Slum rehabilitation in Mumbai.

17 000 slum rehabilitation apartments

Informal settlements or slums are not well considered in Mumbai. One out of many cities aspiring to become "world class" and in a world class city no one should live in slums.

Expensive slum rehabilitation programs are proposed as a solution to the problems in the informal settlements, which is a strategy that neglect the potentials and benefits found in many informal settlements. My study of a community in Dharavi, showed that slums even can be good places to live, where houses are of decent standard, a strong sense of togetherness and conviviality. Rehabilitating such a community would probably cause more harm than it would heal. A community like this have on their own a potential to improve their living conditions.

Even though slum rehabilitation often can be criticized of creating problems that do not exist, it still plays a role. In a city like Mumbai with 60 % or about 9 million people living in informal settlements, where land is of high value, there is sometimes a need for moving these informal settlements to make room for infrastructure. Right now there's a huge ongoing rehabilitation project in Mumbai. The only airport needs to expand to make room for a higher capacity. Eventually, according to express india, 85 000 families will be relocated from the airport owned land. Right now 1700 apartments are under construction, a scheme that could be seen in the image above - the buildings are made up of several stairwells of 8 apartments each, 9 stories high with an elevator each. The vast majority is two-room apartments of about 25 square meters. The stairwells have big shafts that is said to improve ventilation.

Some a bit interesting spaces 

With open spaces, under and between the buildings this is much better than many other slum rehabilitation projects. But still one can question the monotony of it, the relation between apartment and common space, the possibilities for economic activities, the dependency on expensive elevators and the integration with the rest of the city. Another important issue is the possibility to connect different apartments into larger units. 2-room apartments can't fit everybody's living situation and there should be a possibility to advance on the property market without having to move somewhere else.

Quality space?

Arrangement of a block.

Stairwell with 8 apartments + 2 elevators.