Thursday, October 13, 2016

KRVIA MASTERS STUDIO - LOCAL AREA PLAN


The planning domain traditionally governed by monolithic & top-down  understanding of master plan approach. The centralized approach has been widely criticized for not being able to be inclusive on various account, esp: community aspects, heritage aspects, informality, environmental aspects, resilience & mitigation aspect. The recent endeavor (2014) of making of development plan endorsed the idea of two or three tier idea of making a development plan and its governance. It perhaps make some sense, in mega city context of Mumbai, whose diverse features in context of  geography, history and community necessitate the  alternate approach of their inclusion. The provision of Local Area Plan (LAP) is an bottom-up approach to be operated at the administrative ward level where making, transforming and directing development shall be collaborated at the level of local area representative. 

The Local Area Plan provides excellent opportunity to carry out experiment with participation and communication based action. It subsides the notion of master plan & drawing board approach and hinges on idea of sharing, developing and mobilizing the collective imagination of community. The studio revolved around seven sites: Sakinaka, Mulund, Oshiwara, Golibar Slums, Malvani, D.N. Nagar, Kalbadevi. The sites have different histories and issues, however all sites are largely part of TOD and are expected to have rapid transformation in next few years. 

The studio developed at three levels: Development of generic imagination and communicating to the local are resident and stake holders, Development of action areas, Development of strategies and implementation criteria.

The outcome of such experiment is imagined to inform the  specific areas for urban renewal, housing, Commercial precincts,  educational and cultural institutions, up-gradation of slum areas and relocation of population, improve accessibility to open spaces, and largely revival and retention of environmental and ecological systems. 

The studio process and final outcome were reviewed by Shyam Khandekar ( My Liveable City), Pankaj Joshi (UDRI), Gautam Chaterjee (MMRDA) and Ashok Lal.






















Saturday, October 1, 2016

KRVIA - SPA 2016

The exchange workshop (Masters Semester I) moved from its earlier mono-directional transformation through new transportation corridor to multi-directional transformation through new ring road metro. The new ring road metro collides with existing rail corridor and existing radial metro lines. The attempt of the workshop was to expand and reinforce the existing network and imagine the direction of the new developments. 

The urban design approach that are required to imagine in such complex situation are challenging and approaches & stack holders may have to resolve conflict at multi levels. The KRVIA studio brief of mapping cultural territories had some impact on the manner that workshop inquired into the site conditions. It perhaps a new exposure to comprehend that how such cultural territories are different as well as complex, as context changes. As stated in earlier blogs that domestic exchanges are far more influential in learning about our cities, its histories and its development through local and global imperatives.

















Ethical and Moral Construct of Modern