The Metamorphosis of Worli Koliwada

Author: Srilekha Malladi
Site Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Institute: Dr. D.Y. Patil School of Architecture
Advisor: Amit Shirke

Description

The Metamorphosis of Worli Koliwada reimagines one of Mumbai’s oldest fishing villages as a resilient, community-driven waterfront. Caught between the pressures of redevelopment and the weight of heritage, the project proposes an alternative future, one that protects cultural memory while enabling growth.
The design unfolds through co-creation with the Koli community, embedding their lived routines, rituals, and occupations into spatial strategies. Instead of erasing the dense gullies, the project strengthens them through phased development: incremental housing upgrades, flexible public spaces, and resilient infrastructure. The seafront transforms into an amphitheatre and marketplace, where daily livelihood meets collective leisure. A folded plate roof inspired by fishing nets symbolises the dialogue between tradition and contemporary construction.
At its core, the thesis argues that urban design is not about replacing communities but amplifying them. By merging heritage, resilience, and equity, the project sets out a model for how Mumbai’s indigenous settlements can thrive amidst rapid urban change.

Drawings

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Generative Design for Traditional Communities: From Roots to Resilience

Posted on September 2, 2025September 4, 2025 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025Tagged Adequate Housing GM, Generative Design GM, HOUSING GM, incremental housing GM, Neighbourhood GM, Participatory Design GM, Participatory Planning GM, Residential GM, resilient architecture GM, Social Design GM, Urban Design GMLeave a comment

Author: Vidulla Ghodekar
Site Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Institute: Pillai College of Architecture
Advisor: Neha Sayed

Description

Chimbai is a quaint coastal village nestled in Bandra, Mumbai, home to diverse fishing communities, including Hindu, Kathiawadi and East Indian families. Once characterised by low-rise Koli houses and a close-knit fishing community, it has gradually transformed from single-storey dwellings to a mix of contemporary structures. This shift has altered the traditional fabric of the community and attracted a more diverse population.
In the recent years, the community has begun rebuilding their houses, resulting in haphazard development that lacks any character or identity. Such conditions may draw the attention of the authorities and risk rehabilitation of the community due to high land value.
The generatives design process empowers the community by letting them decide the development process. It supports them in rebuilding their homes through design guidelines that address existing issues while preserving the socio-cultural identity of the village. This process allows residents to develop their houses at their own pace, enabling Chimbai to evolve organically over time. It will also invite people from all walks of life to explore the seafront, its cuisine and culture, thereby boosting the local economy.
This approach presents a model for community-led regeneration in rapidly urbanising cities, where architecture is rooted in people, place and purpose.

Drawings

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A Garden of Stories: Placemaking in Three Acts

Posted on September 2, 2025September 2, 2025 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025Tagged Cultural GM, Heritage GM, Mixed use GM, Participatory Design GM, Social Design GMLeave a comment

Author: Shruti Jayaraman
Site Location: Imphal, Manipur
Institute: RV College of Architecture
Advisor: Anup Naik, Mehul Patel, Nagaraj Vastarey, U S Maiya

Description

In the everlasting essence of society, there is the oppressor and oppressee. Their ways of negotiating with each other are limited to space. This space then becomes contested and a memory etched into us for generation to come. Having seen both the oppressor and oppressee, space is still excluded from the conversations of powerplay, ethnic and religious multiplicity.
As long as space is treated as a neutral spectator (instead of as an active participant), she will always be subjected to forms of violence, dissent and be vulnerable to the acts of a power hungry man.
Space that is designed to account for the narratives of all, can facilitate and create agency for treating the past as memory(not as active dissent). In this thesis, Space tells the story of the tribals, women and children in the contested capital of Manipur – Imphal.

This explorative thesis claims the need to perceive space as an active participant and a custodian of legacy to make place for the oppressed in society. As architects we must place-make for them. This project is in the contested capital of Imphal and challenges the city’s current spatial quality, materiality, and design as oppressive forces.

Drawings

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In The Search of Light: A Case of Subhash Nagar, Andheri, Mumbai

Posted on September 1, 2025September 2, 2025 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025Tagged Adequate Housing GM, Neighbourhood GM, Participatory Design GM, Participatory Planning GM, Residential GM, Urban Design GM1 Comment

Author: Akash Kamble
Site Location: Andheri, Mumbai
Institute: IES’s College of Architecture
Advisor: Manasi Chokshi

Description

This approach begins with a simple belief: architecture must serve those who have long been left out of the design conversation. In cities like Mumbai, where nearly half the population lives in informal settlements, these places are often reduced to symbols of neglect or urban disorder. Yet what is often overlooked is the social fabric, resilience, and cultural identity that hold these communities together.
The proposal reimagines redevelopment as an inclusive and respectful process that values people and the strength of their relationships. At its heart is the idea of equity, where every resident receives equal consideration in terms of housing, infrastructure, and shared spaces. Rather than fragmenting the settlement or isolating families, the design seeks to nurture connection within the community and with the wider city.
The process is guided by the ideas of listening, educating, and empowering. By engaging with residents, documenting their lives, and learning from their stories, the design responds to their needs and aspirations while also setting up long-term strategies for self-sustainability.

Drawings

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School of Thought: Architecting Dharavi’s Future Through Civic Design

Posted on September 1, 2025September 3, 2025 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025Tagged Mixed use GM, Neighbourhood GM, Participatory Design GM, Public Space GM, Social Design GM, Urban Design GMLeave a comment

Author: Agatha Mary Mohan Ponraj
Site Location: Dharavi, Mumbai
Institute: Avani Institute of Design
Advisor: Ar. Niraj Pillai

Description

The origins of the project lie in observing the everyday as architectural. Drawing from Pauline Gallacher’s question in Everyday Spaces: “Is there still potential in the forming of neighborhoods for little spaces of contradiction, which stand aside from the transience of the here and now and testify to the past of a place and its future possibility?”

I grew up in Dharavi. Not in the map of it, but in the texture of it—the closeness, the choreography, the constant negotiation of space. As I entered architectural education, a dissonance appeared: the city I knew and the city the discipline wanted to draw were not the same. One was fluid, porous, shared. The other was enclosed, programmed, rendered. This thesis comes from the need to reconcile those two visions.

Cities like Dharavi are rarely short of architecture; they are full of it—walls that become blackboards, staircases that double as markets, courtyards that host festivals and funerals alike. What they lack is recognition. Conventional design frameworks call these conditions “informal,” but in reality, they are civic systems—messy, adaptive, and profoundly intelligent.

This thesis begins by taking those overlooked logics critically. It does not read incidental spaces as leftovers, but as urban instruments that shape collective life. Through mapping, observation, and critical inquiry, the project transforms these cues into architectural propositions that resist closure and invite appropriation. The aim is not to solve Dharavi, but to listen to it—and in doing so, to reframe architecture as an act of equity: a structure that acknowledges multiplicity, amplifies everyday practices, and opens itself to use far beyond what is drawn.

Drawings

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Art Beyond Visuals

Posted on September 1, 2025September 2, 2025 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025Tagged Cultural GM, Educational GM, Participatory Design GM, Public Space GM, Social Design GMLeave a comment

Author: Tanvi Loyare
Site Location: Lado Sarai, New Delhi
Institute: SMEF’s Brick School of Architecture
Advisor: Ar. Ninad Rewatkar

Description

Today, the cultural and architectural spaces of our cities remain ocularcentric, leaving
this vast community excluded from one of the most fundamental human experiences
“art”. This project, a Tactile Art and Training Center, responds to this urgent need by
reimagining the museum as a place where every sense touch, sound, smell, and even
thermal shifts becomes a medium of perception. At its core lies an art gallery designed
beyond the visual domain. Here, sensory pods, each defined by distinct materials,
textures, and thermal properties, create cocoons of experience. Skylights and contrasts
of light and shadow guide those with low vision, while fragrant plants and embedded
auditory landmarks help in orientation. Complementing this, a vocational training center
empowers visually impaired artisans to create, learn, and sell their work transforming
the space into both a cultural hub and an employment opportunity.
The project gives back to the community by opening its landscaped public spaces to all,
fostering child-like wonder for younger visitors while nurturing a shared sense of
belonging across generations.By making art accessible to all while placing the visually
impaired at its center, this project is not just a museum but a model of equitable design,
a living demonstration of inclusivity that we urgently need today.

Drawings

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INNOVATIONINTRADITION-Rural Livelihood Creation in Handicraft Sector of Thar

Posted on September 29, 2023July 2, 2024 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2023Tagged Cultural GM, Heritage GM, Institutional GM, Participatory Design GM, Public Space GM

Author: Darshan Sukhadiya
Site Location: Thar, Rajasthan
Institute: Institute of Design, Planning & Technology (IDPT)-SCET
Advisor: Prof. Saloni Shah

description

Craft has a profound impact on society by shaping cultural values, stimulating economic growth, fostering creativity, promoting social harmony, and introducing community identity.

As time changes, the appreciation and preservation of traditional crafts hold a special significance. As contemporary society seeks to reconnect with its cultural roots while embracing modernity, redefining the importance of traditional crafts became a captivating endeavour. It involves the delicate balance of honouring timeless techniques, cultural heritage, and artistic expression while infusing these crafts with a fresh and relevant appeal that resonates with the tastes and sensibilities of today.

Traditional crafts are not relics of the past, they are living traditions with rich stories and craftsmanship. Thus, this project reimagines their value for contemporary society. It attempts to bridge the gap between the past and the present, uniting generations and cultures under the banner of creativity and innovation.

The project examines native handicraft groups and the role of craft in their day-to-day life. It critiques the nature of the existing craft networks and their interdependency and attempts to rethink rural infrastructure by looking at planning methods, using conventional beliefs that can provide a socio-ecological manner of creating an environment – Using the local knowledge to make architecture as a catalyst for managing traditional knowledge within the present.

It invites craftsmen to explore the boundless possibilities of blending old and new.

This proposal understands the existing complexities and challenges and works towards an integrated solution. By looking at the craft community as a reflection of a combination of events, activities, and thought objects, this project aims to celebrate the craft by amalgamating innovation with tradition.

drawings

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Replace – A Multipurpose Makeshift Space

Posted on September 29, 2023July 2, 2024 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2023Tagged Ephemeral Architecture GM, Institutional GM, Mixed use GM, Participatory Design GM, Public Space GM, resilient architecture GM1 Comment

Author: Komal Prabhakar Pawaskar
Site Location: Assam
Institute: AIKTC School of Architecture (Anjuman I Islam Kalsekar Technical Campus)
Advisor: Prof. Parag Rawool

description

It is observed that traditional and cultural patterns are slowly disappearing due to emerging and shifting land dynamics. Moreover, there is a critical point at which populations migrate voluntarily and constructively before being forcefully relocated. The community is at the risk of gradually growing hungry as their coping methods become exhausted. The design is created with an integrated approach towards addressing problems along with the socio-cultural practices in the reconstruction of public infrastructure that can withstand uncertainties and can improve capacity building within the communities—creating employment possibilities that meet shifting market demands while empowering communities.

drawings

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Nav Utran Mandi

Posted on September 23, 2022July 2, 2024 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2022Tagged Commercial space GM, Ephemeral Architecture GM, Mapping GM, Mixed use GM, Neighbourhood GM, Participatory Design GM

Author: Anaushka Goyal
Site Location: Mumbai
Institute: Sir J.J. College of Architecture
Advisor: Parul Kumtha

description

Nav-Utran Mandi is a new form of experiential market that focuses on habitualising cloth barter among various economic groups through removing the Shame Aspect from the mind of the user. Here, each user is a buyer and seller. The design involves grades of markets with common cloth Sorting and Collection Centre along with Public Spaces used as attractors to attract people. The design aims to –

Awaken–
Make people aware about Post Consumer Textile Waste and create circularity in cloth use through normalizing cloth exchange, reuse and upcycling of cloth.
Change Mindsets–
Remove negative judgement and bias against Preloved clothing and make it accessible and available to all economic classes.
Create new habits–
Weave clothing circularity in the lives of people up to a level of normalcy.

Recycling first sheds clothing into a lump of threads. They are messy, intermingled and impossible to segregate. However, in this most basic form they indicate the fabric of fabric in our lives. The form is a simple interpretation of these threads. It symbolizes a series of intertwined threads erupting and subsiding in the fabric of the city.

drawings

supporting video

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Oikya-Tirtha: A Center for Cultural Unification Commemorating Bengal Partition, Kolkata

Posted on September 3, 2021August 11, 2022 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2021Tagged Cultural GM, Landscape GM, Participatory Design GM, Planning GM, Public Space GM, Urban Design GM2 Comments

Author: Oishik Chakraborty
Site Location: New Town, Kolkata
Institute: Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Advisor: Ms. Sanghamitra Sarkar, Dr. Sanjib Nag

description

A Center for Cultural Unification Commemorating Bengal Partition essentially talks about two most important things: Oikya or Unity, and Bengal Partition. This Center aims at providing a platform for this Unity through public interaction. This has been achieved through the site designing, and taking the urban context of the site into consideration in the process.

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Gender X Space

Posted on September 3, 2021August 11, 2022 Posted in Charles Correa Gold Medal 2021Tagged gender, Landscape GM, Participatory Design GM, Planning GM, Public Space GM, Social Design GM, Urbanism GM

Author: Shreya Pathrabe
Site Location: Sanpada, Navi Mumbai
Institute: Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Ar. Fatema Master.

description

The proposal is a public plaza for people with pods and a module system. It weaves the in between urban fabric making the space more porous. When you look at the plaza and the movement around it, you notice that the paths taken by people were the most important, i.e. entry and exit. As a result, the pods and modules are placed in zones in such a way that people’s movement remains linear and uninterrupted.

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Charles Correa Foundation

Tag: Participatory Design GM

The Metamorphosis of Worli Koliwada

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Drawings

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In The Search of Light: A Case of Subhash Nagar, Andheri, Mumbai

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Drawings

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INNOVATIONINTRADITION-Rural Livelihood Creation in Handicraft Sector of Thar

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Replace – A Multipurpose Makeshift Space

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Nav Utran Mandi

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Oikya-Tirtha: A Center for Cultural Unification Commemorating Bengal Partition, Kolkata

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