Built Environment - Question of Cities

How redevelopment ruined Mumbai’s housing and marred the landscape

Three decades after redevelopment of slums and old buildings took off in Mumbai, in the first flush of liberalisation, the percentage of people in slums is nearly twice that it was in 1991, and the old buildings and chawls have…

Matharpacady: Redevelopment wriggles its way into a heritage precinct

Amid the titled and colourful bungalows in Matharpacady in south Mumbai, patches of redevelopment stick out like sore thumbs. Steeped in heritage…

‘Redevelopment created houses as commodities for transaction, forgot about people’s lives and equity’

Mumbai has resembled a construction site for the past many years with redevelopment on virtually every other street. Together with large infrastructure…

People of Dharavi nonchalant and apprehensive about redevelopment

What was once a small cluster of huts on a marsh in 20th century Bombay is now 595 acres of cramped houses,…

How India’s financial capital shrunk protest sites, turned down protesters’ volume

Bombay, later Mumbai, has seen huge historical protests. Its protest sites were many – Chowpatty, Hutatma Chowk, Kala Ghoda, Gowalia Tank Maidan…

Jantar Mantar apart, Delhi’s streets and borders are now temporal protest spaces

The Boat Club was once a favoured protest space in the national capital, so were the grand avenues of Janpath and Rajpath,…

Protest sites signal democratic strength of cities

India is not new to protests and demonstrations. Its many public spaces have been platforms to question the government of the day…

Reading Jane Jacobs today: Why her urban renewal agenda is still relevant

The doyenne of urban activism, Jane Jacobs, urged professional urban planners to understand that a city is more than its economy and its structures, that it is made by the everyday lives and interactions of people. Through her writings and…