Architecture of Agility: A Kit for Assembly and Disassembly

Author: Swara Chavan
Site Location: Mumbai
Institute: School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Prasad Shetty

The demolition of informal settlements has long been a means of urban transformation used to acquire land, address environmental concerns, reorganise settlements, and pursue visions of a ‘slum-free’ city. Often, these actions occur without any rehabilitation facilities or alternative housing options, leaving communities to negotiate displacement and rebuild their lives. Bheemchhaya Nagar is a settlement on the fringes of Eastern Mumbai, beside Thane Creek Mangroves. This basti has faced demolitions three times over the last 25 years, according to records, and each time the Dalit majority community has been able to resist, claim, and rebuild on the same land again. But the act of demolitions quickly eradicates the built habitat, and along with trauma, the physical loss is certain, and each time the family has to start anew. Recognising and responding to the practical constraints of uncertain land, the project proposes a softer architecture of continuity that carries forward material memory, knowledge systems and agency. The home is imagined not as a fixed place, but as a Kit of Parts , capable of being assembled, disassembled, moved and rebuilt. The project therefore considers the home across conditions of permanence, anticipation and displacement, envisioning homes on the move when required, while holding space for the hope of permanence..