Production-Oriented Urbanism : Neighbourhood as the Mill by Nitesh Khatod

PRODUCTION ORIENTED URBANISM

NEIGHBOURHOOD AS THE MILL

Redefining the Neighbourhood in Mumbai as locus of Production

Nithesh Khatod

Housing and Urbanism- MArch Architectural Association School of Architecture

PRODUCTION ORIENTED URBANISM

NEIGHBOURHOOD AS THE MILL [Redefining the Neighbourhood in Mumbai as locus of Production ]

Nithesh Khatod

MArch- Housing and Urbanism â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;14 Architectural Association School of Architecture Research Collaborators Karan Bakre Diego Grinberg Manuel Otero Poom Supakijjanusan Tutors Jorge Fiori Elena Pascolo Alex Warnock Smith

Acknowledgements

This document has emerged as part of a collaborative effort of five individuals engaged with the issue of exploring the potential of productionoriented urban processes to upgrade the informal sector. The research process has been an attempt to explore alternative strategies for the regeneration of urban regions under speculation. I express my gratitude to my group mates- Karan Bakre, Diego Grinberg, Manuel Otero and Poom Supakijjanusan for their effort and useful feedback. I would like to express my gratitude to the tutorsJorge Fiori, Elena Pascolo, Alex Warnock Smith for their constant guidance and support throughout the research stage. Special thanks to Hugo Hinsley, Elad Eisenstein and Lawrence Barth for their constant mentoring at the AA. Most of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my friends and family for their consistent support right through the sixteen months at the AA.

Fig1. The Gateway of India, Mumbai

Contents Declaration- Thesis Abstract

Introduction

Section 1. Production-Oriented Urbanism

1.1 1.2

Production as the catalyst for growth Network Urbanism

Section 2. Mumbai: Production-Oriented City

2.1. 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.4

Mumbai: Post industrial landscape Mumbai: City in Transformation Growth of the Mills- Historical Overview Girangaon- Village of Mills Closure of Mills Recycling Urban Land Lost Opportunities with the Mill Lands Redevelopment Chawls Housing Typology Chawls- Diverse Urban Character Chawls- Strategic Location Lessons learnt from the Chawl Typology Potential of Girangaon

Section 3. Neighbourhood as the Mill

3.1 3.2 3.3

Locating: Lower Parel, Central Mumbai Spatial Strategies Re-engaging Chawl Housing clusters within the production system Rehousing the chawls Readapting the mill structures

29 31 33 35 39 43 49 55 57 59 61

63 65 69 75 85 89

Section 4. Conclusions

Section 5. References

Section 6. Bibliography

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Every now and again, cities have to recycle land for new uses. They do this in order to survive. For as technologies and markets change, cities must adjust- or stagnate and atrophy. â&#x20AC;? [Correa in Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte 2006:16]

Declaration Thesis Abstract

With large industrial clusters becoming obsolete, an even larger secondary and tertiary system of small scale and downstream industries, completely dependent on the original industrial unit, subsequently goes obsolete. In the case of the Mumbai mill lands, with the shutdown of the mill units in the 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, a large population of mill workers became dispersed and tertiary industries completely disintegrated. With the lack of strategic redevelopment processes for regeneration of the mill lands, thousands of mill workers were driven to informal sectors of production, such as food production, textile industries, or became hawkers and street vendors, etc. The aim of this thesis is to suggest a break away from traditional large singular production systems and a move towards a more autonomous, dispersed system of restructurisation of the neighbourhood as the locus of production - (the mill itself ). The Speculation with the large mill lands within Mumbai have left a drastic imbalance within the urban population.

Production, as the driving force for city formation, help to regenerate neglected communities. With the presence of strong infrastructure and adequate human and material resource within city regions as fundamental requisites, this project looks at a redefinition of the relationships between the different stakeholders and regeneration of the lost production capacity of post-industrial neighbourhoods. The intention of this study is to propose an alternative avant-garde approach to post-industrial lands within city regions, analytically following a network theory to negate the issue of availability of land and tapping the potential of informal production systems prevalent within urban centres.

Introduction

The role and nature of urban centres within the developing world have drastically changed over the last few decades. The rapid urbanisation of city regions, with heavy influx of migrant population to the cities in search of employment has put immense pressure on city planners and governments to sustain the growth of cities. Cities, have always been the locus of developmenteconomically, socially, culturally and politically. The massive changes in city regions today is an universal condition. Cities, in the developing world have all undergone or are undergoing drastic transformation from production-based cities to service-based economies. As a reason of this rapid transformation, a large population of cities, are left out of the equation in the redevelopment strategies. Informality in urban centres in the developing world is an universal phenomenon. The informal sector with its capacity of informal production along with self-housing principles they adopt, with little support from the state, provides critical background on the shortcomings of state governments and the policies to upgrade the condition of the informal sector. The aim of this research as part of a group of five, is to critically position the capacity of productionbased urbanism as a strategy to revitalize neglected communities within urban centres. The informal sector is an increasing condition within urban centres, owing to lack of strategic planning policies to integrate the migrant population within the urban system. With the liberalization and deregulation of national economies in the 1980’s and 1970’s, enhanced the importance of cities as major nodes of investment and development.

Sassan states that “cities are the strategic places

where we find a culmination of multiple social groups, neighbourhoods, inequality, but, at the same time cities act as laboratories for enquiring the global impacts of economics, politics, and cultural.” [Sassan, 2012:32-34] With cities being the nucleus of development, it is evident that the population of city regions exponentially increases, with influx of migrant population in search of jobs. In the developing world, the lack of strategic planning policies to accommodate the migrant population has led to an ever-increasing scenario of sprawling slums and shanty towns within city regions. The intention of this research is to analyse the different conditions of the informal sector, broadening the study area to two different cities- Buenos Aires in the Latin American context, and Mumbai in the Asian context. Having established that the informal sector is an area of concern for state authorities, the conditions and qualities of the informal sector is quite different in the Latin American and Asian context. With the informal sector widely interlaced within the urban fabric in Asian cities, the informal forms an essential contributor in the production of cities. Whereas in the Latin American context, the informal sector is highly secluded from the rest of the city fabric and forms ghettos of no-entry zones within urban centres. Many studies have been made on the potential of the informal, with numerous research studies on Dharavi, a sprawling slum within Mumbai. The intention of this research is to propose alternate strategies to analyse postindustrial landscapes and include production as an

Fig2. Mumbai Metropolitan Region showing 3 individual projects, and Primary industrial clusters within MMR Drawing credits- Karan Bakre

integral tool to upgrade the informal sector. The informal could be defined with multiple synonyms. In this research, we look at the informal sector as a potential contributor to the production system, and include post-industrial neighbourhoods, with existing unemployed industrial worker population on the verge of informality as potential agents in redefining redevelopment strategies. The research on production-oriented urbanism within the city of Mumbai is critically analysed with three different conditions and projects, considering the importance of movement and production in redefining neighbourhoods within post-industrial regions. As part of a group of three, the first two studies critically analyse the potential of the Eastern waterfront of Mumbai covering 1800 acres of post-industrial land, with minimal utilization of the resources available, and propose strategies of reintegration of the existing communities in WadalaSewri, and Darukhana neighbourhoods with prevalent informal settlements. The connections to Navi Mumbai and the industrial clusters in the East of Navi Mumbai, through the Eastern waterfront adds immense value in the discussion of introducing production-based regeneration strategies to upgrade neglected neighbourhoods, and provide alternative strategies to oppose the speculative-driven approaches followed by state authorities, completely neglecting the available resource of skilled labour awaiting employment and upgradation. This particular research- ‘Neighbourhood as the Mill‘, critically analyses the post industrial regions of the mill lands within central Mumbai and proposes

alternative models of regeneration of Lower Parel (Neighbourhood within the mill lands precinct in central Mumbai) , including the existing mill worker population as potential resources in introducing production-based strategies for the revitalization of the region. With the proximity to the Eastern waterfront and the strategic location of Lower Parel within the Mumbai metropolitan region, the need to propose alternate avant-garde strategies is evident owing to the speculative-driven approaches followed by state governments in the regeneration plans of the mill lands. The research process is segregated into four sections. The first section, analyses the potential of production-oriented urbanism and the need for network based planning approaches. The second section, focuses on the post-industrial landscape of the mill lands in central Mumbai and critically studies on the ‘chawl housing typology’ (mill worker housing typology). The potential of redefining the mill neighbourhood with the existing clusters of mills and mill workers, adds interesting value on the discussion of production-oriented urbanism. The third section, focuses on the design strategies to propose alternative approaches to re-engage the housing typology within the production system, and strategies to upgrade small-scale production systems to have larger impact on the production of cities using the potential of network planning approaches. The final section proposes critical reflections on the potential of production-oriented urbanism and the conclusions of the research.

Fig3. Informality- An Increasing Condition

1. Production-Oriented Urbanism

Production processes regulate and impact on almost every aspect of our living conditions. Employment, housing, health, education, and the social structure of cities are all defined by the production capacity of the city. Production, and in particular manufacturing and industrial production, have had marked effects on city formation. Traditional principles of city planning in the 19th and 20th centuries have followed these lines of production based city growth in the developing world.

“This is not unique. Many industrial cities of the world had the industrial areas at their centres. (With the decline of the traditional industry or industry in general these centres became hollowed out, producing what has been termed a ‘doughnut- or donut- effect’ . The workers colonies, in case of Mumbai consisting of slums, shanties, and of course chawls, came up in the same area. The reasons were clear and simple. The land then was neither prime nor very expensive. Industry also needed the workforce to live near the workplace. ”

With production processes defining city formation, other developments within the city revolved around the growth of the production system and viceversa. The developments in infrastructure and the technological advancements in rail infrastructure enhanced the speed of urbanisation of cities around the world. “The migrants are coming to the cities, in search of jobs.” [Correa, 2000] as mentioned by Charles Correa. With industrial production as the main source of employment, the influx of migrants to the cities from neighbouring villages increased exponentially and production as the catalyst of city formation and growth became evident.

The issue of land and the need for urban land for new developments in the financial and service industries has been the prime reason for the decline in production activities within city regions. The urban planning policies adopted in the regeneration of the post-industrial lands has led to vast urban disparity, neglecting completely the vast majority of urban population who were dependent on these industries for their livelihoods. In the following sections, the reasons for and the outcomes of this shift in production sites to the city peripheries will be analysed in detail.

In the present day context of globalization, cities in the developing countries are moving from production-oriented towards the global practice of service based economy. This shift in focus has had drastic and visible gaps in the city planning policies. Traditional practices of cities as source of industrial production are moving away towards the periphery of cities, releasing large industrial lands within city centres for redevelopment.

[Adarkar, 2011:6]

The results of redevelopment of post-industrial lands has followed global lines of speculative growth. Speculative-driven growth of inner-city regions results in gross imbalance of the urban system. With major global cities today following this trend of speculative driven growth, the intention of this research is to propose alternative systems that could enable balance within the urban fabric.

Pakistan 21.9 million

78.4%

China 36 million

32.4%

Mexico 20.2 million

53.7% Colombia 9.3 million

81.8%

53.7% Brazil 32.5 million

Bolivia 2 million

75.1%

India 18.5 million

Mali 1.1 million

83.6% Uganda 2.7 million

69.4%

42.2%

Argentina 5.1 million

South Africa 4 million

32.7%

49.7%

Fig4. Percentage of employment in informal sector Statistical Source: Statistical update on employment in the informal economy, ILO- Department of Statistics

4 2 % GDP from Informal Sec tor 31 l ow a n d l o w e r- m i d d l e i n c o m e co u n t r i e s

2 2 % GDP from Informal Sec tor 32 h i gh er- i n c o m e c o u n t r i e s (O E C D )

Thailand 9.6 million

Madagascar 1.2 million

73.6%

42.3% Indonesia 3.1 million

72.5%

1.1. Production as the catalyst of growth

Having established that production impacts on many aspects of life- social, economic, and cultural, the intention of this thesis is to test the potential for the reintroduction of production-based growth within city regions that are in the state of transformation. Production-oriented cities have been centres of unequal growth. With large industries closing their production within city regions, and moving away from city centres to the peripheries, a large imbalance is created with a vast population of the city left under-employed. The role of governance and local authorities in revitalizing these neglected communities and in provision of adequate support and employment opportunities is extremely vital, but in most cases unachieved. In the case of Mumbai, the post-industrial landscape (as discussed in detail in section 2.1) put forward difficult challenges in the regeneration and the re-engagement of the thousands of mill workers within the Girangaon (translated as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;village of millsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Marathi) and re-employing the redundant population on the verge of informality. The majority of the population linked with industrial sector still possess considerable skills in the production system they were familiar with. There is much potential to be tapped in these communities with highly skilled and experienced local labour force, who are now redundant. This coupled with a seemingly endless supply of less skilled manual labour ready and eager for new opportunities in the production system provides a platform to script a complete new language of urbanism of production-driven growth. The major hindrance with reintroducing production based activities

within city regions is the availability and the cost of land. The cost of urban land, is on the rise owing to speculative driven development of post-industrial lands. The question arises of how to re-engage the informal sector prevalent in city regions and scale up the informal production capacity to establish it as a considerable factor in city formation both economically and socially. The informal sector is an exponentially increasing condition in the developing world and as in most cases, the informal sector contributes to the production of the city indirectly and provides the majority of unskilled labour. But at the same time, in case of Latin America, the informal sector acts as a completely isolated and autonomous system with little interactions with the rest of the city except in providing cheap labour in construction and other service based economies. The potential of production-oriented urbanism goes beyond revitalizing post-industrial landscapes and has the capacity to upgrade informal settlements prevalent in urban centres throughout the developing world. The informal sector consisting of the informal economies, informal settlements, informal rules, etc., plays a very significant role in any debate on the reworking and the transformation of cities. Approaches on the informal, habitually overwhelmed by the urgency of the socioeconomic issues often related to the most basic needs, tend to overlook the long-term potentials of the informal sector. The informal has been a relatively underexplored resource, particularly in the lines of generating and developing the productive capacity of city regions.

Fig 5,6 Unhygenic conditions of the informal sector Fig 7,8 Potential of informal production Fig 9,10 Railway infrastructure as integrator and facilitator

The informal sector has the qualities that inherently impulse transformation and development. The urgency of the most basic needs of formal housing and basic services forces those in the informal sector to challenge the rules and conditions they have to withstand. Indeed, the potential of the informal lies in their adaptability, flexibility and the innovative capacity. However, the same conditions of adaptability and flexibility nevertheless prevents informal economies from almost any form of regulation and upgrading. Furthermore, because their extraordinary inventiveness is almost exclusively applied to fulfill immediate necessities, they have little impact on the development of broader scales of production. The relevance of the informal sector in this discussion of production as the catalyst of growth is extensively evident in the way cities today approach the concept of informal. For instance, 65% of the urban population of Mumbai lives in informal settlements. The conditions of informal varies from place to place, but the issues related to the informal form part of a common thesis of deprivation, negligence and isolation. The rapid transformation of cities from production oriented to service based economies has widened the gap of integrating the informal with the formal systems of production.

1.2 Network Urbanism

The major reasons for the closure of industrial clusters within city regions, as mentioned earlier is due to the lack of availability of urban land to sustain industries. The rise in land value and the growth of other economies are main reasons for production based activities moving to the peripheries. The traditional planning approaches of segregating land into zones depending on the activity has led to the decline in the production capacity of cities. In the globalised world, the need for urban land is a main determinant in the growth of cities. The zoning of areas within city regions has created a scenario of segregation and extreme focus on certain areas for economic activity creates imbalance in the urban structure. For instance, the central business district in the Fort area of South Mumbai leads to massive influx of people from the suburbs in the north to South Mumbai for work. This scenario of massive movement of people from North to South completely chokes the mobility infrastructure and creates imbalance in the structuring of the city.

“ The zoning approach has dominated urbanism to such an extent that very little room has been left

for other approaches regarding the organisation of urban territory. In particular, the idea of spatial organisation based on networks, which appears to be a relevant organisational form in present-day cities, has hardly been developed. “ [Dupuy, 2008:19]

The shift from zonal planning approaches to a more adaptive and progressive network planning approach could potentially defuse the pressure on developing cities in organising its fragmented urban fabric. The existing infrastructure networks of roadways and railways lend as potential integrators of the fragmented neighbourhoods. The potential of strengthening of the existing networks and enabling new nodes to establish strongholds within existing neighbourhoods could enhance the productivity of the territory. Dupuy in his writing on urban networks emphasises the role of Adaptive networks. Dupuy states that “The ideal modern

network is capable of adapting itself in time, of evolving by enabling the new connections required by its users, generated by the transformations of the ‘environment’ of the urban system.” [Dupuy, 2008:27-28]

Fig11. Google Earth image of Mumbai

2. Mumbai: Production-Oriented City Bombay

Mumbai, (Renamed from Bombay in 1996) was originally an archipelago of seven islands in the 1600’s, inhabited by fishermen and paddy farmers. By 1800’s, with major land reclamation, consolidated the islands into a peninsula and with its important geographic location became a major trading town, with merchants from different parts of the state occupying the island city. During the colonial period, Mumbai was the capital of British India and with the industrial revolution, Mumbai moved from being a trading town towards a cotton-textile production base in the 1860’s. The city grew in area with continuous reclamations and the population of the city increased drastically with the growth of textilemill industry. With production-oriented growth, the infrastructure growth- both railways and the port was evident. With the topography of the city, the growth of the city was very linear, towards the north of the Fort area, the original British area, and subsequently the central business district in South Mumbai. With the city sprawling towards the north, the pressure on infrastructure to accommodate the movement of people from the suburbs of the North to the South for employment, still poses serious questions on the infrastructure capacity of the city. In 1970’s, with the saturation of the island city, Navi Mumbai, as a satellite city to the East of the bay was planned to de-densify the island city.

“ Within an incredibly compressed timeline of events, the processes of colonization, modernization and globalization have radically transformed the territory both formally and culturally. ” [Shannon in Shannon, Gosseye (eds.)., 2009:9]

The city of Mumbai, provides the perfect platform to test the principles of production-oriented urbanism, owing to the historical background of Mumbai as a production-based city and the available resources of skilled labour and postindustrial lands awaiting redevelopment. The city, in a state of transformation, lacks a holistic strategy to negate the prevalent issues of imbalance, urban disparity and the ever sprawling slums and shanty towns within Mumbai.

“ At the centre, the most interesting prospects for the city have to do with reclaiming the post industrial landscapes in the city for public use. It is the mill lands and the vast stretch of land along the city’s eastern waterfront that are emerging as the focus of this ‘reclaiming process’, where multiple aspirations, needs and conflicts are themselves playing out. ” [Design Cell, KRVIA and UDRI, 2001]

2.1. Mumbai: Post-industrial landscape

Mumbai as a city region has always been a production-oriented city, with the booming cotton mills industry in the mid 19th century until its decline in the late 20th century. The textile industry, along with the strong connections to Europe through the major port established Mumbai as the production and financial capital of India. With booming textile industries, the growth of other sectors such as the retail, logistics, trading was spontaneous and unprecedented. The textile industry brought in major influx of migrants from neighbouring villages and from other states of the India. With a large migrant population within the island city in search of jobs and the lack in government policies to adequately house the migrants, lead to the present situation of Mumbai being also called as ‘slumbai’

“ Indeed, Mumbai’s strong, century old industrial base, which has provided a livelihood for the majority of its population, is today almost completely ‘gentrified’. A shift to a service economy has led to an increase in urban disparity that is not addressed by globalisation. ”

amendment of the development control regulations in 2005 (DCR 58), has resulted in the mill lands being completely exploited by the private market with the construction of high-rise residential and corporate buildings completely neglecting the local ecology of the region.

“ Many industrial structures, with varying degrees of heritage value,may…...it is also within the boundaries or in the tissue surrounding these sites that an enormous number of former textile mills and industrial workers still live. Large industrial buildings and geometrical patterns created by chawls (workers housing) and maidans (open spaces) form an urban fabric unique to Mumbai that intersects and integrates with formal settlements. By contrast, the newest layer of the city appears as isolated and island like, as gated luxury dwellings and towers. ” [Tiranishti, Gjoklaj in Shannon, Gosseye (eds.)., 2009:161]

[Adarkar, Desai in Shannon, Gosseye (eds.).,2009:81]

The central region of Mumbai also referred to as Girangaon, once the industrial belt of Mumbai with 58 mill compounds was the most productive region of Mumbai from 1860s’ until the decline of the mills in 1980s’ . The mill lands covering almost 600 acres of prime property within central Mumbai. With 270 acres belonging to the national textile corporation and the remaining 315 acres to the private market, these lands are in a state of speculation with the lack of comprehensive and holistic planning processes. The failure in government policies and the

“ Throughout the 19th century, the textile mills had been the lifeblood of Bombay, the raison d’etre of the city. But by the 1970s and 80’s, for diverse reasons, these mills began losing money- and the government had either to subsidize their contribution, or certify them as “sick mills” and take them over. Now the area that these mills occupy on the island of Bombay is humungous- almost 600 acres (243 hectares) altogether, of which 270 acres (109 hectares) belong to the national textile corporation (i.e. government controlled mills), and 315 acres (128 hectares) to the private mils. ” [Correa in D’Monte (ed.)., 2006:18]

Fig12. Changing urban fabric- New Towers in the background, Marine Drive, Mumbai

2.2 Mumbai- City in Transformation

Mumbai, like many other Asian cities is under the process of massive transformation. The urban transformation of Mumbai is evident with the high investment in real estate, particularly highrise residential and office buildings, owing to the shift from a production-based to service-based economy. The visual image of Mumbai, today, clearly portrays the existence of two different worlds within the same space. Rahul Mehrotra, architect and urban planner has extensively written on the state of Mumbai and its transformation. Mehrotra states that â&#x20AC;&#x153; The challenge in Mumbai is to cope with the

cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transformation, not by inducing or polarizing its dualism, but by attempting to reconcile these opposite conditions as simultaneously valid.â&#x20AC;? [Mehrotra in Shannon, Gosseye (eds.)., 2009:146]

The city in transformation, puts forth many challenges, extensively in the quest for balance within the urban population. The urban disparity is clearly evident in the post-planning processes incorporated in the regeneration of the mill lands and other vacant urban lands within the city region. The negligence to create coherence between the different ecologies prevalent in the urban system, clearly emphasises the present scenario of haphazard development and gentrification of urban areas. Speculation-driven development of post-industrial lands has widened the gap between the urban population. The urban planning strategies followed in Mumbai completely overlook the needs of the resident informal population in the post-industrial neighbourhoods, and this approach has led a large disgruntled mill worker population towards informality.

MILL LANDS INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSES INDUSTRIES RAILWAY YARDS OIL COMPANIES MARKETS RAILWAY STATIONS POTENTIAL NODES/CLUSTERS SUBURBAN RAILWAY LINES POTENTIAL E-W ROADWAYS

Fig13. Location of Mill Lands within Girangaon, Central Mumbai

2.2.1 Growth of the Mills- Historical Overview

The industrial revolution in the mid 19th century led to the new technological advancements in the production and manufacturing sector. The British in India, having a stronghold during the colonial period, made maximum utilisation of the available resources. The availability of cotton yarns in and around the Mumbai region led to massive investments in the textile industry.

West), covering an area of 25 sq.km. The region of Girangaon as a production region benefited by the mass transport systems integrating the precinct with the rest of the metropolitan region and also with the rest of the state of Maharashtra.

By 1850, Mumbai (renamed from Bombay in 1996) was the economic capital of British India with the setting up of cotton mills in Girangaon, north of the Fort area in South Mumbai. The first cotton mill was set up in 1858 and by early 20th century the region of Girangaon within a 3 mile radius had more than 50 mill compounds. The main reason for the growth of the mills in central Mumbai was the introduction of the railway lines in 1853 that connected the island city: to the north with Gujarat and the east with Calcutta (renamed as Kolkata). With strong rail infrastructure the movement of goods and people in and out of Mumbai exponentially added to the growth of the city. With the growth in the textile industry, the population of the city grew manyfolds within a short time and this made Mumbai an unique and dynamic production-based city with inhabitants from multiple backgrounds finding a place in the city. The textile industry, though, worked as an autonomous system of production. It was the main reason for many downstream industries to thrive which changed the character of the city from a trading base to a production-oriented city. The Girangaon region stretches from Parel to Lalbaug (North to South) and from Sewri to Worli (East to

Mill Structure

Chawl housing cluster Railway Station

Fig14. Typical mill compound in Girangaon

2.2.2 Girangaon- Village of Mills

The mills of Mumbai numbering 58 in total within the island city, had a massive impact on the character of the city and the way the city functioned. With Mumbai booming in the textile industry, the need for affordable and skilled labour increased and the rise in jobs directly resulted in migrants thronging the island city. The migrants were mostly from neighbouring villages initially, but by the beginning of the 20th century people from other states of the country migrated to Mumbai to work in the textile mills. With the influx of a largely skilled workforce, the need to house and provide the migrants with basic facilities increased. The Bombay development district (BDD) and the Bombay improvement trust (BIT) built the required housing for the migrant population within the mill precinct with support from the mill owners. The region of Parel and Byculla, where the major mills located developed into dynamic villages with a distinct social structure of mill workers living in typical workers housing clusters called the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chawl typologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The structure of the Chawl typology would be analysed in detail in chapter 2.3.

institutional and economic revolved around the mill and its growth. The traditional forms of production have always followed similar patterns of growth- singular and highly concentrated on one form of production. Cities such as Boston and Manchester developed on similar lines of production-oriented growth. But with the complete focus on one singular point of production and thousands of people completely dependent on the mill itself, the pressure on the mill as a single source of livelihood was immensely high. With the decline in production and industrial growth for various reasons of land value fluctuations, technological advancements and other non-traditional forms of production, the effect the closure of production has immense toll on the majority of the population within its precinct.

The region of Girangaon geographically north of the Fort area, which is the central business district, has distinct characteristics to the other regions within the Mumbai metropolitan region with specific and dynamic relationships between the local residents and the mill as the source of employment. This strong and direct relationship between the mill and the local residents dependent on the mill defined the urban character of the region. With production as the focus of the urban neighbourhood all developments- social, cultural,

“ These lands represent a unique opportunity to address the most crucial issue we have faced over the last few decades: how to deal with the nightmarish proliferation of slums and shantytowns in Mumbai. “ [Correa in D’Monte (ed.)., 2006:25]

Fig15. Changing Urban fabric of Girangaon- New high-rise towers replacing old mill structures

2.2.3 Closure of Mills

The cotton textile mills of Mumbai by the late 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employed the single largest workforce in a single industry anywhere in the world, numbering 250,000 workers in the mills. [Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte, 2006] The conditions of the mills deteriorated steadily and with lack in investment in technological innovations, along with rise in value of the sites the mill owners turned their focus to other viable options of selling the mill lands for higher profits. With the strike of mill workers in 1982, which lasted for 16 months, demanding better worker facilities and repayment of dues, the

Fig16. Vacant derelict mill lands awaiting redevelopment in Girangaon

mill owners won the legal battle of authority over the mill lands and over 100,000 mill workers were dismissed and left unemployed. [Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte,2006] The worker strike, calling for the re-functioning of the mills and the subsequent events throughout the 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agitating the restart of the mills resulted in the mill owners winning the legal battle to convert the mill lands from industrial use to commercial use. The character of Girangaon from a bustling and dynamic region of socio-cultural and economic crossovers between the different agents changed to a hostile environment of large mill compounds lying derelict and segregated from the economic transactions that the mills were once part of. The closure of the mills, which subsequently became a planning and economic issue lead to massive disparity between the urban population. The most prominent effect of the closure of the mills is the impact on the livelihood of thousands of mill workers who had been completely dependent on the mills. In 1991, the year of economic liberalization and following global practices of the opening up of markets for private developments and large scale investments, the Maharashtra government made considerable amendments to the development control rules (DCR) specifically concentrated on the redevelopment of the cotton mill lands which went derelict and unused for production purposes.

2.2.4 Recycling Urban Land ‘One-Third land division’ formula- Charles Correa

The strike of 1982 and the subsequent events that followed, rendered most of the 58 mills nonfunctional and abandoned. The most important concern for city authorities and the thousands of now non-employed mill workers was the regeneration and redevelopment policies that would follow to make maximum utilization of the 600 acres of prime urban land in central Mumbai. Charles Correa, Urban planner and architect was commissioned to head the Housing, Urban renewal, and Environment board (HURE Board) under the Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA, latter MMRDA). The MMRDA was the sole planning authority for decisions on the redevelopment of the mill lands.

the mill owners, the city and also fulfill the required affordable housing shortage. The one-third formula was instilled in 1991 as Section 58 in the DCR with a few amendments after many years of debate in the local assembly, the Mantralaya of Mumbai. The modification to the original formula proposed by Correa was the FSI on the land surrendered for civic amenities and for affordable housing was given to the mill owner in the form of TDR (Transfer Development Rights)- and not as FSI on the actual site. Also the amendments to the rule 58 of DCR permitted the owner to sell a portion of the mill land (less than 15% of total land incrementally without considering the one-third formula). [D’Monte, 2006]

Charles Correa in 1985 under HURE proposed the ‘one-third formula’ for recycling the mill lands. Under the 0ne-third ratio, “The idea was simple:

a mill could be allowed to sell its land provided it surrendered one-third to the city for civic usesparks, maidans, schools, hospitals, etc. Another third would be reserved for affordable housing (either through Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), or through housing cooperatives). The last third could be sold on the open market- and would carry not only its own FSI (Floor Space Index), but also that on the land surrendered to the city. “ [Correa in D’Monte (ed.)., 2006:19]

With the one-third ratio, the mill owners with the additional FSI on the industrial land with original FSI of 0.5 would get 1.33 and would benefit the same as building on entire land. According to Correa, the proposed formula would benefit all-

The amendments of the DCR 58 though miniscule, had many loop-holes for the mill owners to benefit from and the one-third ratio never materialised as to the original vision. Owing to the resistance from the private mill owners, in 1996 another committee was formed again under Charles Correa to propose a strategic plan for the redevelopment of the mill lands under the Urban Development Department of the Maharashtra government. The role of the committee was to propose a strategic plan for the holistic development of all the mill lands including the private mills and those under the NTC (National Textile Corporation) and to look at the one-third ratio as a holistic formula instead of piecemeal formula for every mill land individually.

2001, under a completely new committee proposed amendments to the original DCR 58 limiting the available open space calculation without considering the land available after demolition of structures as in the original regulation, to only calculating available open land for distribution between the city, MHADA and owners with the land of built structures with the owners. This completely changed the equation and the land available to the city and for affordable housing reduced considerably to almost a bare minimum and the local residents and the mill workers grievances were completely neglected.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; The strategy in the report, was extremely simple: since all the NTC mills were under one management, their disposable land was aggregated and the total divided by three. So instead of each site being divided into three parts, the entire site could be designated as a park or maidan, or used for housing, or for commercial purposes- or for any combination thereof- depending on what was most appropriate for that location.â&#x20AC;&#x153; [Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte, 2006:21] The policies adopted in the report of 1996, though well intentioned, could not be adopted with the privately-owned mill lands for various economic reasons and the lucrative returns for the mill owners in selling prime urban property for private developments of high-end residential and corporate parks. The legal battles for the ownership and utilization of the mill lands continued and in

Fig17. Derelict Mill structure demolished to make way for new developments Jupiter Mills Being Demolished in Girangaon Scanned image from [Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte,2006:12]

2.2.5 Lost Opportunities with the Mill Lands Redevelopment

“ The advantages of each metromorphosis, of each new watershed, have been astounding. Not only are new jobs and new wealth created, but the process of recycling land has provided extraordinary opportunities to correct old imbalances and make the city even better. The crisis that the textile mills faced in the 1970s and ‘80s was such a watershed. ” [Correa in D’Monte (ed.)., 2006:16]

The Charles Correa committee emphasized the importance of the Parel mill lands for the strategic location the mill lands have in concurrence with the rest of the Mumbai metropolitan region, with the strong North to South railway infrastructure of the local Mumbai railway system criss-crossing the region and the potential East to West road infrastructure that connects the mill lands with the eastern waterfront and the vast vacant land owned by the Mumbai port trust awaiting redevelopment as well. The region of Parel is the most viable and logical place in the context of locating new jobs and housing, revitalizing the region with a large inherent mill worker population on the verge of unemployment and informality owing to the closure of the mills. The opportunity the mill lands have given the city of Mumbai, in reorganising the way the city functions and creating balance within the vast landscape, is incredible. The available 600 acres of mill lands, along with the surplus land of the Mumbai Port Trust which occupies 1800 acres, and another 500 acres of currently underutilized land of the marshalling yards and rail yards, affords the city to develop into

Fig18. Lost Opportunity of Mill lands redevelopment Jupiter Mills Being Demolished in Girangaon Scanned image from [Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte,2006:11]

a strong economic and global financial centre. The battle of ownership of the mill lands subsequently was over with “the supreme court of

India ruling in favour of the mill owners, builders, and the land sharks who have swooped on this valuable real estate like vultures on a corpse, to build malls and high-rise buildings with swimming pools and tennis courts for the rich. The poor and the homeless can only stand behind the walls and gaze at the spectacle. “ [Kanga in D’Monte (ed.)., 2006:40] Years of planning debates and various committees that worked for the benefit of the city and provision of affordable housing for the majority of the population in dire need for shelter within city regions was completely undone by the political system and the policies adopted by the state government considering foremost the needs of the mill owners, builders and politicians. The opportunity to revitalize the available land for public use and the regeneration of jobs and livelihood of the thousands affected by the closure of the mills was completely lost. Though there are no committees in place to revive the bleak possibility of regenerating a new urban policy with the available resources under the government owned mill lands, there is still an opportunity to work on alternative policies and design strategies in providing employment and engaging the neglected population of mill workers residing in Parel and other parts of Girangaon with alternate production systems and utilizing the skills available to the maximum.

The mill lands, as stated previously, are of prime real-estate value and have been developed by builders into gated communities of shopping malls, high-rise residential and corporate parks attracting the rich. But within the precincts of the mill areas, there exists a completely opposite ecology of lower middle class and lower class population completely excluded from the redevelopment policies and this scenario of piecemeal private market driven speculative development has created mass urban disparity within the neighbourhoods. Before considering the global implications of these lands, the prime focus should have been in negating the vast disparity in the urban population that has prevailed in redevelopment of the mill lands. Its a global phenomenon, and similar cases are visible in different parts of the world and gentrification of communities is a common scenario worldwide. The main critique in the proposal by Charles Correa in his ‘one-third ratio’ for redevelopment of mill lands was that there was no focus placed on the re-employment of the mill workers and there was no implication of regenerating new production activities for the thousands of mill workers skilled in the textile industry. The urban policies that were followed by the state governments and the development plans for Mumbai never considered the grievances of the Girangaon workers and the needs of the local residents who agitated under the Girangaon Employment Right Society, an NGO that fought for the rights of mill workers and their families. The basic requirements of the people residing in the chawls was new employment opportunities and regeneration of the lost textile

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fatal combination of greed and myopic thinking in dealing with the recycling of the mill lands, has resulted in Mumbai losing an important opportunity to reinvent itself. In fact, looking at Mumbai over the last four decades, planning has largely been about rearguard actions versus the avant-garde actions that have traditionally led planning. The last avant-garde action experienced, was the planning of the vision for New Bombay (Navi Mumbai)- a vision where a new future was imagined on a tabula rasa condition, where policy, planning, infrastructure, architecture, and urban design were to lead the way; not just to arrive on the scene after the effects of development, but to clean up the debris of laissez-faire growth. â&#x20AC;&#x153; [Mehrotra in Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Monte (ed.), 2006:63]

industry that moved away from the city of Mumbai to the new power looms of Bhiwandi and Thane, suburbs towards the North of Mumbai. The lost opportunity in the regeneration plans for the mill lands are mainly due to lack in holistic strategising of the region taking into account the different stakeholders, the available resources of skilled workforce, available infrastructure, and most importantly the lack in an holistic vision for the city of Mumbai. The need of an alternative planning policy to regain the lost opportunity and to revive the little available resource towards a holistic strategy of inclusion and integration with the mainstream production system is maximum in the present context. The avant-garde or alternative policies required to revitalize a dying city are the way forward in stabilizing the overburdened city in transformation. The tabula rasa system followed with the mill lands has already had adverse effects on the urban structure of the city and with the policies, if followed, the way they are present- the fate of the existing urban elements of chawls and few mill structures within the mill precinct is unclear.

Fig19. Aerial image of Lower Parel- showing chawl clusters

2.3 Chawls Housing Typology

The cotton mills of Mumbai transformed the city from a trading city to a production based city. With the growth in the cotton mills, as mentioned earlier the rise in the population of the city was inevitable. Within a short period the population of Parel and Worli, the precinct of mills in Girangaon, grew to four times its initial population. The majority of the workers in the mills were migrants and the immediate requirement of the government was to house the flowing population. The initial migrants to the city from neighbouring villages moved to the city alone without their families and the requirement was to find shelter close to the mills within Girangaon. The Bombay development district (BDD) and the Bombay improvement trust (BIT) built the required housing for the migrant population within the mill precinct with support from the mill owners. The initial housing built for the mill workers, like any other industrial worker housing typology followed the principle of 2-3 storey single bedroom row houses. The individual units are a bare minimum single bedroom with the living and kitchen merged into one. The typical chawl housing units had common services and the bathrooms were shared between 6-7 chawl units. Typically, each individual unit housed single men from the same village and community. With the growth in the textile industry, the number of migrants increased steadily and the families of the mill workers moved into the city. The chawl typology grew from row houses to perimeter blocks with a central courtyard. The chawl units being minimal in terms of space available for a family of 5-6, most of the activities spread out

Fig20. Chawl cluster in Lower Parel New developments of high-rise housing towers in mill lands

into the common corridor and the courtyard. A dynamic and complex relationship prevailed in the chawl perimeters with the courtyard taking different forms from playground for kids to group gathering for the women in the chawls. Charles Correa in his writings of the chawls draws interesting parallels with the rigid Berlin block typology in terms of housing that evolve under the strictest constraints of cost, space, and materials available. Correa states that â&#x20AC;&#x153; in order to save on

the cost of roads and other services, the plots for workers housing in Berlin a century ago were usually relatively narrow and very deep- which is what generated the characteristic Berliner pattern of four- and five- storey walk-up apartments, built around successive courtyards, with the rents decreasing as one moves farther and farther away from the street. A truly brilliant answer to a brutal question. â&#x20AC;&#x153;

ended up as an extended veranda. Eventually these verandas became spaces of interaction between the different families and this impersonal access corridor transformed as a social space. The chawls spread across the entire Girangaon region within the mill lands and were always linked to the adjacent mill within its precinct. Typically the segregation within different chawl blocks was on caste and the region the people were from. For instance, the mill workers for a particular region of India, with the same language and caste would be housed within the same chawl block creating a sense of interdependence within the residents.

[Correa in Adarkar (ed.).,2011]

The comparison of the Chawl housing to the Berlin block is interesting in lines with space and cost constraints. But the chawls follow an even more rigid and brutal solution to the problem at hand. The need for workers housing in the mill lands of Mumbai were extremely high and required instant solutions for accommodating the influx of thousands of migrants to Girangaon increasing exponentially every year. The chawls built both by the state authorities and the mill owners followed strict standards and ended up being dark and dingy one-room tenements with only mercy of single loaded corridor which

Common Bathrooms 1 Bathroom/ 6 Units

Kitchen/ Dining

Living Area/ Bedroom

Circulation Corridor/ Shared Space

Fig21. Exploded axonometric of typical chawl block

rooms Units

Courtyard ( Patio ) Play Area/ Parking/ Community Space

â&#x20AC;&#x153; As late as in 1989, nearly 75% of the total formal housing stock in Greater Mumbai consisted of chawls. Indeed the grand topography of the Island city was possible only because 80% of the population were housed in the cramped tenements of chawls over a century. â&#x20AC;&#x153; [Adarkar, 2011]

Fig21. Interior of chawl neighbourhood Fig22. Commercial activity along main street encouraging pedestrian movement

2.3.1 Chawls- Diverse Urban Character

The chawl clusters relatively homogeneous in the organisation and its visual appearance of typical 2-3 storey slabs with sloped roofs, there existed as mentioned earlier strong diversities in the organisation of specific chawl clusters with tenants from specific regions following specific religion, customs and it defined every chawl cluster with a specific regional origin. This organisation of the chawls determined the character of the region in and around the chawl cluster and every mill compound. The chawls thus were more than a mere form of mass housing typology. The chawls generated a specific character to the region of Girangaon, that was completely different to the rest of the Mumbai region both in terms of density and character. The urbanism of Mumbai during the 20th century revolved around the textile mills and the subsequent chawl housing that evolved with the growth in the textile industry. The chawls moved from being mere worker housing clusters to an urban element that determined the character of the region. The region of Girangaon from Parel to Lalbaug, where the majority of mills and chawls are located bustled with an urbanism unique to Girangaon. An urbanism of social interaction, of mutual development and an urbanism of growth.

Fig23. Single loaded access corridors as extended verandasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Fig24. Chawl housing clusters under threat from private-market for redevelopment Background- New high-rise tower under construction on demolished chawl land

2.3.2 Chawls- Strategic Location

The urbanisation of Mumbai through the late 20th century and the growth of the city northwards have made the region of Girangaon a central prime location directly north of the financial centre of Fort area and other business centres of Colaba and Nariman point in South Mumbai. The decline in the textile industry and the general trend of industries moving away from city regions to the peripheries in search of cheap land and larger areas of production have left Girangaon in a state of conflict between the land sharks eyeing the prime property for private developments as the mill lands and the local residents of the chawls battling for basic needs and rights. This is a global phenomenon, of industries moving away to the outskirts and releasing major industrial land within city centres for redevelopment. The chawls of Girangaon face similar issues of redevelopment as the mill structures faced. The outcome of the redevelopment of the mill lands has had drastic effects on the future of the chawl housing and its tenants mostly the unemployed mill workers. With the fast urbanisation of Parel and Lalbaug neighbourhoods of Girangaon and the transformation from an industrial area into highrise residential and corporate gated communities, the chawls within the region have immense pressure of competing with the private builders in search of new urban land for redevelopment. Also the structural condition of many chawl blocks has deteriorated with time and the need for re-housing the old chawls is evident.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; The chawl fulfilled a historical need and served the new migrant blue- and white- collar workers

admirably for many years. It is now overtaken by historical developments. The changing pattern of the city in the age of corporate globalisation and post-industrial reshaping will necessarily devour the homelands of the chawls- in the inner city areas as well as the mill lands. â&#x20AC;? [Adarkar, 2011:9]

The developments in and around the mill lands are already visible. The changing dynamics of the city of Mumbai from a bustling production city to the new Shangai of India and setting platforms for achieving the global aspirations the city aims at, the large urban disparity is clearly visible. In the globalisation age, the majority of population of Mumbai who were the reasons for the growth of the city for over a century have been neglected and left out of the equation of urban transformation. The chawls struggle in coping with the pressure of redevelopment and with no strategic planning policies in place by the state government and the Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to regenerate the chawl neighbourhoods have left many questions unanswered. At present, 16000 dilapidated chawl structures are battling for their right to sustain themselves within their neighbourhood of Girangaon. [Adarkar, 2011:11] The residents of the chawls highly skilled in the textile industry and other forms of production are left unemployed after the closure of the mills and are on the verge of informality and with already 65% of population of Mumbai in the informal sector, any addition to the number would add to the already prevalent issue of regaining balance within the city of Mumbai coping with urban imbalance.

2.3.3 Lessons learnt from the Chawl Typology

For over a century the mills of Girangaon led the growth of Mumbai and the thousands of mill workers formed the backbone of Mumbai at a period of extensive reclamation and drastic urban transformations. The mill workers, mostly migrants accommodated within state built chawl tenements. The chawls have a distinct character when compared to the rest of the housing within Mumbai. The Chawls though basic workers housing, adapted itself to take various forms ranging from a dwelling at the lowest scale to large scale gatherings within the central courtyards in times of festivals and special occasions such as weddings and social events. The central courtyard bound by the access corridors to the individual tenements was the only space of interaction for the residents within the chawls. The courtyard with its multiple facets adds to the much needed spatial requirement within the chawl dwellings.

gives it its unique character. This versatility is the main potential of the chawl as well. Reconfiguration of the chawl from single-function housing units to a potential space of production, to add additional value to retain the livelihood of the present mill workers in Girangaon.

The adaptability and the flexibility the courtyard provides compliments the otherwise rigid single bedroom tenements. This adaptability of space to take up multiple forms, depending on the time and requirements, is the main feature of the chawl that

Fig25. Existing Railway infrastructure connecting the island city to the rest of the Metropolitan region Potential of the post-industrial Eastern Waterfront in connecting to Navi Mumbai Source: UDRI

2.4 Potential of Girangaon

“ The location of these lands (mill lands) is central not only to the island, but to the whole of the Metropolitan Region- from the Fort area on the south to the suburbs on the north and via the new bridge at Sewri to Navi Mumbai and the rest of the state. “ [D’Monte, 2006:23]

“ The chawls and their fate have been predictably been linked to the pattern of urbanization in the city of Mumbai. “ [Adarkar, 2011:6]

The process of urbanisation that Mumbai has gone through in the last three decades, with drastic changes in the way the city functioned, changes in the policies and the governance of the city and its planning has led to this present situation of vast urban disparity. The chawls of Mumbai, once the most prominent image of the city is lost battling for space with the new developments in Girangaon. With strong infrastructure connectivity in terms of railways and roadways, along with close proximity to the Eastern waterfront- Girangaon is under immense pressure by the private market to be redeveloped for service-based ecologies to foster. In such a scenario, the already existing urban disparity would only increase. The need is to plan holistically a strategy of inclusion of the disgruntled worker population along with new developments which are evident to take place.

Fig26. Axonometric view of Lower Parel Neighbourhood, with existing mill structures

3. Neighbourhood as the Mill

“ Rhizome is a place of encounter, a place of interaction and a place of mutual and independent growth. “ “Deleuze and Guattari use the term rhizome throughout their work, especially in their discussion of thought in ‘A Thousand Plateaus.’ They argue that traditional thought is tree-like, in that it follows a linear pattern, branching off at various points. Rhizomes, taken from a kind of root system found in nature, are non-linear, and non-hierarchical. “ [Vogl, 2013]

Fig27. Aerial Image of Girangaon

Locating: Lower Parel, Central Mumbai

Fig28. Road infrastructure in Lower Parel, with chawl clustering

Fig29-40. Existing Site Conditions of Lower Parel -Unorganised movement patterns -Derelict mill structures in neighbourhood -Prevalent chawl typology under pressure for redevelopment Fig41,42. Heavy pedestrian influx due to Lower Parel railway station Active street life with commercial activities along main streets

MILL LANDS CHAWL HOUSING NEW DEVELOPMENTS RAILWAY YARDS INDUSTRIES SCHOOLS RAILWAY STATION POTENTIAL E-W ROADWAY POTENTIAL NODES OF PRODUCTION

Fig43. Existing clustering of derelict mill structures within Girangaon Lower Parel as an important node in restructuring the productive neighbourhood

Spatial Strategies

The theory of rhizome as an entity that allows individual growth within a system of interconnected elements, enables the concept of concentrated strategic points within neighbourhoods to evolve and engage at multiple scales ranging from small scale interactions within a local cluster, but at the same time as part of a larger system of interconnected and complex network. Deluze and Guattari’s concept can be interpreted as an urban strategy to re-generate productive activities and redefine the role of production units within city regions. Manuel Castells in the ‘Rise of the Network Society’ states that “A Network is a set of interconnected nodes.” [Castells, 2010:501] The potential of reconfiguring post-industrial landscapes within Mumbai through a series of network creation fosters the growth of neglected communities within the urban fabric. The lack of urban land to regenerate production based activities and the demand for already existing industrial lands for new developments accentuates the demand for strategic and innovative alternative approaches for regeneration. The theory of rhizome as an non-linear and nonhierarchical approach to urbanism lends to the argument of using design as a tool to focus at strategic points within neighbourhoods that could have greater impacts at different scales from the local to the city scale. Having established that the post-industrial neighbourhoods of the mill lands in Girangaon are still active sources of skilled labour in the production system, the challenge is to revitalise the productive capacity of these neighbourhoods.

The spatial interventions follows this concept of strategically identifying important nodes within the urban fabric and reorganising the relationships, the scattered elements of chawl housing units, mill structures, railway nodes and infrastructure lines have within the neighbourhood. Tapping the potential of the existing infrastructure networks within Mumbai in connecting different dispersed neighbourhoods and by strengthening already existing productive clusters within the city region of Mumbai, for instance, Dharavi as a thriving productive informal settlement, along with creating new nodes of productive intensity, a new production-based system could be established within Mumbai. The interventions aim at forming a critique against the redevelopment proposals within the mill lands, moving away from speculative growth of the region of Lower Parel towards a more comprehensive system of inducing economic growth with strategic interventions of production units within the neighbourhood. The local residents residing in Lower Parel and other parts of Girangaon have, for over a century, been associated with the textile mills and since the closure of the mills, the entire neighbourhood has lost its livelihood and has been left redundant in the rapid urbanisation of the postindustrial lands in central Mumbai. The approach of the state and other bureaucrats in the regeneration process completely isolated the majority of the population in immediate need of re-employment and re-engagement with the urban structure. The other major concern in regeneration processes is the issue related to availability of urban land

Fig44. Design strategy- Identifying important nodes within neighbourhood as productive points

and the prevalent questions of ownership and ‘who provides the facilities required to upgrade negligent communities?’. These questions of land and ownership further amplifies the potential of networks and strategic interventions at small scale that are adaptable and flexible depending on the context they are situated in. The theory of networks as Dupuy in his essay ‘Progressive Network Urbanism’ states that “Networks may have begun

by easing their way discretely into the existing urban fabric, but the new practices emerging in the course of their expansion have in the long run profoundly changed the face and, more broadly, the shape of urban planning, architecture and the built environment. ” [Dupuy, 2008:247]

The traditional practices of production within Mumbai with large industrial lands dedicated as areas of production though supported a large population involved with the production system, the decline and closure of the production house resulted in the complete decline in the economic ecology of the neighbourhoods consisting of mill workers in chawls and the downstream industries associated with the productivity of the mills. The urban character being defined by one single entity of the mill subsequently backfired to the thousands associated with the structure. The network urbanism approach as an alternative practice looks at dispersing the economic activities from a single point of concentration such as the mill structure itself, towards a more feasible and logical solution in the time were the demand for the urban land is at the highest to create smaller nodes of concentration that could be facilitated to form larger associations using the potential of the infrastructure networks.

Fig45. Nodal concept- Spatial dimensions of proposed typologies and strenghtening of infrastructure lines - Primary main street as commercial and exchange line - Secondary productive line within interior of the neighbourhood

The spatial interventions to test the concept of breaking away from mill as the focus of production, to a strategy of working the neighbourhood as the locus of production (mill itself ) concentrates on three lines

3.1 Re-engaging Chawl housing clusters within production system 3.2 Rehousing the chawl housing 3.3 Readapting the mill structures

Fig46-50. Existing conditions of chawl typology in Lower Parel - Interior courtyard as potential productive yard within strategy

3.1 Re-engaging Chawl Housing clusters within the production system

The neighbourhood of the mill lands in Lower parel and other similar neighbourhoods of Girangaon in central Mumbai as mentioned earlier are characterised by an unique housing typology native to Mumbai of chawls (see section 2.3). The chawls as 3-4 storey homogenous housing clusters are under immense pressure for redevelopment owing to the prime urban land they occupy. The residents of the chawls constitute mostly lower middle class and lower class population in the service sector and informal production sector. The scenario of urbanisation of the mill lands at the periphery of the chawl neighbourhoods has potentially laid the platform for the chawls to be soon replaced by similar high-rise residential and corporate parks. The process of redevelopment has already seen the replacement of chawl clusters by residential towers and the local residents being rehoused by MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority). The chawls provide a dynamic and vibrant urban character and have been the image of Girangaon for over a century, and with the lack in policies by the state government authorities in providing

Point of intervention with chawl typology - Local associations within chawl cluster - Re-engaging chawls within productive system - Network relations with other points of production, institution and commercial

Railway Nodes

- Potential node of connection to rest of city - Facilitator of movement of goods and people into neighbourhood

Fig51. Plan of Lower Parel neighbourhood with point of intervention with chawl typology - Secondary productive line connecting multiple points of intensity within neighbourhood

employment for the mill workers residing in the chawls, the future of the mill workers and the families associated lies in speculation. The spatial intervention of strengthening the neighbourhoods of Girangaon with production based activities looks at reworking the organisation of the chawls as a strategic node within the production system. The strength of the chawls lies in the adaptability and flexibility the residents have achieved even within the rigid matrix of single-room tenements. The courtyard (or patio) have traditionally been a space of congregation and interaction within the chawl clusters and the potential of the chawl lies in redefining the role of the courtyard and the relationship the chawl has with the infrastructure lines that run through the neighbourhood. The periphery of the chawl along the main street are always given to commercial use on the ground floor, creating a vibrant environment of movement of people through the periphery. (For instance, chawls along Sitaram Jadhav Marg, main road leading to Lower Parel railway station has a commercial front on the ground floor providing space for mobilephone repair stores, small textile stores, to eateries)

The interiors of the chawl clusters are dramatically different in character to the relation the chawl has to the main streets. The interiors of the blocks are completely underutilised, and bare no interactions with the rest of the mobility infrastructure system. The test of re-engaging the chawls within the network system of production points dispersed within the neighbourhood, looks at creating a new typology of built-form that could create associations at the local scale with the surrounding chawl blocks in Lower parel. The new built typology of commercial front at the ground level along the main street with a pedestrian arcade, following similar pedestrian movement patterns found in the rest of the city tries to reorganise the movement patterns along main streets and generate specific commercial interactions that could facilitate the need for space for sale of goods produced in the neighbourhood. The new built structure provides space for small scale association at the neighbourhood scale to foster in the production system. Depending on the cluster the typology is introduced, a specific

Fig52. View of proposed new typology along with chawl cluster - New typology of commercial ground activities - Institutional spaces on middle levels - Workspaces/production spaces in the interior of the typology - New housing types on upper levels

A B

production system could be adapted within the space provided. This adaptability of production spaces created within the neighbourhood provides the required flexibility in the production system. The productive associations created strengthen the productive capacity of the chawl clusters and at the same time increase the productivity of the territory. For instance, in the recreation of textile industry, the activities linked with the textile production of spinning, weaving, printing and finishing could be segregated within the new typology depending on the space required for each cycle. The infrastructure networks already in place provide the necessary support required to connect the dispersed points of production. The spaces of production defined move from a single chawl unit readapted as a small storage unit to the new production space provided for other activities of the production cycle to manifest.

new housing units

flexible workspaces

production spaces

commercial activities

Fig53. Exploded Axonometric of floors of new typology

new housing units

production spaces

Fig54. Axonometric of Readapted derelict chawl type into production space and new housing units

new housing units

main street

commercial uses

production spaces

Fig55. Section AA- Showing new typology within neighbourhood

Fig56. Conceptual diagram of relationships between different elements of chawls, mills with new production line

existing chawl blocks

Fig57. Section BB through new typology and existing chawl clusters

courtyard as productive space

The new built typology with provision of commercial, institutional, production and housing spaces redefines the neglected chawl and engages the infrastructure lines within the production ecology. With the closure of the mills, the main issue related with the residents of the chawls is to find new employment opportunities. The design intervention is aimed at regenerating the chawl clusters and providing space for employment within the production system and at the same time as part of a series of interventions within the neighbourhood at strategic points, the built typology forms part of a network system of interconnected nodes.

new housing units

commercial uses

production spaces

Fig58. Vighnahata cooperative housing society, Lalbaug - old chawl cluster rehoused into 24 storey housing tower - no relation to old chawl lifestyle of residents

3.2 Rehousing the Chawls

In the series of nodal interventions, the second intervention is to redefine the block within the chawl cluster. The MHADA built new housing typologies to rehouse the old and structurally weak chawls completely negate the qualities of the chawl typologies of single-loaded gallery access units bounded by a common courtyard and produce high-rise towers which completely lacks the community lifestyle of the chawl residents. The Vighnahata cooperative housing society is one such case of a chawl cluster rehoused in Lalbaug, central Mumbai (Fig.58). The new housing society, although it provides larger area for individual units, the basic qualities of the chawls are lost in the highrise 24 storey tower. The single loaded verandas of the chawls are replaced by double loaded dark access corridors. The courtyard in the new scheme is reduced to a ventilation core when compared to the original courtyards of the chawls. The residents of the society mostly from neighbouring chawls have no access to employment, and the proposal provides no space for reemployment.

Fig59. New proposed mixed use block within Lower Parel neighbourhood

Fig60. - Larger production spaces within block forming larger associations - New institution spaces within block to upgrade production system - New housing blocks in place of old chawl blocks

production spaces

commercial facilities

institutions

new housing blocks

Fig61. Plan of Lower Parel showing new proposed mixed use block

The intention of the intervention is to rework the chawl clusters and test the concept of rehousing old chawls with the new principle of strengthening networks through the blocks within the neighbourhood. The intervention looks at providing a mixed use cluster of commercial, institution, housing units and new larger production spaces that could form larger associations within the region. The provision of larger work areas along with housing allows for production of goods and other small scale industries to reinvent within the post-industrial neighbourhood. The new typology of mixed use blocks along with the proposed typology with the chawls forms part of the sequence of spaces of engagement created within the neighbourhood. This sequence of spaces along with the existing infrastructure lines potentially strengthens the productive capacity of the territory.

sloped roof allowing North light within large span

truss structure

floor space within mill structure

Fig62. Readaptation of derelict mill structure - Exploded axonometric of mill structure - Larger space for production activities - Strategic point within network system of production - Potential node of institution mill structure

3.3 Readapting the Mill Structures

The rhizome theory of individual points working mutually and independently and at the same time forming part of a larger complex network of interconnected nodes leads to the urban strategy of defining strategic nodes within the mill neighbourhood that could work independently but at the same time form part of a larger complex network of nodes working as one large system. The rhizome in its purest form enables dead and neglected points within the system to grow on its own and form part of the network. The case of the mill structures as one such point within a complex system of rhizomatous points enables the derelict mill structures to regain its productive capacity and re-attribute to the new network logic of productive points.

The mill structure provides a spatial dimension, the other interventions could not provide to scale up production to larger scales. The readaptation of the old derelict mills to re-engage with the production system would add value to the interventions at the neighbourhood scale and help move from small scale artisanal production to larger forms of production that would impact the productivity of the city.

The redevelopment of the mill lands though an economic issue, in the new network strategy of productive spaces, the mill land is not considered to provide the entire land for industrial use. In the strategy the mill structures forms a strategic point within the production cycle in terms of the spatial dimension the mill could provide, but it does not form the crux of the production system.

Points of intensity

- Dispersed points of production within existing neighbourhood. - ReconďŹ guration of chawl housing typology to form integral part of the production system. - Lines of movement facilitating network formation - Moving beyond large areas of production such as mill sructures, and forming associations with dispersed points of production.

E-W Connectivity

- Line of integration - Movement of goods and facilitator of network production

Nodes of Integration

- Potential exchange po

Fig63. Establishing nodal networks- Potential network sysem of interconnected nodes of production - Rhizomatic nodal organisation of productive points forming larger associations at city scale - Relation of test points in Lower Parel with other projects in Eastern waterfront and Darukhana - Potential of East-West road infrastructure in linking different production points

4. Conclusion :

Redefining the Post-Industrial Neighbourhood

Transit Neighbourhood

- Goods storage, processing and distribution hub - Point of Connection with Navi Mumbai and strong point of access through the eastern waterfront

Water as infrastructure

- Ferry service for goods and passengers - Integration with informal labour

Darukhana - Strategic location for informal and formal transition - Scaling up informal production and integrating it within the network system of production

Nodes of Integration

- Potential exchange points

The spatial interventions proposed for the regeneration of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;neighbourhood as the productive locusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, strategically uses design as a tool to generate economic ecologies within the neighbourhood. The spatial interventions, as mentioned earlier, follow a rhizomatous logic of network formation. The rhizome theory allows individual production points to evolve on its own, taking into account the sills of the local residents and allows for new ecologies to develop over time including the institutional support, which is essential in scaling up the production process. The rhizome allows for multiple points within and beyond the neighbourhood to develop their own ecologies, and at the same time work together as a system of interconnected nodes, sharing common facilities such as institutional spaces, storage yards, transit points, distribution facilities, etc. The strength of the network is in allowing multiple nodes to work within the system, and allow for mutual growth. The rhizomatic network system also allows for dead and derelict nodes of production to regain its productive capacity. (for instance, a few mill structures within Girangaon could be regenerative productive points within the network system) The network logic of production allows for multiple production points to foster within different neighbourhoods (in this research, Lower Parel being one of the test neighbourhoods). The multiplicity and the flexibility that the network theory along with the potential of the existing infrastructure network in place within the city region of Mumbai, allows for multiple stakeholders and agents to be involved within the system. The system of productive points could be perceived as one large system interconnected with

â&#x20AC;&#x153; I will say that it is good if Mumbai is going to become like Shanghai, because one welcomes change for the better, but everyone needs to reflect on where they will fit in such a scenario. If we take example of Lalbaug or Girangaon, the kids of Lalbaug will have to think of how they will survive in Shanghai ? If there are bowling alleys and dance bars in Shanghai- Will they be playing and enjoying, or will they be stuck as sweepers? Our children will have no such perspective. â&#x20AC;&#x153; [Yogita, Girangaon Employment Right Society in Tale of two cities, 2004]

each other, but the workability of the system is possible, only when the points of production are perceived individually and individual connections are developed. Each point of production has its own local associations that it forms with the immediate surrounding, fostering the productivity of the local region it pertains to. But at the same time, the point of intensity, is flexible enough to allow for other larger associations with the other points of production, be it newly developed or already existing production points, for instance, forming associations with the productive capacity of Dharavi- an already established informal productive neighbourhood in Mumbai. This flexibility in allowing associations to manifest within the neighbourhood at various scales, from the local scale of a chawl unit readapted as a productive point to new typologies designed to allow larger scales of productions to foster. In the case of this specific research, the test sites of the derelict mill neighbourhoods, allows to reformulate the productive logic by establishing new production points within the mill neighbourhood precinct, and moving away from large mill compounds as single heteronomous production clusters to a more integrated and adaptive network system of multiple production points within the neighbourhood, accentuating the concept of ‘neighbourhood as the mill’ (or productive locus). The interventions proposed within the network logic in this publication, is only one of the ways to enhance the productivity of the region, but for a more sustained evolution of this concept, there needs to be associations formed with multiple

stakeholders of designers, planners, bureaucrats, policy makers, and most importantly the role of governance in allowing for alternative approaches to urban planning and policy making. The role of governance and the different boards under the public facilities program, such as the MHADA (Maharashtra housing and area development authority), the department of Urban Development, Slum Redevelopment authority, and other boards have to work towards a holistic strategy to adopt alternative approaches in upgrading the informal sector and holistically strategize the issues at hand. It is evident, within a network logic, there have to be multiple stakeholders involved to achieve a complete system. The question of ‘who builds for whom?’ is an evident and practical question in urban regeneration projects. The answer lies in the already existing system of government organisations in place. The multiple organisations involved in the housing and regeneration programs, at present working individually, have the potential to be reorganised to work holistically towards an autonomous system of decision making and execution. The strengthening of already existing networks of infrastructure, production and institution, along with strategically replanning the housing schemes of MHADA could account for the network theory to manifest. Bernard Tschumi, in his proposal for Parc de la Villette in Paris, completed in 1998, with his deconstructivism approach using the point-grid system, states that “ it was really a strategy rather

than as a project.” [Tschumi in Hardingham and

Rattenbury, 2012:55] The strategy of points or ‘folies’

along a grid system of lines and surfaces for the

masterplan of the park, Tschumi states that “ it’s not

only a strategy, not only a park, but also an attitude.” [Tschumi in Hardingham and Rattenbury, 2012:55]

The metaphorical relation to Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette emphasises the need to perceive urban regeneration projects, as a strategy and an attitude, rather than a masterplanning exercise followed traditionally. The attitude towards the mill lands regeneration projects has followed a speculativedriven tabula rasa approach. The intention of this research has been to propose alternative strategies in urban regeneration projects, considering the multiplicity of the issues at hand and evolve an attitude of mutual growth of the multiple stakeholders involved.

Image References

• Fig1. Gateway of India [Image Online] Available at :<http:// wishpicker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ Gateway-of-India.jpg> [Accessed 30th January,2014]. • Fig3. Growth of the city, Expansion of slums [Image Online] Available at:<http://intldev.tumblr.com/post/45222498229/ growth-of-the-city-expansion-of-slums-more> • Fig5,7. Manuel Otero, Coque informal settlement- Recife, Brazil • Fig6. Mumbai’s Shadow City, Dharavi. (2007) [Image Online] Available at:<http://ngm.nationalgeographic. com/> • Fig9. Churchgate Railway Station, Mumbai. (2013) [Image Online] Available at:<http://photography. nationalgeographic.com/> • Fig10. Urban Lifestyle- India, Slum Dwelling [Image Online] Available at:<http://www.apagemedia.com/ Content/images/gallery/photo/Photo_2983.jpg> • Fig12. Marine Drive, Mumbai. [Image Online] Available at: <http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/130686.html> • Fig15. Mill Lands of central Mumbai, View from

Vighnaharta Co-op Housing Society Ltd, Lalbaug, Parel, Mumbai. (2013) [Image Online] Available at:<http://

favelissues.com/2013/11/10/a-city-rising-mumbai-in-afew-photographs/> • Fig17. D’Monte, D. (2006) Jupiter Mills being Demolished. From: D’Monte, D. (ed.) (2006) Mills for Sale. The Way Ahead. Mumbai: Marg Publications. • Fig18. D’Monte, D. (2006) Jupiter Mills on Senapati Bapat Marg (Tulsi Pipe Road) being bulldozed. From: D’Monte, D. (ed.) (2006) Mills for Sale. The Way Ahead. Mumbai: Marg Publications.

• Fig20. Vora, R. Mills, chawls, and the changing skyline of Girangaon. From: Adarkar, N. (ed.) (2011) The Chawls of Mumbai. galleries of life. Delhi: Imprint One • Fig 24. One Avighna Park, rising above an old chawl building, Lalbaug, Parel, Mumbai. (2013) [Image Online] Available at:<http://favelissues. com/2013/11/10/a-city-rising-mumbai-in-a-fewphotographs/> • Fig29-40. Site Street Images- Lower Parel, Mumbai [Image Online] Available at:<http://www. wonobo.com/> • Fig58.View from the internal courtyard of

Vighnaharta Co-op Housing Society Ltd., (Redevelopment Chawl building) Lalbaug, Parel, Mumbai. (2013) [Image Online] Available at:<http://

favelissues.com/2013/11/10/a-city-rising-mumbaiin-a-few-photographs/>

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