ELPHINSTONE ESTATE
SCENARIO AND STRATEGIES OF COEXISTENCE Letitia Allemand & Marie Sagnières
1
Elphinstone estate
2
ELPHINSTONE ESTATE
SCENARIO AND STRATEGIES OF COEXISTENCE Letitia Allemand & Marie Sagnières
Supervisors: Pedagogic director: Pr Paola Viganò Second professor: Dr Yves Pedrazzini Maître EPFL: Tobias Baitsch External expert: Pr Isabelle Milbert Master Thesis EPFL - ENAC - SAR - MASTER 4 July 2015 3
Elphinstone estate
4
Contents
CONTENTS
7
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
9
INTRODUCTION
15 17 25
41 50 64
I. GENERAL CONTEXT Informality in Mumbai The Eastern Waterfront Elphinstone estate
II. SCENARIO AND STRATEGIES Scenario Tools Strategies
5
Elphinstone estate
6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was made possible thanks to the help of many people, in both Switzerland and India. First, we would like to thank Paola Viganò, Yves Pedrazzini, Tobias Baitsch, Martina Barcelloni Corte and Isabelle Milbert, our academic team, for their advice and guidance. In Mumbai, we had the opportunity to meet Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava (URBZ), who all shared with us their view on pavement slums through the lenses of their respective fields and published an article on the first part of our project on their website. We are also grateful to our friends, especially Eóin Byrne, Jaykishan Mistry and Denver Pereira, who spent a lot of time helping us during this experience. Special thanks to Kevin Preile, Léa Randin and Gaëlle Cabessa who helped greatly to build our models. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to our families for their love and support.
7
Elphinstone estate
8
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Walking through Mumbai’s streets, one experiences a live blend of local culture and traditions. Roads are shared between cars, buses, rickshaws, two-wheelers and pedestrians in a somewhat chaotic way. The traffic doesn’t seem to follow any rules. Sidewalks are there, fulfilling many functions, but no one uses them for walking. Mumbai’s pavement is a platform separated from traffic that accommodates many uses indeed. To street vendors they are their prime markets. At night the pavement becomes an open-air sleeping space to more than a million individuals. On some streets, tarps are spread out along whole stretches as protection from the monsoon. When pavement dwellers are chased away, which happens often, they have no other option than making a new home on another the sidewalk. Nevertheless, in some places newcomers have managed to settle down over longer periods of time. Year after year, tarps become more permanent structures; timber planks, corrugated metal sheeting and even bricks are assembled to form much more durable and lasting shelters. This phenomenon existed already a hundred years ago. All around the city and especially in the so-called Eastern Waterfront, workers servicing the port economy would stay along roads, on bridges, against mills and warehouses due to lack of affordable housing. They would live for decades as close as possible to their place of work and transform their ephemeral shelter into constructions that they could call home. In the first part of our thesis, we analysed two case studies on the Eastern Waterfront. On of them is the Elphinstone estate. It is a 1kmlong parcel of land, comprising 14 parallel streets of warehouses. The oldest warehouses date back to 1880. Along every street, the pavement is concealed by durable one or two storey high bricks or metallic sheet 9
Elphinstone estate
structures. Around 10’000 people share those sidewalks, some have been there for more than 70 years. Today, the municipality provides them with metered water and electricity but the entire estate is to be demolished within five years, due to the planned redevelopment of the area. The communities are highly rooted in the neighbourhood, and a relocation would compromise their livelihoods while destroying a piece of Mumbai’s history. Elphinstone estate bears all the characteristics justifying a local intervention. Indeed, the whole area has been functioning as a sustainable ecology for a century, the warehouses and the dwellers mutually benefitting from one another – the warehouses as constructive structure and job provider, the dwellers as an indispensable workforce. While men’s activities range from loading-unloading trucks, to driving them to working in logistics; women cook for the workers, sell goods at the weekly market, and sometimes work as maids or even teachers. Even though pavement dwellers usually tend to stay at the bottom of the social ladder, the location and the longevity of the Elphinstone estate community has allowed parents to send their children to good schools. Many second generation dwellers have realised the importance of education to secure better qualified jobs. Today, a few young people attend university, studying mostly business and commerce. Children have high aspirations, taking examples from their siblings and neighbours. For such a deeply rooted community forced displacement can have dramatic outcomes. According to an educator from a close-by school teaching many children from the area: “When families are displaced a few hours away in rehabilitation colonies, parents often lose their means of livelihood. This tends to generate drug and alcohol abuse among men. Children drop out of school to help their parents and loose all the opportunities given to them previously. It is sad and frustrating.” Detractors talk about the ugly image given by pavement dwellers to the city. Policemen try to discourage foreigners from wandering about the area using adjectives such as unsafe, ugly or uninteresting. But when we talked to people living there, we heard very different things. Many of them know that they could live in more spacious homes further north, yet they would never abandon their street willingly. “Of course it is not the safest place to live but the street is our home too, inside, outside, we live the way we want here and we are close to everything” said Neha, a 20 years old university student. Indeed, it is precisely thanks to this typology of housing that a hybrid 10
Introduction
way of life combining rural and urban habits was preserved through generations. Until today, roosters crow at 6am everyday, and sheep give birth inside dwellings. Our project aims at discovering how the pavement dwelling typology can be further developed in the Elphinstone estate – as an example for other suitable sites – for the benefit of the residents, and the city at large. The main issues we identified consist of a lack of security and privacy due to the dwelling’s direct relationship to the street, a general lack of resources, the need for new materials and technology for house upgrading, and unemployment which often leads to more social problems. The traffic has to be dealt with to decongestion the area and offer more security for all users of the street. The buffer zone between the street and the dwelling is naturally used by dwellers at all time. They use it to perform domestic activities, sell goods and sometimes sleep. Legitimising that space and considering it part of the private space would be first steps into making these streets more ‘inclusive’. Construction-wise, houses would greatly gain from individual sanitation systems composed of rainwater collectors and stronger structures allowing the dwellings to grow in height and the roof to be inhabited at times. In order to put these upgrades in place, there should be meaningful participation from the pavement dwellers themselves, which would enhance not only economic and social development, but would embrace them as full and contributing members of society. Citywide implementation of these policies would generate a network of informed citizens, whose intimate knowledge of the challenges faced and conquered in these areas would provide an invaluable resource for policy makers and residents alike. Their inventiveness and resourcefulness shown in immensely difficult circumstances should be acknowledged and valued by the authorities for the wealth of human capital it represents. What is required is a fundamental change in mindset at governmental level, away from the erroneous conclusion that the only solution for ad hoc settlements is to destroy them. Instead, they must engage with those most knowledgeable about the potential these settlements have as long term solutions to help alleviate the global urban housing crisis, the dwellers themselves.
Article published on http://urbz.net/mumbaipavement-dwellers/, March 18th 2015. 11
GENERAL CONTEXT
Elphinstone estate
To Kalyan
Thane
Greater Mumbai limit
Navi Mumbai
Bandra
Arabian Sea
To Pune
Chembur Dharavi
Island-city limit Thane Creek Eastern Waterfront
Byculla
Elphinstone Estate
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust
Fort
Nariman Point
To Goa Colaba
To Colombo
0
14
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34 [km]
Informality in Mumbai
INFORMALITY IN MUMBAI
According to UN-Habitat, Mumbai is the global capital of slumdwelling with 10 to 12 million squatters, followed by Mexico City and Dhaka (9-10 million). As per the 2011 census, more than half of Bombay’s population lives in slums. The reasons for this are similar to other places in the world: a strong rural to urban migration and a lack of housing supply; but in Bombay the phenomenon became quickly unmanageable. 47% of slums are located on private lands, 42% on public lands. The rest are mostly built on railway, port or airport lands. (MCGM, 2005) The slums of Mumbai can be split into three categories; chawls, zopadpattis and pavement dwellings. Zopadpattis are informal neighbourhood areas built on private or public empty plots. They are the most predominant type of settlement falling in the legal slum category. A first census of slums carried out in 1976 by the Government of Bombay counted 902’015 settlements and 2335 pockets. It was then revealed that while 73.6% of the employment was in the island-city, they were home to only 17% of the slum population and that the rest was living in the northern suburbs, often in areas unsuitable for development like marshy areas or hillsides. Slums of the island-city have reached full capacity a long time ago, this is why newcomers generally settle in those in the suburbs. As per pavement dwellings, they rarely fall into the slum category which makes the actual scale of the phenomenon difficult to grasp.
Informal housing in Mumbai 15
Elphinstone estate
Elphinstone estate and the port on the left
Victoria docks
Shift of port activities to Navi Mumbai 16
Eastern waterfront
EAsTERN wATERFRONT Projects "For more than a decade, Mumbai agencies have been petitioning federal port authorities to open some part of the 730-hectare docklands for public use, as other port cities around the world have done. Mumbai’s port helped make the city the region’s premier trading centre in the 19th and much of the 20th century. But traffic has declined since the 1980s, especially after the construction of a new port across the harbour. Port operations now occupy only half the land area. This June, newly elected federal shipping minister Nitin Gadkari appointed a committee of architects, officials and others to look at the potential for dockland redevelopment. Even for a city inured to grand announcements that go nowhere, this is momentous. The port land is widely seen by planners and citizens’ groups as the last big opportunity to revitalise the congested British-era island city and plug its considerable deficits in affordable housing, transport links and public spaces. "
Chandrashekhar, Vaishnavi. "The dockland redevelopment: Mumbai's last big chance?". The Guardian. 28/11/2014.
Redevelopment project, Hafeez Contractor 17
Elphinstone estate
Hindustan Times, July 23rd 2014 18
Eastern waterfront
APLI Mumbai, A Port Land Initiative By Citizens to Re-Imagine Mumbai, August 11th 2014 19
Elphinstone estate
Transferable land Prone for redevelopment Too expensive for redevelopment Major roads Island city limit 20
Lands available for redevlopement
Eastern waterfront
Rehabilitation The above projects do not consider the thousands of people living informally on and around the port lands. Current solutions to deal with their settlements are negating their existence and their "right to the city". Eligibility for rehabilitation applies to dwellers having proof of living in the same dwelling since 2000. Eligible dwellers have to be rehoused on site or on a transfered land. When displaced a few hours north where the land is cheaper pavement dwellers are given an appartment in an SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) colony. This solution is far from ideal and a lot of displaced people end up going back to the center to to be closer to their previous workplace. The non-eligible people simply end up on the street and have to find a new place in a slum or build their own home again.
Street sleepers 21
Elphinstone estate
With the transformation of the port, eligible dwellers of the Elphinstone estate will most probably be rehoused in an SRA colony in Chembur. This site situated only one hour away was chosen partly because the officials knew men would go back to the Elphinstone estate to work because there is no opportunity around the colony.
Commuting time from the Elphinstone estate to Chembur
Source: Google Maps 22
SRA Housing in Chembur
Eastern waterfront
SRA Housing in Chembur 23
Elphinstone estate
24
Analysis
elphinstone estate analysis
Connections
East e
P.D’ M
ello
rn F
reew a
y
The Elphinstone estate is part of the Eastern Waterfront. Today, despite its central location it is mostly frequented by workers and dwellers because it does not offer services susceptible to attract a wider public. More generally the North-South connections are a lot more developed that the East-West connections. This is partly explained by the port being closed to the public. Our site is part of the B-Ward which includes the neighborhood of Mandvi, a very dense majoritarily Muslim commercial area. North and South of the site are large lands owned by the Railway Authorities.
Sandhurst road
Princes Docks Masjid Bunder
Chowpatty beach
Elphinstone Estate
e
in
ar
M
Victoria Docks
e
riv
D
Railway land Indira Docks
CST main train station
Port land
Situation of the Elphinstone estate and main connections 25
Elphinstone estate
programs
Offices Residential Warehouses Slums
SHIPPING
STORAGE
MUMBAI DISTRIBUTION ALL INDIA
The site is composed of warehouses, offices, and a few residential buildings and hotels. Along most of the warehouses, dwellings have been built by the workforce. The dwellers are important elements in the functionning of the site. Indeed, they have been working on the harbour for decades, in warehouses loading and unloading trucks and even as truck drivers. A lot of younger dwellers who had a chance to get some education work in administration. 80% of the working dwellers work in the Elphinstone estate. 26
Programs
Professional activities linked toTOlogistics PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES LINKED LOGISTICS
SHIPPING
STORAGE
MUMBAI DISTRIBUTION ALL INDIA
Port logistics
Analysis
Flows The site is directly connected to the port and a lot of trucks pass by its streets from 8am to 9pm everyday but Sunday. Most streets are one way street but it is rarely respected. The amount of trucks and cars are a danger for the dwellers and mostly for children and street sleepers. Accidents have happened in the past and security is one of the biggest concerns for pavement dwellers. Even though the connection to the port is made through one single controlled gate, Elphinstone estate is very well connected to Mandvi with three pedestrian bridges and three large vehicle bridges.
Trucks Cars Pedestrians only
Traffic
27
Elphinstone estate
open spaces There are very few open spaces in the site and they are at the moment mostly filled with garbage. There used to be warehouses on the two big open plots. When these got taken down, a slum which had developed between two buildings and had been there for decades remained. Between 1 and 3 meters are used in front of each dwelling by the dwellers for their domestic activities. That space is sometimes an actual structure or even an extension of pavement. It can extend and retract according to the traffic and the other users of the street.
Open spaces Domestic space Pavement dwellings
28
Public and semi-public spaces
Analysis
Open spaces in the Elphinstone estate
Domestic space on the street 29
Elphinstone estate
Dwelling types Throughout the site a lot of different typologies of dwellings can be observed. They are always built against warehouses but these have sometimes been removed leaving the dwellings self standing in some places. The most regular type is a 1.5 storey house in bricks or corrugated steel where the upper floor is mostly used for sleeping. It is common to see one feature repeated all along one street. For example the same ladder will generally be used by all the dwellers of one street which means they buy a large number of them together. The same colors are often used as well. The most durable type of dwellings are the ones built in bricks on two full storeys. There are around 10'000 dwellers living there.
1 storey 1.5 storeys 2 storeys 2 storeys with balcony 2 storeys in bricks
30
Dwellings typologies
Analysis
"20 years ago, my parents built one side brick wall for 5000 Rps. One family to whom we rented the upperfloor had 10 members, the other wall was too weak and the house collapsed. We therefore built the second wall in bricks for 10000 Rps a few months ago." Maya, 30
"Just after we built our house in bricks, all our neighbours decided to do the same. But we rebuilt it a year later with further improvements and they did not have enough money to copy us again and wished they had anticipated it." Asma, 24
Evolution of homes depending on financial means, influence and social connections 31
Elphinstone estate
Warehouses
Stone - Good condition Bricks - Bad condition Corrugated steel - Bad condition
State of the warehouses
There are very different types of warehouses on the site. The first ones were built in 1880 in big stones, they are the most beautiful ones remaining. All the others are either in bricks and in different conditions or in corrugated steel. The latter are often falling to pieces. Here we can see a warehouse turned into an open air garbage recycling ground. 32
Warehouse without roof
Analysis
Warehouse in metal sheets
Warehouse in bricks
Warehouse in stone
33
Elphinstone estate
Streets
05:00
Sleeping
11:00
Selling
[m] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 00:00
34
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
0
Analysis
Cooking
18:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
Parking
21:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
24:00 [ h ]
Acitivities in a typical street over the day Street-sleepers Meal Playing Cooking and laundry Hawkers
Meetings, breaks Shower Weekly market Parking Traffic intensity
35
Elphinstone estate
05:00
11:00
05:00
11:00
36
Analysis
18:00
21:00
Market street
Portion of market street elevation
14:00
21:00
Traffic artery
Traffic artery elevation 37
SCENARIO & STRATEGIES
Elphinstone estate
1981-2001 Development Plan 40
Scenario
SCENARIO
2014-2034 Draft Development Plan
For the construction of our scenario we have tried to stay as close as possible to a real potential development for the port and the site. To do so we have used the current Development Plan 2014-2034 which is still being elaborated. We therefore have also used the previous Development Plan 1981-2001 which was still the official one until last year. 41
Elphinstone estate
Redevelopment of the Princes and Victoria docks LMC Architects
MUMBAI : The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has revived plans to build the city's first marina off Princess and Victoria Docks that will accommodate around 300 luxury boats, including yachts and catamarans. The port trust had made efforts to have a marina near Ferry Wharf but its bidders were not impressed with the location, near a workshop, where the draft was less. MbPT deputy traffic manager Gautam Dey said, "The new location is easily accessible by road, and it will have enough space for operations and maintenance, besides leisure and shopping facilities." MbPT has appointed Engineering Projects India Ltd (EPI) as consultants for the project. A senior official said, "The successful bidder will be given the area on a 30-year lease. Apart from refueling and maintenance services, the marina's operator can commercially exploit the land, for which floor space index will be granted by MbPT." MPBT expects the successful bidder to offer minimum facilities like parking, a reception area, wireless internet access, lockers, a fueling facility, besides boat accessories and spare parts. The official said the marina's developer can also provide leisure and shopping facilities to generate revenue as the site can become a tourist attraction too. An MbPT official said, "We have given more land area to the bidder so that the proposal is more viable. We expect revenue of around Rs 4 crore per year. A water front area of 84,000 square metres and land area of 8,000 square metres 42
Scenario
will be offered on lease to develop off-shore and on-shore facilities. Besides that, 6,000 square metres will be made available as a core area for marine activity. The official said, "The developer is free of exploit some of the area for a water sports facility, floating restaurant, shopping arcade, aquarium, helipad, parking or amusement activities. Despite being an international city with an expansive coastline, the city does not have a marina. Yachts and luxury boats are anchored off Gateway of India, and their owners have to board smaller boats to reach their vessels. The yachts have to be taken to a sheltered location to prevent damage when there is heavy rain during the monsoon season, which is long here. A yacht owner said, "If a marina comes up close to South Mumbai, it will fuel more interest in the luxury yacht industry."
Mehta, K. Manthan. "Port Trust revives plans for marina off Princess and Victoria docks". The Times of India. 28/10/2014.
We chose a project comissioned by the main leaser, the West Coast Marine Yacht Club that has been designed by a local firm, LMC architects as the basis for a potential development of the port. The opening of the port and the new development will generate new connections and polarities.
2015 Scenario The port is underused. Indira dock is still in use as shipping port. East-West connections are weak.
New polarities and connections
The port’s wall is demolished. Princes and Victoria docks are transformed in a marina. New developments are placed on the marina. Indira docks is opened to the city. The new metro is in function. East-West connections are strengthened. Programs of the 2014-2034 Development Plan are implemented in the Elphinstone estate.
43
Elphinstone estate
Warehouse Office building Residential (housing, hotel) Pavement dwellings Dwellings to be evicted
Today Axonometry 44
Scenario
Preserved warehouse Office building Housing Hotels Draft Development Plan 2014-2034 (school, hospital, cultural center, municipal market) Pavement dwellings Commercial structures
Scenario Axonometry 45
Elphinstone estate
Process
Today Warehouse Bad condition warehouse Residential Office building Open ground Market street
46
New developments on the port and in Mandvi New developments Aerial metro
Today, three main programs are found in the Elphinstone estate: warehouses, offices and a few residential blocks. According to newspaper articles, new developments will be implemented on the port such as high-rise buildings, malls and promenades along the marina.
Scenario
New buildings in the Elphinstone estate Public building (DP) Office building Hotel Residential Park
New programs in the preserved warehouses Public programs, production, services
In the Elphinstone estate, warehouses in bad condition would likely be destroyed and replaced by new programs such as hotels along PD Mello road, residentials, office buildings and parks. We imagine that preserved warehouses would house new programs like restaurants, production and exhibition spaces to become a creative cluster fulfilling the needs of a new public. 47
Elphinstone estate
Scenario for the Elphinstone estate
Three types of streets Market street Pedestrian street Traffic artery
The new developments inside and around the Elphinstone estate would generate new polarities and connections. We will look at three very different types of streets, generating different types of conflicts and interactions between its various users. 48
Scenario
Pavement dwellings Pavement dwellings
Pavement dwellings and evictions Pavement dwellings Potential eviction
Some pavement dwellings would have to be displaced either due to new developments implemented by the DP and the scenario creating excessive conflicts, or due to nonviable situations such as lack of security, access, space, light (against railways, between buildings,...). 49
Elphinstone estate
TOOLS Elements
Dwellings s p
Backwall
Street
d
50
Tools
Pavement (p)
Storeys (s)
Structure
1-2.5m
1
Wood
2.5-3.5m
1.5
Metal
3.5-5m
2
Bricks
Dwellings variables
Warehouse
Office
Open ground
State
Good state
Middle state
Bad condition
Materials
Stone
Bricks
corrugated sheets
Program
Flows
Road (d)
8-9m
Backwall variables
No traffic
Few traffic
Heavy traffic
9-11m
11-13m
13-17m Street variables
51
Elphinstone estate
Conflict The various domestic activities on the street performed by the dwellers are one of the main source of spatial conflict. Indeed, given the very small amount of space each family has, most activities happen outside the dwelling. If we imagine even more traffic in the near future, this situation would not be viable. In order to compress these activities without taking away space from the dwellers, we propose to operate a shift of the activities to the roof. This would provide more security and privacy at the same time.
Play Cooking Sleeping Shower Store ~3m ~2m ~1m ~0.5m
Domestic activities on the street
5m
52
Compression of activities by the traffic
Tools
Compression of activities by the traffic and pedestrians Conflict zone
Conflict zone between traffic and domestic activities
New limits and spaces 53
Elphinstone estate
Compression Structure
sle e ea ping tin g
s b tor la athi ing co undr ng ok sel ing y lin g pla yin g
Displacement of the activities on the roof in order to handle the conflict between domestic activities and the traffic
Flexibility of the structure depending on the size of the dwelling. Possibility to offer shade and rain protection to pedestrians thanks to the form of the structure. 54
Installation of a structure permitting all types of dwellings the use of a roof and an intermediate platform.
A sanitary block or water space for more privacy and hygiene can be added above the existing water connections.
The groundfloor and threshold can be used for commercial purpose or production.
Tools
Fixing upon the backwall
Fixing upon lateral walls
+ Flexible Light Recyclage cadres de fenĂŞtres/portes Resistant to oxidation Cheap Specialized workforce for welding
Aluminum
Bamboo
+ Resistant to corrosion Available from the port Cheap Specialized workforce need for welding
Container steel
Fixing upon the ground
+ Sustainable Light Recycling from construction sites Cheap No specialized workforce needed Not local
+ Light Strong Sustainable Cheap Hard to assemble with other materials
UPVC pipes 55
Elphinstone estate
Backwall
Murs en pierres ou briques
Murs en tôle
- Structural stability - Durability - Esthetic - One less wall - Water infiltrations along the wall - Lack of ventilation
Re-use of the warehouse as workshops, exhibition or production spaces,...
New building with parkings
- Structural stability - Durability - Esthetic - One less wall - Water infiltrations along the wall - Lack of ventilation
Re-use of the warehouse without the roof for urban agriculture, new dwellings,...
New building wall or fence a
Murs déjà détruits préalablement Backwalls in stone or in bricks
m
m
- Ventilation - Access from both sides - Structural instability - High risk of destruction
Domestic appropriation thanks to the structure
Backwalls already destroyed 56
Tools
Murs en tôles ou briques en mauvais état
ou briques en mauvais état état
e
ion
Murs déjà détruits préalablement Murs déjà détruits préalablement 40 m
- Structural stability - Durability - Esthetic - One less wall - Lack of ventilation 40 m - Stabilité structurelle - Durabilité - Esthétique - Un mur de moins
40 m
New building built on the entire plot with parkings on the first floors - Ventilation
- Manque de ventilation
40 m Ventilation
Ventilation Accès possible des deux côtés
Domestic Ventilation Accès possible des deux côtés
40 m
nt elleconstruit sur toute la parcelle premiers étages
elle ion accru
Murs dé
- Instabilité structurelle - Risque de destruction accru
- Instabilité structurelle - Risque de destruction accru
Appropriation d’une portion du terrain Appropriation domestique d’une portion dudomestique terrain - Structural instability grâce au retournement de la structure. - High of destruction grâce au retournement de larisk structure. 40 m
New building with setback, wall or fence against the dwellings
- Instabilité structurelle - Risque de destruction accru
nt avec retrait, ontre les habitations
40 m
40 m
building withtoa expand. setback to allow dwellers to expand. New building with a setbackNew to allow dwellers
Backwalls in corrugated sheets or bricks in bad condition
57
a
Elphinstone estate
Collage of new commercial and sanitary spaces
58
Tools
59
Elphinstone estate
Public and commercial
With the arrival of the new public programs a lot of services and shops would naturally emerge. This would be mutually beneficial for dwellers and the public. HEALTH
Voids usable by new public structure Dwellings
COMMERCE
Exisiting commercial spaces on the ground floor
DP ’14-’34: Hospital
DP ’14-’34: Municipal market
Influential zone
Influential zone
New businesses linked to new hospital: - Ayurvedic drugstore - Psychic - Food points
New businesses linked to new market: - Material goods (Clothes, houseware,...) - Food points
CULTURE
60
Commercial ground floor
New commercial spaces
EDUCATION
DP ’14-’34: Public hall
DP 1981-2001: Primary school
Influential zone
Influential zone
New businesses linked to new public hall: - Kiosk, bookstore, Internet cafe,... - Food points
New businesses linked to new school: - Stationery - Nursery - Food points: restaurants, streetfood, stores
Concentration of commercial structures near new public programs
Tools
Use of a structure only for commercial purpose
Options of grouping ground floors for commercial or production purpose
Hawkers often move and use a lot of space on the street. To avoid conflict between them and the other users of the street a hotel on the market street has found the solution. They built a 1 meter space between the sidewalk and the street dedicated to hawkers. This system could be extended where possible along the whole market street.
Building on the pavement given by the municipality
New commercial surfaces Space usable in front of shops
Reduction of the carriageway from 5m to 4m
Hawker space on the road, 1m wide
Hawker space in the Elphinstone estate 61
Elphinstone estate
Dilatation
Market or exceptional event
Selling and daily domestic activities
Hawker space extension Hawker space
Flexibility of the usage of the street 62
Tools
63
Elphinstone estate
STRATEGIES Compression Traffic arteries
Compression 64
Traffic arteries
Strategies
Traffic artery Plan 1:500
The two main traffic arteries are already a lot used by trucks. The traffic on the middle artery connecting Mandvi to Elphinstone estate would be even densified by the opening of the port. The other road considered as a main traffic artery is in this category because of the amount of public program situated inside its loop. Given the flow of traffic and the fact that these streets are two-way streets, a special thought has to be given to pedestrians. In these situations an actual pavement has to be added in front the the dwellings to make de separation clear and safe. Given the width of the streets thought to accomodate big trucks, the creation of a pavement on both sides would not be an issue. The dwellings have to be compressed at their maximum to allow space for pedestrians. 65
Elphinstone estate
Traffic artery Model 1:1000
66
Strategies
Traffic artery Model 1:50
Traffic artery Model 1:50
Traffic artery Model 1:1000
67
Elphinstone estate
Flexibility Market street
Flexibility 68
Market street
Strategies
Market street Plan 1:500
The market street is an intermediate situation. During the week, the street is one-way and accomodates all kinds of traffic. There is a 5m space delimited by two white lines for cars. The rest of the space on both sides is either used by dwellers or as parking space. As explained earlier we propose a 1m space for hawkers which would reduce the circulation space for cars to 4 meters. This street is considered flexible as uses vary within one day (individual commercial use) or one week (market on sunday), or for exceptional events such as weddings and festivals. Therefore the dwelling itself needs to be 'compressed' but has the flexibility for some dilatation from time to time. For exceptional events the whole street can be used and covered. 69
Elphinstone estate
Market street Model 1:1000 70
Strategies
Market street Model 1:50
Market street Model 1:1000
Market street Model 1:50 71
Elphinstone estate
Dilatation Pedestrian streets Three pedestrian bridges cross the railways and connect Mandvi to the Elphinstone estate. These axis would be reinforced by the larger public crossing the bridges by foot to go to the waterfront. They could very well be closed to cars. This would allow a horizontal expansion of dwellings without creating further conflict. In this case the use of the roof is not necessary.
Dilatation 72
Pedestrian streets
Strategies
Pedestrian street Plan 1:500
73
Elphinstone estate
Pedestrian street Model 1:1000
74
Strategies
Pedestrian street Model 1:50
Pedestrian street Model 1:50
Pedestrian street Model 1:1000
75
Elphinstone estate
Colonisation
Types of colonisation 76
Types of colonisation
Strategies
Inside a warehouse
Expansion through a wall
Inside some warehouses that are not situated on the main traffic arteries, portions of warehouses could be given by the owner to dwellers that have been displaced. In these brick and steel warehouses there has always been small businesses and production spaces. We can imagine that this block keeps its function but that dwellings can use some space inside as production and commercial space. In this case they can literally open the wall and expand. In the case of a new development, a compromise can be reached between dwellers and the developer. The developer can leave a few meters of land to the dwellers to expand while they get something in exchange (for example to build higher).
Expansion on the setback of the new development
On empty plot
In some places where old warehouses are destructed but where no new developments are taking place for various reasons, commercial clusters can develop, especially near the market street and the municipal market. 77
Elphinstone estate
TRAFFIC ARTERIES
Axonometries Scenario 1:100 Today 1:200 COMPRESSION
MARKET STREET
Axonometries Scenario 1:100 Today 1:200 FLEXIBILITY
78
Drawings
PEDESTRIAN STREET
Axonometries Scenario 1:100 Today 1:200 DILATATION
79
Elphinstone estate
80
Drawings
81