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Introduction
The course on Spatiality of futures focused on understanding the spatial implications of systems of health and care infrastructure in the C-Ward of Mumbai. For me, the entire study happened remotely, without having visited the areas of study, and relying on secondary sources for information. This piece primarily focuses on the methods used for the study and the reflection on how each of the processes aided in new ways of working remotely and learning from a distant site. The entry into the site was through the Covid-19 pandemic, but extended to other aspects of health, crises and mobilization of care.
The first step in the process of getting acquainted to the site happened through exploring google maps, photographs and finding contacts in the area. Though the google map images provided a very broad picture of the site, it did help in understanding the geography and all the mobility possibilities of the site with respect to the city. The more helpful part of the process came with the use of Mapillary, a software that overlays photographs to maps directly as one walks along a path. My classmates were able to get an extensive survey of the sites through their visits and documentation. I got to understand the data through their interpretations and the photographs on the software. There was a large disconnect between me and the people of the site, due to lack of direct communication. In the previous years, the interaction with the people of the site provided more rich information through their body languages, emotions, tone of speech and more. Without it, this initial exercise tended to a more technical approach and a more quantitative understanding of the site, something not ideal to take forward.
Below is a video of the documentation of the site though Mapillary, which became an important source of site understanding.
Site studies and Stakeholders
Apart from the photos, videos and online data, much of the information on the health aspects of the site happened though phone call interactions with the people on site (who were then classified into different stakeholder groups). This was the first module dealing with an urban scale, with a lot of direct and indirect actor influences. I got to interact with shop owners and politicians, who had a larger stake on site through their importance and influence. Some of the actor groups and their perspectives provided nuanced understanding of the site, which would otherwise be difficult to get through preliminary studies or other forms of communications. Most of the work throughout the module happened through a form of relay between the people on site, the student groups and the network of actors online. Creating the network diagrams and the exercise of stakeholder perceptions helped understand the depth of importance of the need for different urban forms of interventions. But there was a constant struggle to balance these perceptions to come up with a common ground for an entry point. Then, with a specific focus, in my case with the urban form and Development Control and Planning Regulations, the ideas for interventions and mobilizing care on a larger scale came about.
Network diagram of stakeholder perceptions | Site understanding as a network
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Conceptboard link with all the work on site study and stakeholders
Urban form and DCPR
During the initial stages, it was difficult to articulate the 'urban' for ourselves. What would be the extent of the urban study? Who would be a part of this urban extent? What is the current urban form and how does it affect the health and wellbeing of the people living there. The C-ward boundary is more administrative and there is no physical boundary on site, separating geographies. The current urban form consisted of chawls, old apartments, dilapidated structures, mixed use establishments, markets, very few open grounds and a dense population - all of which were factors influencing health. Our studies showed that the impact due to the Covid-19 pandemic, though alarming, has started to fade away, and the robustness of the site was going back to pre-pandemic days. There were many new Rehabilitation and resettlement projects coming up in the area, that involved demolition of older blocks and building of new tall vertical apartment buildings. As a process to understand urban development, my group had studies the Development Control and Planning Regulations(DCPR) and Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines. By doing this, we had understood that the framework for development was through land use and technical architectural guidelines, that loosely translate into spatial solutions like that of the redevelopment buildings. We had also understood that this framework looked at a very macro-scale of development and does not account for the nuances of the site, or its people. With that as a basis, we had started to experiment with different frameworks for development and to rework the existing guidelines to be more accommodating of the intricacies of the area. The focus was then to look at an urban form centered around friendships, mutuality, solidarities and relationships while framing guidelines through them. It proved to be challenging as we had to ensure that the framework provides a system to be applied in many ways, while also not making it very specific. This exercise also helped us articulate the new urban form that would hold all the relationships of the site.
The entire study helped get acquainted with many different scales of interventions, in a very limited time frame. Through the exchange of ideas and working as a much larger collective, the process of design and speculation of futures opened up to many different simultaneous possibilities.
Drawing of new urban form | Smaller diagrams of urban guidelines
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Conceptboard link with all the work on Urban form and DCPR
The following objects are links to Conceptboard of various other topics and goals covered in the module.
Healthcare and public welfare
Street spatialities and solidarities
Recreation, open and relief spaces
Trading and commercial landscape
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