We are currently looking for volunteers / NGOs / Academics / Researchers / Institutions who have interest and would be willing to contribute to the two month Urban Body studio organised by Spacelab research laboratory for urbanism / city from Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands with a special focus on Mapping Dharavi, Mumbai.

The project aims at exploring and mapping the complexity of elements, which constitute the urban, social and cultural texture of squatter settlements in the city of Mumbai. Considering these areas within the broader framework of urban transformations and redevelopment projects, the studio looks at the slums as forms of ‘emergent’ urbanities, which function with a multiple logic and structure of relations both within itself and with the outside.

Strategically, the studio questions both binary logics of opposition and problem-solving attitudes. Polarities such as formal/informal, legal/illegal will be put under scrutiny in order to understand the intertwining and shades of meanings that operate within a multi-faceted context. An explorative and analytical attitude will be therefore encouraged as a device to understand unfamiliar urban mechanisms in a non-judgemental way.

Questions of self-organisation, informal micro-economies, gender roles, private and public spheres will be addressed in relation to both their impact on the actual definition of the slums and to their relation to the broader network of power and political structures of the city. The main focus of the studio will be the slum of Dharavi; being the largest squatter settlement of Asia it allows for a deep and privileged understanding of the multiplicity of layers – on the local, regional and international level – that operate in the constitution and definition of these urban emergences.

Streets will be addressed as the crucial element of analysis. They represent the physical realm of interaction and social experimentation while also being the membrane through which different types of spaces mingle and transform. They will be the “laboratory” to understand relationships between flows of capital, labour forces and patterns of dwelling and inhabitation.

Throughout the nine weeks of its program, the studio will propose and interdisciplinary approach that will be developed through a variety of devices. An “action-learning” approach would foster students to embrace an experiential understanding of knowledge production.

The first four weeks will be dedicated to getting “acquainted” with the urban, social, political and cultural context of Mumbai in general and Dharavi in particular. Seminars, guest lectures, video screenings will be part of the program. Students will be also provided with a basic methodological tool-kit that will allow them to relate in a morally and professionally sober way to a non-western and unfamiliar context.

The studio will then propose a three-weeks research and mapping field work in Mumbai, which will be followed by two more weeks for elaboration and post-production of the collected material.

The “results” of the studio will be presented in a public exhibition at TU Delft and NAi and will be the core material for a forthcoming publication. There will also be a follow up of the research that will be presented at the CCA, Canadian Centre for Architecture, in Montreal in the Fall of 2009.

Here are some of the aims and key themes that the studio aims to explore:

This studio provides a base for the students to further explore the notion of ‘emergence’ and informality within their final projects, thus Urban Body remains at one level an exercise of active observation, but on the other level it intends to provide the observations/tools and lessons learnt to the people (inhabitants / activists / NGOs / governmental bodies) who can use them to intervene and improve the quality and living conditions etc for the dwellers of Dharavi.

Possible themes:

- Spatial Economy: the interaction of the informal and formal…’slum’ and the city
- Idea of migration and floating population within cities
- Role of women in the informal economy
- Notion of Emergence

The studio (20 students and 4-5 associate professors/collaborators) will spend about 3 weeks in India (first 3 weeks of march) engaging in studies and visits as well as workshops with inhabitants of Dharavi / activists / NGOs/Thinkers and Academics.

If any of the members on the list would like to help or have any suggestions or are in contact with any NGOs or individuals who could contribute to the studio, please do write to me.

We are also looking for schools of architecture in Bombay to participate in the studio thus we can begin to exchange knowledge with the local students if

Chintan Gohil - chintichinti [at] yahoo.com