Place in making: reimagining ordinary spaces in informal settlement a case of Dharavi Mumbai

Abstract

The city has become fragmented with newly built developments which seem like numerous bubbles in the urban fabric, making the built environment more and more exclusive. This has given rise to inequalities and spatial division between different classes leading to the marginalization of people. Informal settlements are one of the most pressing issues confronting urbanization. They cannot be addressed only by severe methods such as demolition and eviction or upgrading through insensitive solutions. Current approaches towards slum redevelopment can be characterized as ‘urban acupuncture. In light of the growing number of people living in informal settlements across the world, it is imperative that their permanent status be acknowledged. The biggest shortcoming of the informal settlements is a lack of non-commercial communal space due to the absence or minimization of public intervention. The research's purpose is to demonstrate the place-making process via the everyday activities of migrants and local ethnic communities in their urban settlements, as well as to investigate the link between this process and the construction of identity in modern urban society. The aim is to investigate By learning about the emergence of these settlements, we may better understand their socio-spatial appropriation, typology and space production trajectories, searching for the advantages and problems of those communities, comprehending them in their context, interdependence, shared infrastructure resources, and being linked to a networked surrounding urban fabric ,that can be the base for an urban upgrading through urban design inserts. The proposition is to connect social and economic values in order to create a strategic spatial framework that can be included into future redevelopment plans. Which would eventually help understand the potential for researching vulnerability to link locals, migrants, and locations, which can lead to more supportive, less disciplinarian types of cooperation in the modern city, through a comprehensive analytical framework in Dharavi based on two settlement colonies: Koliwada (Urban Village), and Seshwadi (Slum). Each has a unique form, historical evolution, and guidelines The design strategy reframes and repurposes the conventional concept of reconstruction in India's informal settlements, potentially expanding to the global south. Most informal settlements in the geographical region of the global south have specific socioeconomic patterns that play an important role in their survival. The suggested paradigm of Place making and Tactical Urbanism aims to provide a well-balanced mix of spatial rules and policy recommendations.