In the name of housing

In his 1925 book Groszstadtbauten, Ludwig Hilberseimertalks about the relation of city form to that of the smallest single architectural unit; a room within a house. This commentary is validated by the fact that the residential fabric of any city comprises most of that city’s built form. For most people, this means the form of housing. This essay focuses on the history of architecture relating to housing in the city of Mumbai. The tie between Mumbai’s form and its inhabitation. Looking specifically at the architectural form of these projects, they become instructive both through the breadth of their variations, as well as the depth of their spatial and formal engagements. Building on the history of housing in Mumbai since the early-nineteenth century the essay presents a typology of housing inhabited by ordinary people and their immediate spatial ecologies which facilitate a specific manner of compressed living. These types are commentaries on technology, lifestyle, and culture are all situated within the particularities of their respective time. Nevertheless, these unique armatures still seem to gravitate around certain emergent commonalities that could provide an armature for the design of collective housing models in the future.

Cultural Jugaad in historic city transformations: India

Several historic Indian cities have managed to retain the original urban character by using readily available materials, craftspeople, and cultural traditions despite increasing urban transformations. This notion of sustaining/preserving/continuing certain cultural elements and rituals has survived in various forms in the last two centuries. Historic cities showcase their living heritage at the global level and are exemplars for studying the strong linkages within traditions and indigenous modes of preservation. In such situations where stakeholders have centuries of association with the site, it is essential that professionals look beyond conventional solutions to better understand local perceptions and thereby establish the appropriateness of any urban level interventions. This article draws from various urban conservation works carried out in the historic cities of Rajasthan over the last two decades. It illustrates the discoveries and challenges in understanding the traditional local mindset for working in such areas. The indigenous methods practiced in these historic living cores are often at variance with the norms and logics of Western city planning being followed in post-colonial India. Examples in the cities and settlements of Jaipur, Udaipur and Ajmer, feature in this article, highlighting the urgent need to understand the local community mindset and the Indian approach to solutions for rapidly modernizing historic urban centres

Against Jugaad: Making a Case for Design as Innovation

This paper examines jugaad through the lens of design as problem-solving and a driver of innovation. We include a range of design disciplines that have spatial and material impacts from architecture and urban planning to product design. The paper starts with a brief description of the ways in which jugaad is currently understood, and then proceeds to make the case for why jugaad is neither quality design nor frugal innovation. Our argument draws on a wide-ranging survey of jugaad as an idea across several fields, a series of in-depth interviews where we asked our interlocutors to use examples of work to situate their responses, and our engagement with Charles and Ray Eames’ ideas on design process and pedagogy in The India Report (1958, rep. 1997). In doing so, we wish to not just be against jugaad but to go beyond it, reading it as a crucial component of the design and innovation process but not the design solution or innovation itself.

A People’s process: Post-tsunami self-build housing in Tamilnadu (2005-08)

This essay elucidates some of the lessons learnt from the community participatory process adopted by Artes, in the Post- Tsunami housing reconstruction project at Nagapatinam, Tamilnadu (2005-08). The program was a self-build process, respectful of gender. A pragmatic assessment of regional technologies, materials and skills was undertaken. The technological assessment was conducted by the community, in collaboration with structural engineers. Projects under consideration are in Sirkazhi Taluk and Akkaraipettai, Nagapatinam region in Tamilnadu, which had been adversely affected. The projects were nominated as best practices by the UNDP, India (2008) for community participatory processes. It inspired a new sense of belonging and confidence in the community. Besides indigenous construction practices, the community was provided an opportunity to learn new construction skills that they desired, which were beneficial in the longer term. The new construction skill sets ensured the community was independent to build their own dwellings incrementally in later years. The community was no more at the mercy of external contractors. The design of the dwellings also enabled future incremental growth. This research highlights some of the lessons in capacity building of communities; using construction skills to enable them to rebuild their own homes, as well as be self-reliant in future extensions and additions

Water culture connection: A conservation-led, integrated development strategy for water to meet SDG 6: clean water and sanitation

The increasingly frequent natural disasters in the last decade, are not only symptomatic of climate change, but indicate the critical importance of a holistically overhauling our lifestyles and sympathetically engaging with our built and natural environment. There is an urgent need to actively engage with and analyse the pre-industrial era traditional settlements, as they constitute a three-dimensional record of past wisdom embodying a holistic way of life that reflects a synergetic relationship with nature. The essay explores connect of water and settlements in Indian subcontinent from the Indus Valley civilization to mediaeval times to the colonial and then Independent India. Traditionally in India, land, rivers, fields, groundwater, and forests were all valuable resources and not commodities. Each of the states of India and their traditional settlements are a repository of such knowledge systems for respective climate. By combining 21st Century mapping technologies and regional traditional knowledge systems of water harvesting and management, it is possible to effectively synergise the top-down and ground-up planning policies. Citing examples and experiential learning’s, the essay espouses for conservation led development as preferred planning policy to achieve an equitable, stable, self-sustaining, compassionate, and humane future, as continuum of three thousand years of nature-culture journey

Beyond the Binary: What does it take to tread the ‘Third Way’ of Urban 12 Regeneration in India?

Urbanisation is an inevitable part of India’s growth, which places enormous strain on existing infrastructure and settlements. Although the need for urban renewal or urban regeneration (as contrasted with greenfield development) is clear, it seems current policy and institutional frameworks have yet to offer any significant results. Lack of financial resources is one of the most critical challenges being faced by governments at various levels, and despite sufficient financial means and instruments to develop new infrastructure (such as the FDI, PPP, TDR, and so on), funding channels for urban renewal projects remain almost non-existent within an environment of mutual distrust. Through a discussion of three ongoing projects, the need to explore outside of conventional models will be demonstrated. In essence, this article advocates for an intermediary working structure of PPPP (Public-Private Partnership with the fourth P standing for People), which can be situated between a strict / formal approach and an unregulated / informal one, often referred to in the Indian context to as Jugaad. Though jugaad is typically characterized by ‘ad-hoc-ism’ and informality, the outcomes still provide affordable solutions for stakeholders. Jugaad is notable for both its process-driven approach involving people-to-people collaboration, and its circumvention of the need for reform of the prevailing systemic environment. We suggest, therefore, that Jugaad in urbanism be reconceived as going beyond quick-fixes to serve as a possible model for resolving challenges in a participatory manner, without resorting to rule-bound contracting methods. *Jugaad is a term applied to a creative or innovative idea providing a quick, alternative way of solving or fixing a problem.

Works and continuities: An architectural monograph by Prof. BRINDA SOMAYA

Book Review: Brinda Somaya - Works & Continuities: An Architectural Monograph Curated by Ruturaj Parikh Edited by Nandini Somaya Sampat Mapin Publishing in association with The HECAR Foundation

The Design Comes as We Build

This essay discusses urbz' 'The Design Comes As We Build Project' which recognizes local builders in homegrown settlements by providing them a space to showcase their design imagination. The project started in Dharavi, Mumbai, a settlement populated by self-taught experts with a strong, practice-based, and experience-rich learning background. By recognising the agency of local actors in the production of their own habitats, this essay focuses on the processes at work in this context. We employ an ethnographic lens informed by the language of architecture to illustrate how artisans imagine and build thousands of tiny houses on a daily basis. These anonymous “contractors”, usually blamed for operating illegally and without formal education, are shown to be the heroes of an epic story in which neighbourhoods are created out of nothing through the transformation of meager local resources. Typically selected on the basis of previous work and common acquaintances, these artisans belong to the same community as their clients, often living in close proximity. Together, they design and build without formal plans or contracts, using trust and reputation as the cornerstones of their professional relationship. As a result of their collaboration in all stages of the project, unpredictable features become an inherent part of the structures that emerge organically from this process.

Editorial: Prof. Brinda Somaya

I was invited by Prof. Kurt Seemann in June 2019 to guest edit this Special Issue: ‘India & Jugaad - the impact of innovation by the resilient Indian mind on habitat’. Little did I realise that this topic would become so relevant in the Indian context and more broadly, when globally we have seen systemic solutions fail and people challenged with increasing scarcity. But armed with ingenuity, the resources within their grasp, and the capacity to make a change within their networks, we have witnessed much agency, innovation, and resilence.