Dennis plays a leading role in the planning and urban design practice of Sasaki. His 30 years of both national and international experience encompass diverse project types including urban districts, new communities, campus environments, waterfronts, and urban regeneration.
Through his design practice, Dennis focuses on strategic thinking and creating value for clients. He approaches his urban design work collaboratively, integrating landscape, planning, and architecture with a critical understanding of the forces that shape contemporary cities.
At the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dennis has taught a studio focused on the Boston Innovation District and in 2018, he taught in the Elements of Urban Design Studio. Dennis is one of 12 leading urban design practitioners interviewed for the book, ‘Designing Change’ by Eric Firley, published by the Dutch publishing group NAI in 2019.
Dennis leads remarkable teams that have been honored with more than 75 design awards, including national recognition from the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Society for College and University Planning. Dennis has been inducted as an honorary member of ASLA—a title bestowed upon only a handful of professionals nationwide. Dennis also served as the youngest president of Sasaki from 2004 until 2011.
Educated at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Master of Architecture in Urban Design, with Distinction, Thesis Prize) and the University of Toronto School of Architecture (Bachelor of Architecture, with Honors, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Medal), Dennis speaks regularly at conferences and academic institutions and has participated on several international design competition juries.
Shimul Javeri Kadri
Principal Architect, SJK Architects
Shimul’s design practice has strong philosophical underpinnings, Egalitarian democratic societies, a deep respect for nature and living with it, and a fundamental belief in people and their connectedness drives her world view. This translates to buildings that sit comfortably and naturally in their environments – shorn of a certain egotistic individualistic character – buildings that embrace natural materials, the sun and the wind, as opposed to mechanized boxes that alienate people and nature.
Her interest in an architecture that is meaningful for the India of today, drawing from historical wisdom, but relevant and exciting for the vibrant Indian market, has led to a practice that has commissions as varied as hotels for religious tourism, to a museum for Jainism, to an automobile design studio for Mahindra’s.
Shimul is on the committee for Gender inclusive development for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (the first of its kind in India) and gives inputs and suggestions that will help women negotiate and work in the city of Mumbai.
Shimul studied architecture in Mumbai at the Academy of Architecture, and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She is invited as a speaker to numerous architectural institutions while she also serves as a Trustee for Save the Children India where she has been actively steering education and women’s projects. She is also on the Board of Directors of Akshara, a Women’s resource Centre.
Gurjit Singh Matharoo
Principal Architect, Matharoo Associates
Gurjit Singh Matharoo has been a significant figure in contemporary Indian architecture practice. His firm, Matharoo Associates (founded in 1992) has received numerous international awards including Chicago Athenaeum Architecture Awards in 2011, multiple awards from the Architectural Review and a nomination for the Aga Khan Award in 2009. He has been chosen as one of seven trend breaking architects by the ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2011 and is widely published. In 2012 he was conferred the title of International Fellow of Royal Institute of British Architects (IntFRIBA). He is only the third Indian architect to be inducted in this fellowship and one of the youngest recipients of this lifetime honour.
Gurjit is well known for his inspiring materialization and search of cutting edge architectural solutions with acute attention to functionality and detail. He is deeply passionate about the mechanics and design of automobiles.
He has been teaching as visiting faculty since 1991 both at CEPT University and at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Between 2016 and 2019, he was appointed as Professor and Area Chair for Architectural Design in the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT.
Gurjit Singh Matharoo obtained his Architecture Degree from CEPT University. He has been a Juror on several important awards and competitions over the past two decades, including the Charles Correa Gold Medal.
Nadine Gerdts
Senior Critic – Landscape Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design
Nadine Gerdts explores the cultural and environmental dynamics of urban landscapes through her research, design and academic practices. A senior critic and lecturer at RISD since 1995, she addresses contemporary issues in landscape and urbanism through interdisciplinary studios and seminars that link social, cultural and environmental issues to design. She has worked extensively with youth in urban public schools and with neighborhood organizations on projects that strengthen the livability of cities.
Gerdts has directed such interdisciplinary projects as the Public Health + Public Space Initiative focused on the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence and InsideOut Studio developing site-specific design projects with teens and youth in Boston and Providence public schools. Her current research projects include Lines of Equity – Post-Industrial Urban Corridors, a study of bicycle use and neighborhood transformation, and Beyond Borders: Urban Futures, a collaboration at the intersection of design, planning, climate science and technology with partners at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Alnarp, supported with a Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, STINT Initiation Grant. Locally, she is a member of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects K-12 Outreach Committee working to connect youth with environmental issues and serves annually as a reviewer for the Boston Arts Academy Visual Arts Department senior portfolio reviews.
Gerdts’ early work was instrumental in securing permanent open space legislation protecting urban gardens in Boston’s South End and Roxbury neighborhoods, where she was director of community design with Boston Urban Gardeners. As a Fulbright researcher in the Nordic countries, she developed a deep interest in public landscapes and neighborhood fabric. She advocates for citizen-based projects promoting innovation in the civic realm and as the appointed chair of her town’s citizen tree board has helped with the oversight of the community’s urban forest of more than 50,000 trees.
Bijoy Ramachandran
Architect, Hundredhands
Architect and Urban Designer Bijoy is the co-founding partner with Sunitha Kondur at Hundredhands, a multi-disciplinary design studio based in Bangalore, established in 2003. Having worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from café interiors to apartment buildings and institutions, the studio’s design approach is rooted in focusing on the urban context through the medium of scale, character, spatial and visual impact, and the remaking of the public domain.
Hundredhands has won multiple awards which include an official selection for the Project South Exhibition and the Leone di Pietra at the Venice Biennale, 2006, and the Cityscape/Architectural Review Award in 2005. Bijoy was a panelist at the annual all-India undergraduate thesis review, the Kurula Varkey Design Forum, at CEPT, Ahmedabad, in 2006 and 2014, he currently serves as the Post-Graduate Design Chair at the BMS College of Architecture, Bangalore.
Bijoy has a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from BMS College, Bangalore University (1994), a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, in Architecture & Urbanism (1998) and attended the Glenn Murcutt Master Class (2012).
The second edition of the Nagari Short Film Competition addresses the subject of People and Livelihoods in Urban India. It attempted to not only use film as a medium to narrate the issues, but really to expand an understanding of the subject and extend its representation and relevance in India.
PEOPLE AND LIVELIHOODS IN URBAN INDIA
“An equally important facet of the right to life is the right to livelihood because no person can live without the means of livelihood.” — Excerpt from the unanimous judgement of The Supreme Court of India in Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, 1985.
Click on the image to know about the winning entries.Click on the image to learn more about the nine films!
Film as a medium has played an important role in generating awareness on social issues. This blog is a list of films that address people trying to earn a livelihood in urban India. It is not an exhaustive list but a short collection of films available in the public domain.
This blogs explores and attempts to understand the key elements and delineate the scope and substance of the framework of livelihood with particular emphasis on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in urban India.
Click on the image to learn more about the Nagari 2021 Short Film Competition Brief
The Charles Correa Foundation (CCF) has not been consulted or involved in the work being done at Kala Academy, which is commencing on Monday, April 5, 2021.
From June 2019 when CCF first learnt that the Government was considering demolishing the building, CCF recommended that structural repair and waterproofing be done, especially to the amphitheatre, and had asked faculty from IIT Madras, structural engineers who are experts in restoring reinforced concrete, to inspect Kala Academy. This review was done at CCF’s expense, with the hope that in the public interest, the building would be restored and well looked after. It was determined that this repair work would cost a fraction of what now has been announced as the budget ₹50 crores. Therefore, it would be in the public interest to know what additional work is being proposed? What exactly is being done to the building that is going to cost ₹50 crores?
In the many discussions and debates over the last two years, it was clearly established that the people of Goa appreciated the design, spaciousness of the public spaces and their easy access, making it an important cultural artifact for the city. Its open design welcomed everyone to walk through the lobby, to attend events at the theatres, and even access the Mandovi riverfront. The design of a building is not just about the façade, it is the entire building. If you are going to change the lobby, the auditoriums, the practice spaces and terraces, you are changing the DNA of the building. Do the people of Goa want the building to be altered and transformed? The Kala Academy is an important building, an exemplary modern public building, and one of the first contemporary post-Liberation buildings in Goa. If additional auditoriums are required, could they be built as an annex, so that the integrity of this unique design is not destroyed?
Panaji and Goa have only one public building designed by Correa, and shouldn’t it be kept exactly the way he designed it? Correa was given the Gomant Vibhushan, Goa’s highest honour in 2011, but what is the value of this recognition if the State is ready to compromise the integrity of his architecture?
The project looks at a specific solution for a specific situation in Mumbai with great cultural detailing. The study and analysis is rich, and the team has adopted a lot of different techniques in order to negotiate an incredibly complex neighbourhood.
Due to the density and tempo of the site, the intervention is mobile and exploratory. The development of hyper-specific solutions and configurations for different street interfaces is appreciated. Simultaneously, the broader idea of reclaiming sidewalks as public space in one of Mumbai’s more busy streets is also commendable. The engagement with citizens and government stakeholders in order to prepare a participatory plan is critical in Indian urban spaces.
Due to its scale, and the nature of the context that this project sits within, we commend it with the ‘You and Your Neighbourhood’ Jury Award.
The project has been awarded for the gesture of reclaiming open space in the city of Ahmedabad, where there is not much available. It is incredibly tactical, as it employs minimal means, namely, occupying vacant land, re-aligning the road and planting some trees, yet the project has the potential to bring about a considerable change. It is a democratic project, as it focuses on play spaces for young children and their caregivers, and also very believable, as the landscape urbanism approach that has been conceptualised does not require a lot of resources.
This strategy addresses a universal problem and helps to imagine that in a consolidated, dense city, one can still transform the leftovers into public space.
The project works with a new urban condition, increasingly prevalent in large Indian cities, created by overground metro lines and station buildings that connect the users of this infrastructure with the city.
It rightly recognises that mass transit brings millions of workers in and out of the city every day and that our cities do not accommodate this floating population. By giving space to the ubiquitous informal enterprises that otherwise occupy the interstices of the dominant spatial order, the proposal provokes strong sentiments, seeking to expand the imagination of a metro station and to argue that it can be the occasion for pursuing equitable development. Through a Lefebvrian ‘production of space’ and deft handling of ‘place-making’, the proposal draws us into debates about the commons and their productive role in cities without questioning infrastructure as an urban necessity.
The proposal has been prepared with empathy and attention to detail, evident both in graphic quality and ideological stance, which makes a compelling case for imagining urban infrastructure as an architectural context and rendering it as a catalytic event.
By Kapilan Chandranesan and Vijaykumar Sengottuvelan
Jury Citation:
The Trichy Commons Network proposal is a project of design intelligence and legibility. It identifies an urban condition that applies to many cities and towns, not only across India, but around the world. On the periphery of Trichy, the Uyyakondian canal is transformed from a neglected sewage dump into a community asset where the revitalized canal becomes an agent of connection for the people who live beside it. The proposal works across several scales in many ways through a series of design interventions tactically positioned along the canal.
Collectively, these interventions act as catalysts that could trigger major positive change over time. The scheme’s originality is in its combination of these diverse urban elements. There is an expansiveness about the project that is based in both gritty realism and a forward-looking spirit. Careful attention was paid to the site context. The scheme embodies an approach that works at the intersection of urbanism and environmental responsibility, through citizen activism. In recognizing this project, we offer our support for its continuation and eventual implementation.
The well conserved, historic and vibrant neighbourhood of Fontainhas, the old Latin quarter in Panaji, Goa, has always lacked a public waterfront despite being flanked by the Rio de Ourém creek and the Mandovi river. This project seeks to widen Rio de Ourém, that runs along the eastern edge of the Fontainhas, to create a new public promenade. This will enable the lively and winding streets of this 200-year old, dense settlement to culminate into an expansive, linear public space, stimulating social and cultural events along the water’s edge.
The project is well presented, with a series of thoughtful ideas to activate promenade life. The Jury appreciates its sensitivity at both the architectural and urban scales, which makes the proposal desirable and seemingly achievable. If done well, the project would add valuable public space to the historic fabric of Panaji.
You can watch the presentation by the team here:
HOMES IN THE STREETS
Plugged-in Commons
By Sindhuja and Nandja Chopra
Jury Citation:
The project is very flexible, and does not require any land. Through a bold proclamation of reappropriating space for the expression of collective culture, the project is an unapologetic call for collective action. The development of a kit of parts provides a framework by which the city may be built by citizens themselves in an imaginative way.
The use of urban farming for spaces in-between buildings is commended. The spirit of collectivism, while romantic, is attractive, and the idea of using a cheap, easily available material like bamboo is interesting.
“Adequate housing was recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”1
Housing as a concept is not limited to shelter, or having a roof over your head. And it’s not a matter of affordability either. Housing is one of the most important life components giving shelter, safety and warmth, as well as providing a place to rest with dignity and security. The right to housing adequacy attempts to holistically develop the concept of housing such that it moves beyond the number game of space and affordability to present a list of key elements that need to be considered to make housing adequate.
Photo: Rajesh Vora
Adequate housing is universally viewed as one of the most basic human needs. The right to adequate housing is one of the economic, social and cultural rights to have gained increasing attention and promotion, not only from the human rights bodies but also from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. The United Nations Declaration on Social Progress and Development (1969) and the United Nations Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements (1976) recognize a universal right to adequate housing. The right to adequate housing includes ensuring access to adequate services, extending but not limited to seven important elements: legal security of tenure, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural adequacy.
What do these terms mean? Consider “security of tenure”, a major obstacle to ensuring this facet of adequate housing is eviction. “Protection against forced evictions is a key element of the right to adequate housing and is closely linked to security of tenure.”1According to the 2011 Census, there are 1.77 million homeless people in India which make up around 0.15% of the population. A report published by the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), estimates that about 190,000 Indian people get evicted from their homes every year. and as many as 14.9 million face a threat of eviction and displacement. To counter this extreme condition of urbanity, the right to housing adequacy insists that Nations take responsibility to ensure that evictions are only permitted in exceptional circumstances, and adhere to the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement, the International policy along with reinforcement through National and State level law and governance intends to provide protection to vulnerable persons and affected groups.
The right to adequate housing attempts to establish the connection between health and dwelling, it recognizes that secure shelter and basic sanitation are essential for living a healthy and stable life. Key elements to recognize housing adequacy include the availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure. “In India it is estimated that 17 percent of the urban population currently has no access to any sanitary facilities at all, while 50–80 percent of wastewater is disposed of without any treatment.”2 Furthermore, a WaterAid report in 2016 ranked India among the worst countries in the world for the number of people without safe water. An estimated 76 million people in India have no access to a safe water supply, and the situation is only getting more serious. The right to adequate housing ensures that housing encompasses sustainable access to natural and common resources, clean drinking water, energy for cooking, heating and lighting, sanitation and washing facilities, site drainage and emergency services.
Source: 2013_State of Housing in India_A Statistical Compendium_MHUPA; 2011_Report of the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage(TG-12)
Housing has always been closely associated with affordability. The case of India is particularly lacking in this regard. The Urban Housing Shortage (households) in 2012 was 18.78 Million, 56% of this total came from the economically weaker section with a monthly income of up to ₹5000, 40% from the lower income group with a monthly income between ₹5000 to ₹10000 and the remaining 4% comes from the middle income group with a monthly income of above ₹10000. The right to adequate housing establishes the need to develop affordable housing for all income groups by providing the citizens a greater expanse of policies and fiscal benefits to buy/build a house. “The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) that precluded it, are initiatives of the Government of India which aim to provide affordable housing to the urban poor by the year 2022. The RAY scheme was launched in 2011, and amended into the PMAY in 2015. The interest rate for the PMAY scheme starts at an interest subsidy of 6.5 percent on housing loans availed upto a tenure of 15 years”3, these government initiatives attempt to generate positive externalities of consumption through housing. PMAY aims to develop affordable housing in a public-private sector partnership and promote affordable housing for urban poor through credit linked subsidy. However the rollout has faced multiple hurdles. “At this rate, it will take 66 years to achieve a target of 10 million units, 120 years to build 18 million units”.4
Another key component of the right to adequate housing is habitability of housing. According to the WHO, habitable houses should comply with health and safety standards; including providing the inhabitants with adequate space, “protection against cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health and structural hazards.”1 Habitability ensures inhabitants the needed space to live in dignity and peace, as well as protection from natural elements, structural hazards and disease vectors which threaten their physical well-being. Indian habitability standards are developed by respective National and State housing agencies and lack international applicability. The right to adequate housing understands that humans are the direct beneficiary of habitability and that there is a need to evolve habitability standards that reflect the perceptions, expectation, and satisfaction of humans in line with their unique multi-cultural residential landscape.
“Urban inequality is a blight experienced by many cities, even in the developed world. In developing countries like India, these social and economic inequalities become even more pronounced, with living conditions in certain populations crossing the line to the abysmal”5. The Indian society is highly stratified and hierarchical in character. The stratified and hierarchical nature of Indian society involves institutional processes that economically and socially exclude, discriminate, isolate and deprive some groups on the basis of characteristics like caste, ethnicity or religious background. The right to adequate housing promotes the development of housing that is free from discriminatory practices against the disadvantaged or the marginalized. It tries to establish housing as a practice that does not restrict accessibility in any way, shape or form.
The right to adequate housing has an important focus on ‘location’, this not only establishes the need for available employment opportunities, health-care services, schools, childcare centres and other social facilities but also ensures that housing is not displaced in zones of extreme pollution or conflict. According to the National Disaster Management Plan 2019 (NDMP), 68% of India’s land is prone to drought, 60% to earthquakes, 12% to floods and 8% to cyclones, this makesIndia one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, affecting 85% of Indian geography and more than 50 million people. Considering the influence of social, cultural, climatic and economical factors, location becomes a key aspect in determining whether the conditions of adequate housing are being met. Furthermore, the right to adequate housing ensures the expression of cultural identity. Since culture is not a constant, it keeps changing and also accommodates changes. People tend to have changes in their aspirations — and accordingly culture, due to the influence from neighbouring cultures, education, globalisation, economic empowerment or other parameters. The expression of culture and its identity is also enshrined as a key element in determining the adequacy of housing.
“Human rights are interdependent, indivisible and interrelated. In other words, the violation of the right to adequate housing may affect the enjoyment of a wide range of other human rights and vice versa.”1 The World Health Organization has asserted that housing is the single most important environmental factor associated with disease conditions and higher mortality and morbidity rates. Having access to adequate, safe and secure housing substantially strengthens the likelihood of people being able to enjoy certain additional rights. Housing is a foundation from which other legal entitlements can be achieved which makes the right to adequate housing a fundamental right that needs to be recognized and practiced in equal spirits.
Sandra Barclay: Sandra Barclay is Principal of Barclay & Crousse Architecture, based in Lima, Peru. She co-founded Barclay & Crousse Architecture with Jean Pierre Crousse in Paris in 1994. Sandra teaches at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She has represented Peru at the 13th Venice Biennale, and in the 2016 Co Curated the Peruvian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.
In 1993 Sandra received the Robert Camelot Prize for best Architectural Thesis. 2018 Architect of the Year Prize, Women in Architecture, Architectural Review, London. Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and Foreign Honorary member of the French Académie d’Architecture, 2019 Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architectural Design, Yale University.
Barclay & Crousse Architecture studio was recognized by the 2018 Mies Crown Hall of the Americas Award and the first Oscar Niemeyer Prize, among other international awards. Their work has been acknowledged by the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) with the 2013 Latin America Prize and the Peruvian Architecture National Prize in 2014 and 2018. Their projects have been exhibited and published worldwide.
Kapil Gupta: Kapil Gupta is the co-founder of Serie Architects and Principal of Serie Mumbai. Kapil leads and manages Serie’s project portfolio in India with projects ranging across housing, commercial and institutional sectors. He is closely involved with the development of projects from inception to completion. He has written on the challenges of south Asian urbanisation and is currently involved with ecological and land regeneration strategies in India as a response to climate change.
He has served as a visiting critic at numerous schools in India and been on several jury panels for competitions and design awards including Archiprix in 2010. Gupta is currently the Charles Correa Design Chair at the Goa School of Architecture for 2020.
He graduated with honours from Sir JJ School of Architecture in 1996, Mumbai followed by postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association, London. He was a Director at the Urban Design Research Institute, Mumbai between 2003 and 2008, where he led India’s first entry to the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006.
Bill McIlroy: Bill McIlroy is an architect and urban designer, based in Boston, Massachusetts. He established with Nancy Shapero, a landscape architect, Shapero/McIlroy Design in 1990. The studio has designed and built projects ranging from houses and gardens, to buildings and landscapes for small institutions, to urban design interventions, most of which are embedded in the local community. He has been a visiting critic at Harvard’s GSD urban design reviews, MIT and other local design schools.
He studied architecture at the University of Toronto. He participated in Aldo van Eyck’s design studio at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design Urban Design program, graduating as the first recipient of the Druker Travelling Fellowship which enabled him, with Nancy Shapero, to visit India, Nepal, China and Japan. During this six month trip, through drawing, photography and mapping, he investigated, in a series of case studies, the transforming relationships between cityscape and landscape at their interface. The trip had a profound effect on his way of thinking about design, especially as it affects human experience, a view that he continues to carry forward in his design work today and in comments to students at their studio reviews.
Jagan Shah: Jagan Shah was the Director of National Institute of Urban Affairs, the premier thinktank associated with the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. He has 20 years of professional work experience in various aspects of urban development in India.
He taught at the School of Planning & Architecture (SPA) from 1998 till 2006. He was the Chief Executive of Urban Space Consultants, providing consultancy in policy formulation, spatial planning, heritage conservation, transportation and livelihoods development. He works as the Senior Infrastructure Adviser in the Department for International Development devised by the Government of UK, where he leads a programme to support the PPP Cell of the Indian Ministry of Finance and is devising a new programme for developing inclusive, investible and resilient cities.
He has been deeply involved in creating innovative urban plans, among such is the heritage plan for Jaipur, city development plans for 14 cities in Madhya Pradesh, Master Plan for Delhi, the National Urban Policy framework and the policy implementation of India’s Smart Cities Mission. Shah has authored Contemporary Indian Architecture and his writings have been published in leading journals in Indian and abroad, co-editor of Round, an annual journal of Asian writings on architecture.
Ilze Wolff: Ilze Wolff co-directs Wolff Architects with Heinrich Wolff, a practice concerned with an architecture of consequence.
In 2017 she received an International Prize for Scholarly Works in Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture in Rome, for her book Unstitching Rex Trueform, the story of an African factory. In 2018 she was shortlisted for the Architectural Review’s Moira Gemmil award and between 2017-2019 she was a fellow at the University of the Western Cape’s, Centre for Humanities Research.
She co-founded Pumflet a publication for art and architecture, which has since received institutional support from William Kentridge’s Centre for the less good idea, the Chicago Architecture Biennial and formed part of the publishing against the grain exhibition at the Zeitz Mocaa Museum. Through the practice and with her colleagues at Wolff, their space in Bo-Kaap has hosted exhibitions, interventions, publications and talks in collaboration with artists, activists and scholars and in that way developing an enduring apublic culture around the city, space and personhood
In order to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19 in India, the government has extended the nationwide lockdown up to 3rd May 2020.
One of the biggest concerns in the country right now is the distribution of food supplies and essential commodities. In Indian cities, with large income inequalities, servicing these huge numbers equitably becomes a logistical impossibility. Last-mile door-to-door services have become essential systems to get supplies to every individual.
With commodities becoming scarce, people of privilege start to hoard, and consequently, prices rise. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy which affects the urban poor the most, many of whom work on a daily wage. This has resulted in a much-documented exodus of migrant workers from their workplace to their villages1. With inter-state movement seized, coupled with the lack of availability of labour — stocks of fresh food supplies are rapidly diminishing. Many local markets lie desolate — potential signs of an acute food shortage.
The lockdown has once again brought to the surface, the gross inequity in Indian cities. Millions of men, women and children are now dependent on the government or charitable trusts for every meal. Raghu Karnad writes in the New Yorker about how this time offers us an opportunity to rethink the way our cities work 2.
Temporary market that is set up every alternate morning (8-11 AM) at Nirmal lifestyle residency, Mulund, Mumbai.
This re-imagination of Indian cities has been coming for a long time and has to be addressed on several verticals. One avenue which can be explored is the way the lockdown has prompted ( at least for the upper and middle class in Indian metro cities) the opportunity of new supply chains. The supply of produce that was previously zoned, distributed and procured at the end by consumers is now available every alternate day at one’s doorstep.
SUPPLY CHAINS IN TIMES OF CORONAVIRUS
A temporary market observing social distancing rules at Vasant Oscar, Mulund, Mumbai
pre-packaged vegetable orders (₹700) delivered together at Runwal Greens, Mulund, Mumbai.
A temporary market observing social distancing rules at Vasant Oscar, Mulund, Mumbai and pre-packaged vegetable orders (₹700) delivered together at Runwal Greens, Mulund, Mumbai.
Our tryst with COVID-19 has promoted previously unprecedented networks of independent, un-aided, customised supply chains that bind several small scale, last-mile service operations with the large-scale cross border movement of essential commodities.
Last-mile delivery of supplies is not new to our cities. India has had a long-standing system of daily fresh milk delivery. Families have independent relationships with local dairies — milk is delivered as per their required quantity, schedules and choice. In Goa, we have the “poder”, a bread delivery man who goes door to door twice a day delivering fresh bread to every household.
The current lock-down situation has coerced daily commodities like bread, eggs, fruits, vegetables and oil to be delivered in a similar fashion. The mercurial rise of e-commerce and delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato has now set up systems of local delivery boys, App-based ordering and WhatsApp savvy hawkers. Some enterprising businesses have created supply chains based on orders, locations and timetables, creating a direct link with the customer. The increased logistical demand for this system has given impetus on communities scheduling and acquiring essentials together. , reducing the need to move around within the city.
SUPPLY CHAINS IN SUBURBAN MUMBAI
In this context, let’s discuss the case of Mulund (West) a suburb of Mumbai. Mulund is primarily a residential suburb, on the foothills of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, it is dominated by large housing complexes that house the middle class, shopping complexes, fast food chains and recreational activities. A gridiron plan was designed by architects Crown & Carter in 1922, which extends from present-day Mulund railway station to Paanch Rasta road Junction in Mulund (West), housing the Mulund Market, the suburb is serviced by the Eastern Express Highway.
Mapping supply routes, Mulund, Mumbai
Due to the lockdown, the suburb has been cut-off from the highway — the supply chain which was previously centralized at the Mulund market has now been decentralised due to the collective efforts of the municipality, local police, retailers, vendors, society secretaries and residents. Internal circulation routes for supply trucks have been set, where every alternate day, residents receive essential supplies at a fixed time right outside their societies. The Mulund market has been declared a pedestrian zone, this decongests the route during essential supply hours. Local hawkers and temporary delivery services from pharmacies, supermarkets and grocery stores enable greater penetration of the supply chain. Moreover, these services enable the restriction of procurement-based mobility with great ease whilst maintaining social distancing. The police barricading combined with the efficiency of supply completely quarantined all mobility within smaller zones, and, till now, has succeeded in restricting the spread of the pandemic whilst producing avant-garde supply chains.
The following illustrations present new emerging delivery networks in Mulund, Mumbai. The red line illustrates the traditional method of procurement, propagating individual mobility, whereas the green line denotes the services that now coordinate the supply of essentials, focusing on groups of people based on their location.
Illustrating new supply chains, Marathon Galaxy Towers, Mulund, Mumbai
Not so long ago, the world was looking into the possibility of drone deliveries, these systems require greater expenditure in the form of capital than of labour. The ease of access and fast, high precision delivery service shall definitely create an entirely new ethos of supply chains for essential products, health care emergencies, war-zones and remote locations.
Holistically speaking, when it comes to the contextual cases of third world metropolises like Mumbai, we can learn a lot from these avant-garde adaptations our supply chains have made. The patterns observed under the current COVID-19 lockdown suggest that zonal iterations to our current supply chains with local integration of distribution shall serve to present a great model even post the pandemic has eclipsed.
The avant-garde supply chains produced as a byproduct of COVID-19 illustrate the evolution of supply chains as a naturally decentralised model within the developing world.
THE CCF CHALLENGE:
We want to understand the supply chain in your neighbourhood. We challenge individuals to map:
‘New’ Supply chains that have emerged in their immediate surroundings.
Your vision of the ‘Future Normal’ in commodity supply.
You can use any medium to represent — write, photograph, sketch, video, render or simply doodle! It would be great if you could accompany the mapping project with a brief write up that explains the context, your observations and predictions explaining the emergence of these avant-garde supply chains.
Use the hashtag #CCFSupplyChallenge and tag us @charlescorreafoundation on Instagram. We shall feature and discuss unique observations on our social media pages and website.
REFERENCES
1. Article on the problems faced by migrant labourers by Sahil Joshi for India Today:
The terraces and courtyards reflect Correa’s concern with progression through space – the maze or puzzle – where parts are casually revealed and the complex of internal streets act rather like a village layout. In this way the architect makes the building reflect Bhopal’s own organizational layout.
Movement, pause and rest patterns inside Kala Academy – an analysis by Janice Veigas
Kala Academy is one of the most significant structures in the city of Panaji. A cultural center that was beautifully designed by the legendary architect Charles Correa is a symbol of modern heritage in Goa. Its human-friendly scale, building proportions, and a non-restrictive design approach to accommodate users from different walks of life is truly an architecture for humans. Janice Veigas, as a part of her thesis study, analyzed the human behavior patterns inside Kala Academy, and how the design is sensitive to the needs of its users. Read here to know more.
Kala Academy is more than just a stone structure. Apart from the intangible values that surround the building, Kala Academy is being visited and studied by around a thousand students every year for its architectural significance.
Read more on why it is considered to be such an important building here, by Lester Silveira.
The Charles Correa Foundation announce a petition to the Minister of Art and Culture, Government of Goa. To undertake sensitive conservation measures with proper consultation, together with the Foundation with the goal of preserving the building of Kala Academy.
If you believe in our cause, please sign the petition and share the same.
The terraces and courtyards reflect Correa’s concern with progression through space – the maze or puzzle – where parts are casually revealed and the complex of internal streets act rather like a village layout. In this way the architect makes the building reflect Bhopal’s own organizational layout.
Movement, pause and rest patterns inside Kala Academy – an analysis by Janice Veigas
