INFILL URBANISM | MUMBAI, INDIA
Equitable Convergence
Transforming Infrastructural Barriers to Revive Urban Common Space
This is an exploration of how a city of high population density could socio-economically and environmentally co-exist with growth and redevelopment, through multiple scales of intervention. The project addressed the recurring monsoon floods and the lack of open spaces while tapping into the informality of everyday life in Mumbai. The project delved into how urban recreational space could be found in a city of extreme population density with little to no land resource available for such use.
WHERE
Mumbai, India
WHEN
Academic Thesis
Summer 2018 UC Berkeley
WITH
Faculty Advisors:
Margaret Crawford, John Ellis
Mumbai is a city of staggering disproportionalities. The main issues addressed through this project are two of the most notable issues in Mumbai – Equity and Open Space. But to top these issues is the issue of WATER, and the flooding that follows the four months of monsoon.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
The floods have remained a repeated phenomenon through the years that followed, bring the city to a standstill on flood days. The images above show the extent of the catastrophic floods on July 26, 2005 that took the lives of around 1500 people.
However, the other side to this catastrophe is the lack of 24-hour access to good and potable water. For a large section of Mumbai dwellers, particularly to the lower sections of the society who are illegal squatters, in summer, price of water becomes one of their biggest barriers.
DESIGN QUESTIONS
This project will aim to understand how areas of high population densities can grow controllably, through the following research questions-
How can accessible open space be provided when land availability is of concern?
How can infrastructure barriers be transformed into an amenity for the city?
How can middle-class and affordable housing be produced as a result of organic bottom-up processes?
What is the role of Urban Design in transforming densely built cities into livable, sustainable cities of the future?
DESIGN OBJECTIVES
The primary purpose of this project is to explore the possibility of open-space reclamation in the core of a dense city, while also contributing to flood control. Based on the Urban Design questions above, the objectives of this exploration are:
To find out how transformative urban strategies and frameworks can help a city of high population density to grow in a way that is socially, economically and environmentally cohesive.
To study and method and process of integration between an infill project and a master planning strategy.
To define a typology for middle-class housing that is responsive to and integrates the existing bottom-up processes into the new.
DESIGN CONCEPT
A common observation in the state is the usage of infrastructure projects as a tool for political motive. It has also been common to find similar infrastructure projects being used to create new recreational spaces in the city.
Using the characters of Mumbai as precedents, this project proposes to make a big infrastructural move that becomes an armature for creation of public life. By elevating the railway tracks that acts as a barrier, space is created not only to enhance connectivity between the sides, but land is also freed up to become an active public space, that could be used for providing the amenities that are lacking in the locality. This ‘found land’ is used for creating amenities for the city that is now lacking.
A NEW TYPOLOGY
This model tries to critique the current pattern of redevelopment and introduces a typology that relates to the proposed linear park and responds to the new waterway.
CITY-SCALE OPEN SPACE MAP
Through this project it was identified that by reclaiming what is rightful public space and enhancing connectivity, by involving local entrepreneurs and small businesses at creating vivid experiences for commuters and locals, dense urban fabrics can better their socio-spatial & economic cohesion, thereby creating a seamless transition within the larger city.