Notes of Caution

This week I wish to repost Gautam Bhan and Arindam Jana’s commentary from the Economic and Political Weekly, cautioning us about the way in which the Indian slum census is Continue reading →

Housing Without Developers

  Last week Studio X Mumbai held a day long workshop provocatively titled “Housing without Developers”. As elaborated on their website, the workshop tried to challenge the seeming inevitability of Continue reading →

Building Low Income Housing Markets

After a two hour train journey from Dadar station and a rickety ride in a private white shuttle van I was finally standing in front a construction site, picturesquely located Continue reading →

Jugaad

Pavement unit for two   Jugaad: A creative idea, a quick, alternate way of solving or fixing problems This is an interesting housing unit I saw on a pavement in my neighborhood. Continue reading →

Vertical City

After two years of writing from the outskirts, I am back in Mumbai, feeling a sense of being embedded and distant at the same time. Being back gives me a Continue reading →

Good Park, Bad Park

I would like pick up from Lubaina’s post on Green Washing Mumbai and discuss particular spatial typologies that are manifestations of Mumbai’s Bourgeois Environmental sensibilities. As Lubaina explains in her Continue reading →

For “Bankability” (Part 3)

bank•a•ble, adjective banka’bility noun  1. Acceptable for processing by a bank: bankable checks and money orders. 2. Considered powerful, prestigious, or stable enough to ensure profitability. 3. Dependable or reliable: Continue reading →

For “Bankability” (Part 2)

bank•a•ble, adjective banka’bility noun  1. Acceptable for processing by a bank: bankable checks and money orders. 2. Considered powerful, prestigious, or stable enough to ensure profitability. 3. Dependable or reliable: Continue reading →

For “Bankability” (Part 1)

bank•a•ble, adjective banka’bility noun  1. Acceptable for processing by a bank: bankable checks and money orders. 2. Considered powerful, prestigious, or stable enough to ensure profitability. 3. Dependable or reliable: Continue reading →

In retrospect

Adriana’s post reminds me of a project that we built as architecture undergrads in Mumbai. As a part of a short workshop conducted at KRVIA[1], we decided to build a Continue reading →

Ways to Stay Put

By 2050, 55% of India’s population is expected to live in cities[1]. While it has been noted that the influx of people into cities shall create a high demand for Continue reading →

Mumbai and its Post Liberalization Slum

As cities in the Global North witness a spur of protests that deploy tactics of informal occupation on formal spaces, cities in India are increasingly seeing a push towards formalization Continue reading →

The Project

While it’s true that a large number of slum dwellers are poor, it would be a fallacy to relate slums to abject poverty, definitely not one that which rises out Continue reading →

Mumbai and its Slum Dog Millionaires

Intro Post by Namrata Kapoor I watched Slum Dog Millionaire in New York, 6 months after I had left Mumbai. Scenes from the film invoked a strange nostalgia that I Continue reading →