informal surgery : urban insertions in Kumbharwada, Dharavi
Deepankar D. Sharma
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“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” - Charles Eames
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Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
contents
[00.20] introduction
pg 06
[00.40] about informality
pg 08
[02.10] dharavi’s story
pg 18
[05.30] state’s proposal
pg 42
[06.14] another alternative
pg 46
[07.40] operations on kumbharwada
pg 61
[14.10] culmination - an intermediate proposal
pg 160
introduction
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Informal Surgery is a design experiment to dissect and examine an informal settlement - Kumbharwada, aiming to surgically add a series of architectural objects*. The purpose of this is to enhance the environment for the residents of Kumbharwada - the potters’ settlement in Dharavi, to thrive and prosper. The design experiment proposes an intermediate alternative between the existing informal settlement and the state’s proposal for total clearance of the informal settlement. *Sanitation Facility reminiscing “Baoli” - Indian Stepwells *Residential Units recalling “Haveli” - Traditional Mansion *Smoke Infrastructure following traditional construction *Public Space inspired by “Baithak” - A Communal Space
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about informality
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According to the United Nations 2014 World Urbanization Prospects report, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Currently, 32% of the world’s urban population lives in informal settlements.
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India
China
Nigeria
Most urbanization will occur in Africa and Asia, with India, China, and Nigeria alone accounting for one third of all urban population growth.
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As the world rapidly urbanizes, the livelihoods, health, and safety of residents living in informal settlements remain at risk. These residents lack formal property rights and access to vital infrastructure and services.
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Slum rehabilitation programs are primarily aimed at providing slumdwellers with four walls and a roof without probing all the necessities of the residents who have their own ecosystem within the settlement.
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These programs provide houses in the same locations where slums were situated but the temporary accommodation during the construction period is provided at distant places. This plays havoc with their occupational establishment which is hybridised in their settlement.
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dharavi’ story
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Popularly known as Asia’s largest slum, covering 239 hectares with an estimated population of one million people - Melissa García Lamarca
Dharavi, Mumbai, India
Dharavi, located in Mumbai, India; is one of the top rankers when it comes to informal settlements in South-East Asia. With an area of about 2.1 square kilometers, it has a population of approximately 10 million and a population density of 280,000 per square kilometer.
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Dharavi has an active informal economy that comprises of industries such as leather, textiles and pottery products. The total annual turnover has been estimated at over US$1 billion.
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The dense and condensed nature of Dharavi has resulted in novel spaces. The sense of community is strong and spatial adaptability is at its peak. The boundaries of the spaces seem to have diluted which has embedded a multi-utilitarian spatial value in the settlement.
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From the seventeenth century till the nineteenth century, Dharavi was a small-scale fishing village which dramatically transformed during the British Colonisation.
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In the nineteenth century, the British Raj began to expand industrialization in India which led to increased urbanization.
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Mumbai was at the heart of that growth and numerous people moved to the city in search for jobs.
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Fewer housing options made them to move to Dharavi where they built their own homes.
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This transformed Dharavi from a tiny fishing village to a large neighbourhood.
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As Mumbai continued to grow, so did Dharavi.
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The British offered no plans to build roads, create drainage systems or even give people access to safe drinking water.
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Hence, the residents formed their own political parties and built their own houses, schools, temples, mosques, and factories.
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For all intents and purposes Dharavi became a city within a city.
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After India gained its independence in 1947, Dharavi continued to grow and became the largest slum in India.
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Ignacio Pena CEO, Surfing Tsunamis
…..These people take what other people consider as trash and turn them into valuable products. We saw everything. We saw cans being turned into machines and electrical appliances. We also saw plastics being turned into bags, a full blown economy that is self reliant, thriving in these neighborhoods. You don’t see violence. You don’t see security. You don’t see drug trafficking. I mean, everything that I saw today really make me rethink some of the assumptions that I had in terms of what is the best way to help these people continue to thrive.
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state’s proposal
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Dharavi Master Plan DLF
A multitude of proposals to redevelop Dharavi by the state have perpetually been unsuccessful due to innumerable socio-political reasons. While planners and theorists believe the reason the proposals fail, is due to its failure to acknowledge that Dharavi has its own habitat and ecosystem.
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Dharavi Master Plan The Seclink Group
Residents rely on their own micro enterprises in the settlement, partially inside their houses and partly outside. The proposals are unsuccessful as they neglect Dharavi’s existing habitat and envisage to erase and replace it with a dysfunctional alternative.
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another alternative
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Anne Lacaton Pritzker Prize 2021 Laureate
…..if we if we work in the forests or a very nice landscape, we take it as it is. We have never, no one will have the intention to cut trees and we can consider that buildings and floors can be also this existing interest. So the thing is, is to start in looking for what is positive and make it as a whole and say, OK, we have all this positive and now we check what is negative, what is not working, and we change it. And then we can transform and we can make additions and we can make something new. And that’s why we think that architecture must be done, Urban planning must be done from the inside.
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The research aims to re-evaluate the current role of an architect. This is imperative as an architect ought to know when to step back from being a designer, and attempt to examine the design in the existing urban fabric.
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Readings from Patrick Geddes “Cities in Evolution” states that there is a need for new investments, minor adjustments and improvements. In short, we are learning what Geddes called “Conservative Surgery”.
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Aravena’s half house is a prime precedent for co-production and community participation, as the users were enabled to fill the other half post-occupation.
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Frei Otto’s Okohaus is another precedent that demonstrates co-production. According to Otto’s words: “a series of houses are planned where inhabitants were to built their own nest.”
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Consequently, the research aspires to be mindful of these ideologies to surgically intervene at the site.
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operations on Kumbharwada
: the potters of Dharavi
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kilns m 0
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Kumbharwada, spread over an area of approximately 50,000 square meters is the potters’ colony in Dharavi. It is a hundred-year-old settlement. Families from Gujrat inhabited the place and carried on with their generations-old occupation of pottery.
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Currently, there are around ten thousand families who earn their livelihood by making artefacts out of clay and selling them in markets.
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The ground floor of the houses is used as their workstation and the upper floor is used for residential purposes.
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Residential
Type 1
Commercial
Type 2
Residential + Commercial
Type 3
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Space Sanitation Smoke The aim of the research is to address the 3 S’s identified at site post-examination, that are space, sanitation and smoke.
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The residents tend to add additional floors as the family expands or when supplemental workspace is required.
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Hence, the incremental principles at site form the basis for the formation of rules for rehabilitation.
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The residents also have an acute shortage of sanitation facilities, such that one toilet serves the requirement of approximately 500 people.
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Owing to a land row between the local corporations to build a sanitation space, the residents go to defecate on the railway tracks.
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Furthermore, residents tolerate the dreadful smoke that emerges out of the kilns that they have built near their homes.
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Unfortunately, the same space is their primary communal and social space.
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Keeping the current density, this research endeavours to make rules to surgically intervene at the site.
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Firstly, maintaining the individual plot boundaries.
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Secondly, retaining the block dimension.
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Thirdly, conserving the streetscape. 83
Operated Blocks
The research operates on four blocks in the site. Eventually, the operation could be used as a base model to intervene in the entire site.
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Identified Dilapidated Structures
The process initiates with identifying the dilapidated and temporary structures, to then perform surgical urban insertions.
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An architectural object is surgically added to provide sanitation facility in the block for the residents, by replacing two identified units.
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Existing Dilapidated Structure
Proposed Sanitation Facility
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The framework of the object is designed to facilitate sanitation.
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Sanitation Facility | Post Occupation
The spaces can be customised by the residents through their own colours, textures and patterns.
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Street View | Sanitation Facility
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The facility reminisces “Baoli” - the traditional Indian stepwell as a classical precedent of a bathing space with strong communal characteristics.
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An eager endeavour is made to not merely address the issues at the site but to formulate an environment that the residents rejoice and relish. 97
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Bathing Space| Sanitation Facility
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Toilets & Transition Space| Sanitation Facility
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At ground level, the street extends and becomes a part of the object to expand the transitional possibilities. 103
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Toilets & Transition | Ground Level 1. Toilets 2. Wash Basins 3. Transitional Space (+0.15 m) 4. Seating 5. Stairs 6. Street (+00 m) m 0
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Bathing Space | Upper Level 1. Bathtubs 2. Showers 3. Transitional Space (+3.2 m) 4. Seating 5. Stairs
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Bathing Space| Sanitation Facility
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The second surgical insertion is an object that facilitates 3 residential units and working spaces.
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Existing Dilapidated Structure
Proposed Residential Facility
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An operation on the existing dilapidated unit is conducted to inject the residential facilities.
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Residential Facility | Post Occupation
The inhabitants are envisaged to bring the object to life through their distinguished colours, textures and spaces.
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The proposed residential unit recalls Indian “Haveli” - Traditional Mansion with embedded courtyards.
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Courtyard| Residential Facility
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An earnest attempt is made to translate the qualities of a traditional courtyard at site. 117
Street View| Residential Facility
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Working Space| Residential Facility
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The first two floors of the object are the working spaces of the residents and an additional communal space to have a conversation off the street. 121
Working Space| Residential Facility
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These floors also develops a relationship with the adjacent buildings at these levels. 123
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Ground Level | Working Area 1. Working Area // Communal Area (+0.15 m) 2. Stairs 3. Street (+00 m) m 0
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Mezzanine Level | Working Area 1. Working Area // Communal Area (+3.0 m) 2. Stairs 3. Street m 0
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Living area & Kitchen Bedroom Bedroom Functions| Residential Facility
The first level comprises of a double height living area and a kitchen. The second level comprises of a bedroom. Additionally, there is a space for another room, as per future requirements. 133
One Family Unit| Residential Facility
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First Level | Residential Unit 1. Living Area 2. Kitchen 3. Courtyard 4. Entrance 5. Stairs
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Second Level | Residential Unit 1. Bedroom 2. Transition Space 3. Courtyard (Double Height Space) 4. Entrance 5. Stairs 6. Additional Bedroom m 0
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Stairwell| Residential Facility
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The aim for the proposed stairwell is to expand the transitional qualities and incorporate a sense of community observed in traditional Havelis. 141
Stairwell| Residential Facility
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The third surgical insertion is a chimney to all the kilns to reduce the amount of smoke experienced by the residents.
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Chimney Addition | 01
Chimney Addition | 02
Chimney Addition | 03
Chimney Addition | 04
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The incorporation of the chimney takes into account the traditional construction methods in India. The base of the chimney will be constructed in brick masonry with reinforced columns. While the top will be constructed in steel for efficiency. 147
Existing Pottery Kilns
Proposed Chimney
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Fourth Surgical Insertion: As 2 dilapidated units are replaced with a sanitation facility, and two units are replaced with an architectural object comprising a space for 3 residential Units each; one dilapidated unit can be given back to the residents as a public space. This surgical operation is to relief the stress in the individual blocks in the fabric, by planting a communal space in the place of an obsolete residential unit.
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This intervention reminisces “Baithak” – a community gathering event where people share and discuss ideas, issues, learnings and teachings.
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Jawahar Kala Kendra by Charles Correa
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Existing Dilapidated Structure
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Baithak | Proposed Public Space
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Street View| Baithak
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Proposed Master Plan | Operated Blocks
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The operation conducted in the four blocks proposes a base model that can be expanded to all the blocks in the site. 159
Proposed Master Plan | Kumbharwada
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The research culminates with an intermediate alternative between the existing site and the states’ proposal for total clearance, through a series of surgical operations in Kumbharwada, in order to provide the residents with an upgraded environment to thrive and prosper. 161
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“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I’m finished, if the solution is not beautiful I know it’s wrong.” - Buckminster Fuller
Scan me Major Project by: Deepankar D. Sharma
Supervised by: A/Prof Graham Crist
