Author: Neha Dalvi
Site Location: Mhada Transit Colony, Mumbai
Institute: School of Environment and Architecture
Advisor: Prasad Khanolkar, Milind Mahale

description

In contemporary times, the highest level of sustainable and technological advancement in residential building types is often recognised through the infrastructural amenities the building can offer; most popularly in terms of water harvesting, electricity and compost gardening for waste management. 

Infrastructures are portrayed as the most sustainable and efficient infrastructural systems due to their capacity for space optimization and efficient service management, resulting in time saving. Thus, efficiency and sustainability today have become the chief advertising attributes that promise a better living, thus becoming aspiration generators among people from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

However, we fail to realize that these methods for achieving efficiency in residential building infrastructure are predominantly driven by the developers’ logic. This logic tends to perceive these systems as mere efficiency devices, often concealing them in smaller nooks and corners, which require separate maintenance and only caters to a particular class of people who have the economy to maintain it. 

When the same infrastructural systems are installed in low-income housing societies, they not only break the existing socialities amongst the inhabitants but also tend to fail due to the lack of funds for maintenance.  The thesis proposes a cooperative housing society for low-income housing that integrates both technology and sociality to create an inclusive and democratic space for living. A simple tweak that repositions these infrastructures is able to question the everyday practices of contemporary society through the lens of class, difference and caste.

drawings

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