Homegrown Cities 3

We are inspired by what already exists in neighborhoods that are often unfairly dismissed as slums or informal settlements, and by the extraordinary courage, vitality and passion of the people that live in them. And by the fierce pride people have in their localities, and importance of friendship and community bonds in neighborhood development.

We're deeply motivated by both a strong sense that the way these neighborhoods are being treated right now is unacceptable, and that there is a different and more meaningful way to build an inclusive and sustainable city.

In Mumbai, and all big cities of India, people living in these upcoming neighborhoods get evicted and either pushed outside of the city, or told that they will be entitled to a tiny flat in a high-rise building in exchange for giving away the majority of their area they have developed over generations, to builders who will speculate on its real estate value. What happens in the process is that land development gets substituted to community development.

Almost every time “rehab” mass housing replaces homegrown “slums”, they are terrible, cheaply built, poorly designed, non-adapted and expensive to maintain. They also systematically kill the vibrancy of the neighborhood, the destroy links between people and wreck the neighborhood’s area’s vitality. A loss for them and also the whole city.

We are looking to develop a way where so-called slums can be improved and in doing so become a cornerstone for building better, more eco-friendly, more equitable cities: where everyone can have a good quality of life in well-built homes, with good and sustainable infrastructure, and which builds upon energies and know-how existing in the neighbourhoods themselves.