises on the

skywalk

Dismantling and

reconstruction of

infrastructure

Cleaning up of waterfront

to make public space

Growth of the

aggressive civil society

New life under the metro line

High property speculation and

redevelopment of old

neighborhoods

Displacement of existing

occupants

Clarification of edges along the

new corridor

High land speculation

and growth in gated

communities

New rehabilitation

colonies

Decline in the business process

outsourcing industry

Increase in old-aged people

Growth of hard edges

between neighbor-

hoods

Growth of the new

enterprises

Consolidation of service industry

Growth in formal

commerce and retail

Growth in systems to

regulate city entry

Environmental Crises & growth

in aggressive civil society

Increase in families of old-aged people

Environmental crises and Removal of ship repair

yard





arcades



neighborhoods


and growth in gated

communities


Growth of informal

enterprise

Further dilapidation of old building

stock


Large scale urban

renewal


heritage Tourism


land & urban

renewal


property


the settlement

Growth of new

enterprises on the

skywalk



Growth of the




occupants


new corridor

New rehabilitation

colonies





between neighbor-

hoods

Growth of the new

enterprises

Growth in formal

commerce and retail


regulate city entry



Increase in families of only old-

aged people


yard


Dismantling and

reconstruction of

infrastructure

1. trajectory of high polarization – social and physical edges between communities will harden reducing the blur and hence the transactional capacity of the urban form.


Transformation of old housing stock Transformation of slums Transformation of old co-op housing

Transforming City – Mumbai – The new built form seems to have lesser transactional capacity

Planning with its obsession towards clarity conceives the blur as a problem and clarity is sought

This clarity produces a highly polarised city threatening the logic of the city.



arcades



neighborhoods


and growth in gated

communities


Growth of informal

enterprise


stock


Large scale urban

renewal


heritage Tourism


land & urban

renewal


property


the settlement

Growth of new

enterprises on the

skywalk



Growth of the




occupants


new corridor

New rehabilitation

colonies





between neighbor-

hoods

Growth of the new

enterprises

Growth in formal

commerce and retail


regulate city entry




aged people


yard


Dismantling and

reconstruction of

infrastructure

2. trajectory of economic restructuring – older economic generators of commerce, finance & business process outsourcing will decline and new enterprises related to culture, environment and old age will emerge


Agrarian Mercantile/ Administration

Industrial / Administration

Finance, Commerce, Retail / Administration

Culture, Environment, Health, Old Age / AdministrationECONOMY

URBAN FORM

MAIN ECONOMIC

ACTORS

Skyscraper apartments, Malls, Commercial Blocks, redevelopment of


Urban renewals, resettlement colonies, conservation, gated communities

Pastoral Landscapes with incremental

settlements of farmers & fisher folk

Trade Nodes, Dense Inner Cities with

markets, guesthouses, religious spaces

Smoke Stack Landscapes, industries,

worker housing, incremental settlements

Farmers, feudal lords Merchants, colonial government

Workers, industrialists, government

Corporate, Entrepreneurs & AgentsCulture Workers, Environmentalists,

Senior Citizens, Health Workers

Pre 1650s 1650s to 1850s 1850s t0 1980s 1990s to 2020s 2020 onwards

1. New technological developments will reduce the need for proximity in conducting business

2. New national / international locations will displace businesses from Mumbai

3. The competitive advantage of the city are its cultural & environmental assets, film industry, health sector, etc.

REASONS FOR SHIFT

changing Mumbai

1.Technological Developments

2.Demand for textile (National & International)

3.Infrastructure Support

1.Establishment of Port

2.Establishment of Govt. HQ

3.Encouragement to Trade

1.Reconfiguration of production and growth of entrepreneurs

2.Liberalization3.Discouragement

of Manufacturing Units




arcades



neighborhoods


and growth in gated

communities


Growth of informal

enterprise


stock


Large scale urban

renewal


heritage Tourism


land & urban

renewal


property


the settlement

Growth of new

enterprises on the

skywalk



Growth of the




occupants


new corridor

New rehabilitation

colonies





between neighbor-

hoods

Growth of the new

enterprises

Growth in formal

commerce and retail


regulate city entry




aged people


yard


Dismantling and

reconstruction of

infrastructure

3. trajectory of intensification of environmental concerns




arcades



neighborhoods


and growth in gated

communities


Growth of informal

enterprise


stock


Large scale urban

renewal


heritage Tourism


land & urban

renewal


property


the settlement

Growth of new

enterprises on the

skywalk



Growth of the




occupants


new corridor

New rehabilitation

colonies





between neighbor-

hoods

Growth of the new

enterprises

Growth in formal

commerce and retail


regulate city entry




aged people


yard


Dismantling and

reconstruction of

infrastructure

4. trajectory of higher average age of people – city of the old


Agrarian Mercantile/ Administration

Industrial / Administration

Finance, Commerce, Retail / Administration

Culture, Environment, Health, Old Age / AdministrationECONOMY

Pre 1650s 1650s to 1850s 1850s t0 1980s 1990s to 2020s 2020 onwards

changing Mumbai

No migration, lesser reproductionMigration of Traders and Trade workers

Migration of Industrial workers

No migration, growth only by reproduction

Perc

enta

ge G

row

th in

Pop

ulati

on


Transactional capacity

Polarization of communities, Hardening of Boundaries

Commerce, Finance & BPO

Culture & environment

industry

Environmental Concerns,Sea Level,

Temperature, Flash Flood Occurrences

Population

Average Age

URBAN SPACE &FORM ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT DEMOGRAPHY

the trajectories for mumbai’s future


Catalogue for designing

boundary walls between

neighborhoods

Catalogue for

rethinking Waterfront

Edges

Catalogue for

retrofitting bridges

and skywalks

Catalogue for enterprise

paraphernalia

Catalogue for new clocks

and calendars

Catalogue for losses and

opportunities

Catalogue of new

programs

Catalogue of senior

infrastructure &

systems

Catalogue of new

enterprises

Catalogue for

retrofitting old

settlementsCatalogue for promoting

heritage and environment

tourismCatalogue for

greening vertical

neighborhoods

Manual for redevelopment of old buildings

TOOLS

tools to blur the social and physical edges to allow transactions

tools to help create and harness new opportunities

tools to engage with the environmental crises

tools to help the old to live in dignity


catalogue for retrofitting old settlements: in a context of large scale urban redevelopment and renewal the existing occupants of inner cities, slums and old buildings are threatened and often displaced. this catalogue discusses many ways in which such older settlements could be retrofitted.

senior city: this is a catalogue for developing senior infrastructure and systems. in 2030, mumbai will have many more old people. this catalogue is a compilation of new possible institutions, programmes, enterprises, infrastructure and systems that respond to the city of the old.


catalogue of new enterprises: the changes in the economy, environment, demography and intensified polarities will create a context for new entrepreneurships. this catalogue is a compilation of such enterprises.

catalogue for greening vertical neighborhoods: in 2030, environment will be central to discussion on urban crises generating a context for greening vertical blocks. this manual is designed to convert high resource consuming apartments into green blocks.


In collaboration with CAMP & Khanabadosh

Displacement Locations since 2000Source: Parin Vasaria, Studies of Resettlement Colonies in Mumbai, 2016

Around 50,000 households from different parts of Mumbai have been shifted to 38 new Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Colonies since 2004 on account of large urban projects – new roads, road widening projects, clearing of river edges, airport redevelopment project and railway project .

SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT & ARCHITECTURE

June July August September October November December January February March April May

1 2 3 4 65 1 2 3 4 65

The Module System

Exams & Vacations

Exams & Vacations

Engagement with cultures

Ground

1827

1900

2000Engaging with the Geography – Terrain, Energy, Water & Air

Slow Wanderings – Cultural Histories

Making

Exploring

Solving Poetically

SEA StudioResearch initiations

HISTORY OF URBAN HOUSING (2 years)

Through a compilation of different types of housing, this project aims at building a narrative on different dimensions of urban housing in India including a spatial history, a technological history, a policy history, a history of the delivery system and a cultural history.

The project is conceived in two parts:a. History of Housing in

Mumbaib. History of Urban Housing

in India

ARCHITECTURE AND THE CITY(2 years)

While the primary aim of this project is to develop conceptual frameworks to understand urban architecture in India, it aims at compiling a systematic analysis of urban form.

REPAIR / RETROFITTING / IMPROVEMENT (3 years)

This project is conceived with twin agenda: a. first, to compile existing

practices of repair / retrofitting / improvement; and

b. Second, to develop techniques on actual undertaking of repair / retrofitting / improvement.

The aim of the project is to fill the current gap that exists in architecture and engineering academia regarding the issue.

SEA-Assembly (Internal discussions on everyday events in the world – every Friday)

SEA-City (Public platform for conversations with young practitioners)

SEA-Exhibitions (featuring new practitioners)

THANK YOU

rupali gupte & prasad shetty：propositions to see cities

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