tomorrows exhibition!!! nervous or not?

Now its 2:00 am, time to sleep but i find myself not feeling sleepy eventhough i am doing nothing, and i needed to sleep coupled with the fact that i have not been sleeping for days in preparation for the exhibition. What is wrong with me?, what is wrong with my mind?, am i nervous?, am i too anticipatory?. Really i don't know, but i think that i am thinking about tommorrow, about the unknown, about the exhibition. we have all put in so much and i hope the exhibition will be great.

baptism of holi day!!!

I almost forgot to talk about my baptism of holi day, a day that i became a citizen of india, an hindu man. On this holi day, a day that is widely celebrated in india as holy, i was baptised with water -dirty or not, flowers and colours - red, blue, green, yellow, brown, black, name them all. Eventhough i was trying to hide among the teachers so as to avoid this, they fished me out and baptized me, a baptism that transformed my cloth, my face, my hair, my mouth, my smell and even my citizenship!!!. Now i look very much like an hindu man, a citizen of india that lasted for some days as long as i still had the colours on me. i am happy that i was wearing a 60ruppes shirt which i could do away with but what about my face, my body. After being in the shower for days, i was able to cleanse myself and became a nigerian citizen again. Now that everbody is back to their normal citizenship, i still don't know why steFan still has a pink hair, maybe he needs more shower!!!

day 21: final day

Thank you 13th compound, the home of recycling.
Thank you Dharavi, the home of communality.
Thank you India, the home of culture.
Thank you Sir JJ school for your support.
Thank you Tu delft for the base.
Thank you Urban Body for moving me out of the box.

With the departure of my tutors to netherlands, i had the whole day to myself. Going from Dharavi to Bandra, and concluding the day in a sports bar at colaba, i enjoyed myself. Around 2:00 am on 24th march , we departed back to netherlands. This is an experience i will never forget, its fun, its challenging, and its revealing.

day 20: made in 13th compound or china?

On products you see made in china, made in india, or made in england. On the last day, myself and stephan went all around 13th compound trying to gather materials to fill our box. Soaps, plastics, leather, bags, candles, shirts, metal for blenders, and so on were all there. they were all made in 13th compound and not china though they have stamps of made in china.

In the night, i slept throughout and some of us departed back to netherlands.

day 19: where is our couch?

This day, we went straight to shakir compound, so as to see our couch. Surprisingly, we did not find the couch there. We tried to trace the route of the couch so as to know what happened to it. We conducted interviews so as to know what happened to our lovely couch. A man siad, if they bring your food to your front, won't you take it. It has been sold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We discovered that eventhough the couch provides a communal sit, recycling material is the first priority in 13th compound and they will never joke with it. we then conducted an interview with a factory worker about how they experience communality.

Interview with a factory worker
I am a Muslim. I work and live with seven other people in this factory in 13th compound. Our company deals with recycling of corrugated boxes for retail use. We get our materials from rejects of other companies and recycle them for second use. I have 11 children, the oldest is 21 years and the youngest is 4 years. After my marriage, I came from Allahabed, Uttar Pratesh in 1986 to Dharavi in search of better standard of living and I go home twice a year for 15 – 20 days to visit my family. I won’t allow any of my family to come here because livelihood is expensive and I can’t go home permanently because I have no money to start business. I work for 8 hours and work overtime when needed. When I am not working, I move around dharavi from one factory to the other to talk to people that are less busy like me and sometimes i cook. There is nothing like promotion here, I am the same factory worker since i came here. The seven of us cook together, since we earn the same amount of money around 150 – 250 rupees per day and we cook outside the factory because of the fumes. At the end of the day, I am always too tired and I go to sleep directly. The fan is on all the time, so I have no problem with sleeping. In fact, “if you throw me away from the bed, I won’t know anything”. If the government asks us to leave dharavi, I will go and find another place to get job since the shop does not belong to my father.

At the end of the day, we celebrated the holi day at koliwada with urban typhoon and the india. it was a great day for them. on this night, i was completely wet and coloured, good for me that i am wearing a 60 rupees shirt and pant. in fact, my trousers got torn but only jasper noticed.

day 18: intervention, my couch!!!!!!!

After carefully trying to understand 13th compound, we discovered that the idea of communal space is somehow ommitted in this area. This is due to the fact that it is a business area and recycling materials is the most important. almost every space is occupied with one business or the other but does this mean that they don't experience communality? In trying to find an answer to this, our intervention was to create a communal couch out of recycling materials. So, when we make a couch out of plastic bottles what happens? Are they going to steal the bottle or sit on it for communal experince. We made the couch by tieing plastic bottles together and placed it in a shaded area on shakir street in 13th compound. Immediately, we put the couch there, people started sitting on it. some said it is nice and they want more of it, one asked can i take it home?. They were all laughing, having fun, having communality, but they don't know what were up to, because after placing the couch there, we hidded somewhere, watching them. Talking about the importance of plastic bottles in dharavi, we sold the remaining of the plastic bottles we picked up for 30 rupees.
Urban typhoon presentation

At night, I went to see Urban typhoon presentation. I was really impressed with their presentation due to the time frame. They produced a lot of designs from communal spaces to low rise to high rise, to airport, and so on just to provoke the residents and see what their reactions are to these designs.

day 17: is there residence in 13th compound?

Walking around 13th compound, trying to explore the communality of the area which looks somehow lost, we found out that 13th compound in not exclusively commercial but there are residences in dabbawala and in fact, 60ft is not the boundary of the 13th compound. In 13th compound, there are 13 nagars or compounds and each name has been named after their fore-fathers who first came there, such as Shakir compound, Navrang compound and so on. we conducted interview with Mr. faroque, who is a doctor there and a woman who is above 90 years old that lives in dabbawal, 13th compound.

Interview with Mr. faroque (doctor)

I learnt medicines for several years and later came to 13th compound in 1995 to open my clinic. I have between 50 and 70 ‘customers’ every day who pay an amount of about 20 rupees for medicines for the morning, afternoon and evening. This is less than what is asked outside of Dharavi, but it is the only way to keep medical treatment payable for the people living and working here. Presently, my business is on a decline of about 30%; because there are more medical clinics, people are moving out of 13th compound to Nallasopara because of fear of the new development plan for the area, and the high electricity charge (11ruppies/unit). Mostly, I treat people for minor injuries such as cold and fevers. Few people get tuberculosis because their body has adapted to the environment. Only about once or twice a year I have to redirect someone to the hospital because of machinery injures from working in the 13th compound.
Interview with Kannatak family from Gujarata in dabbawala, 13th compound

My name is Bassama. I’m over 100 years old and live with my daughter’s family in the house that I built in the 1930s. I was the first to arrive to these marshlands with my 2 young sons, and we were knee-deep in mud and water. I collected industry waste, scraps and construction waste (especially mud and sand) in bags on my head, and filled in enough area to build my home on. Carrying the sand and mud on my head made me lose my hair. Other people were doing the same as more people migrated from all over India, with families and neighbourhoods beginning to form. We have no problem in the Monsoon season. A decision was made by chairmen to industrialise the area 35 years ago. 7 people live in this house. We collect plastic wires in a wheelbarrow or bag to carry on our heads from the surrounding areas in Dharavi. Never needing to go beyond 5km, our bags are full after 2-4 hours. Our lives are flexible. We don’t make a profit, maybe when I earn 50R (0.90 euro), I sometimes save 5R. We borrow material from each other to sell in hard times, and look after each other in times of need. Economic and psychological support is very important here. We sell the raw material in bulk to someone who has placed an order. We sleep and eat downstairs (in a 3x3 meter room). We live in the Dabba Walla so that we can store the material upstairs so we know it’s safe. We pay 100R rent / month to the Bombay Municipal Council for our house. Commercial shops have to pay at least 400R. We get water and pay bills to the BMC. The electricity bills are 4R / kW in this residential area. Sometimes we get a big bill from industries in the 13th Compound using our electricity, sometimes amounting to 1500R. We have to pay it. My 2 grandsons and granddaughter will return from Gujarat after the baby is born. My grandson will also marry in Gujarat or in a banquet hall in Dharavi. After that he will return here with his wife. We return home once a year to worship our native Hindu god, Kali Nandu. We go separately, so the business stays alive. There are mixed religions here, but most people come from Gujarat, and we have a very strong sense of community. We go to religious festivals in the nearby 40 year old Hindu temple by Mahim station. There is also the 40 yr old Bori cemetery in 13th Compound, the 30 yr old Moringa Mosque, and some Muslim prayer rooms.
When the ’92 Riots started, all that we experienced was a curfew. We heard stories from the other end of the 60 ft Rd of men being burned alive, and beaten to death. We stayed awake at night and discussed how to not let the riots affect our businesses. Our business helped maintain our community. We shared with and helped each other. I don’t know of any new government plans for the area! I know nothing about it. It’s business as usual for us. What I.D. Card? Don’t know what I would do without my business. What is going to happen??? We will unite and fight anyone who tries to compromise our business or our lives. Whatever happens, we won’t separate from the community.

we concluded the night by watching an indian movie tittled "om shanti om" at a community hall in koliwada

day 16: "licency not rent"

In the morning, Alex and francesca told us about an intervention which we have to make so as to get more information about our area. Later in the day we conducted an interview with mr. chandrashekar, a political leader at muslim community, who owns 10,000 square meter in the community. he told us about their concept of licency rather than rent which helps them to retain their land. The houses are given out to people for 11 months then left empty for 1 month. this approach was used by them so that the tenants will not claim the land.

Later in the evening, we conducted interview with mr. aunjun, the former president of dharavi businessmen welfare association and mr. mobin, a plastic factory owner. They told us that 0.5 million people are engaged in the recycling business and 70% of them in 13th compound own their land. In the past, they pay 6rupees/unit for electricity and now it's 11 rupees/unit which is the fifth highest rate in the world. The government is doing this so as to chase people out of 13th compound.

day 15: 13th compound

Back at the hostel around 6:00 am, we received a new task from alex and fransesca, asking us to focus on social, spatial, economic, material, and form/construction of our Nagar even when we were yet to get the information on the history of 13th compound. we braced up, set out for the day, conducting interviews, walking through 13th compound. Alas!!!, we were able to dig out the informations on 13th compound.
Interview with Mr. Naushad (president of dharavi businessmen welfare association).
I came to Dharavi in 1971 from a little village in UP, south of Maharashtra, where I studied for my bachelor of arts. After this I followed my father and grandfather - who came in 1938 - to Mumbai. They had always been in the auction business, selling exported products which in that time (until 1947) were distributed via the United Kingdom. When this business ceased to exist, my father decided to get into the plastic business which is now the major business in 13th compound. Presently, most of my family lives in Mumbai, but I still go back to my village every 1 to 1,5 years. Business has been good; I and my brother all own our individual businesses in 13th compound and have houses outside dharavi. I have just been elected as the president of dharavi businessmen welfare association. Our association is working on several sectors like health, taxes, illegality, and peace making so as to improve the welfare of the people. I now represent the workers of 13th compound; this means that every intervention by any institution reports to me, even police and other governmental instances. Next to this, I keep a close eye on political developments in order to keep the factory running. Presently, 13th compound generate as much as 3 million turn over monthly and for the future, I hope to keep the industry running, and gain the respect Dharavi deserves producing materials sold and spread out in all of India and even beyond.

day 14: 2nd day at aurungabad

On this Sunday morning, we decided to take a new dimension to our tour. Rather than boarding a bus or rick-sure, we took a bicycle for our trip. At the beginning, we were 8 but after 1 hour, we lost ourselves and I was left with only Jamie and Alejandra. Falling down twice on the bicycle, we rode all day to the forts at arungabad and back home, a 30km distance. I couldn't believe that i found myself dancing in the fort with some india guys and alejandra also became the princess of the fort, taking so many pictures with the guys. After getting back to the hotel, around 9:30pm, we set back to dharavi.

day 13: begining of life at aurungabad

Arriving at arungabad at 8:30 am in the morning, we lodged in pushpak hotel, which is close to the city center. We took our bath in the morning and a group of us, myself, jasper, arend, and marta set out to ellora caves that morning. We took a rick-sure throughout the day, from hotel to ellora caves and to the fake taj mahal. The caves were really magnificient, especially the Hindu temple; it’s really massive and the biggest temple in India.

day 12: Sparc office

At 11:00 am, we met a lady from sparc and Mr. John who gave us some basic knowledge about the 13th compound. However, he gave us a link to Mr. Naushad, who is the president of dharavi business men welfare association. We walked through the 13th compound, saw diiferent people doing their businesses, the blocked canal, the mosques, and mahim station. At 10:30pm in the night, we were on our way to aurugabad, a 10 hour drive from dharavi, which is in central India.

day 11: Nagar's

On this day, the idea was to focus on a community in dharavi. 13th compound, chamdar bazaar, koliwada, transit camp, social nagar, muslim community, and khumbarwada are the different communities in dharavi. With myself, Kevin, Stephan, daksha, and sonam focusing on the 13th compound, with reid cooper accompanying us, we tried to source for the information concerning the history of the place. On our way to 13th compound, we got to the boundary and the whole place was pollutted with CO2, it was really difficult to breathe. Little did we get this day but all we know is that it was a swampy area around 1930’s when people used to dump refuse on it and gradually reclaiming the land. 13th compound is mainly dominated by muslims and people came from different parts of the country; south India, north India, tamli, uttar pratesh, kamil and so on.

day 10: bus trip around mumbai

As early as 7:30 am on this day, we were in the bus. Sitting in front of the bus with other 25 students at the back, we toured the whole of Mumbai. Starting from dharavi to bandra to the northern part, to the eastern and finally to the southern coast at colaba, we toured mumbai. It was a nice experience eventhough almost all the class slept off at some point in time. Exploring Mumbai gave us the opportunity to see what life is outside dharavi. We saw the fish village, artist village, the new bridge which is to link Bandra to the other part of the sea. In the night, we all went to see bollywood movie at BOX cinema and the interesting thing is that it was in hindu and not subtitled.

day 9: 90ft road, kalparna sharma

90ft in the morning/afternoon.

Going to 90ft in the morning is completely the opposite of night. on this morning, we saw different people taking tea, reading newspaper, opening their shop and getting ready for the day. One thing that is surprising is that the road is being cleaned up every morning. By afternoon, the road is getting busier in terms of activities and the informal shops are getting ready for the night business. A lot of people are in the shops eating and people do stay under shaded trees or area working. The iron bender is bending iron, the mechanic repairing cars, the carpenter nailing wood, and the store selling goods.

lecture from Sharad mahajan

In the morning, we received a lecture from sharad mahajan (architect/planner). In the redevelopment plan, his major work was to collect information and work for the developers who will pay him. After getting information about dharavi, he emphasized that planning is beyond architect. For example, If they block the railway or waterway, Mumbai will stop. It’s a democratic city unlike Pakistan.
lecture from Kalparna Sharma

At night we received a lecture from Kalparna Sharma, a journalist and the writer of Telling the story of dharavi.

day 8: Lecture from Mukesh Mehta, 90ft road at night

Lecture 1 :by Mukesh Mehta

On this morning, we got a lecture from Mukesh Mehta, the community development officer of dharavi redevelopment project. The new project is divided into 5 sectors due to political implications. Each sector is to belong to a developer with approximately 600 US Dollars per sector. In his lecture, he emphasized the aspect of sustainable development in which both a living and working should be provided. in fact, there is no financial involvement by the government in the redevelopment project. Sustainable development could be achieved with the idea of integrating the slum dwellers through “HIKES”: H- health, I – income, K – knowledge,E – environment, S – socio-cultural development. However, with his approach to the redevelopment, by law, the slum dwellers won’t leave dharavi but practically some will leave.
Lecture 2 :by design and planning counsel (DPC)
Mumbai has 55% living in slum in which dharavi is only 4 % of it. The city growth rate is 2-3 % and the slum growth rate is 8%. In Dharavi, the land area is 236 ha and the number of rehabilitation units is 57, 000. Approximately, 80% of people working in dharavi live in dharavi only. Dharavi has 76% residential, 17% commercial, 2% industrial, and 5 % others. It provides over 300 types of businesses and 75,000 employment opportunities. Conclusively, in the redevelopment of Dharavi, the first concern of slums should be:
– hearing new forms of livelihood
– affordable credit
– health and new knowledge
– housing.

references: http://www.sdinet.org/, http://www.achr.net/, http://www.sra.gov.in/, http://www.sparcindia.org/

At Night: Exploring the 90ft road

After exploring dharavi with our senses in first week, the new task in the 2nd week is to focus on a road in dharavi. Myself, Stephan, Kevin, daksha, and Sonam focused on 90ft road. 90ft road is the raod that links sion station through dharavi residences to 60ft road and to mahim station. Setting out on the road at night, we recorded the space, activity, and movement on 90ft road. i specifically focused on activity and it is incredible to see how much energy is being generated on this road, with the sides of the road lined up with informal businesses, such as hawkers selling fruits, vegetables, clothes, and all sorts. All along the road, you will see a formal shop, with a big advert, and infront of this is an informal hawker. In fact, it is easier to walk at the middle of the road than the sides. maybe, one could say the road is not for cars but an open market. in short, the road generates so much energy in terms of flow of people and activity and at a point on the road, we got harrassed by the hooligans.

day 7: Lots of Elephant on Elephant Island?

Wake up, wake up, wake up………………………… We are going to elephant island, a 2hours journey from dharavi. I asked myself, Does it worth going? Maybe yes, maybe no. I decided to go with a group of six. Hussling into the train to central station, and stopping by at mc donalds to eat, going into the boat for about 1 hour without a live jacket, climbing the hill of elephant island for about 30 mins, paying an entrance fee of 250 ruppies. Finally we got inside elephant island. The caves were really magnificient. i also saw monkeys, cows, however, as the name implies, there are no elephants on the island.

day 6: train experience, gandhi museum, mosque

Push!!!!!! enter!!!!!!!!!!!!! jump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clinging onto the train was the first challenge for us. a lot of people travel by train in bombay because it is the cheapest and fastest transportation. Walking, walking, walking, for a distance of over 10km for about 8 hours with a temperature of about 30 degrees centrigade. Tired or not, I held onto myself. With a tour guide, we moved around bombay Seeing ghandhi museum, central mosque on the water, hindu temple on water front, open market in bandra, and ending the day in the sports club in colaba was a comforting one.

day 5: lecture at Sir J.J school of architecture

On this day, we were at Sir J.J school of architecture in the morning and received a lecture from two professors at the university about the present situation at dharavi and the proposed plan. He made us to realise that in mumbai, there are several layers which are not logically related and these complexity emerges from the several communities. In the present situation, mumbai is one of the international financial power of south east asia. Dharavi is close to the airport and also close to bandra business district. It provides diverse economic opportunities and removing dharavi will reduce this. 68% of total employment in mumbai is in informal sector. dharavi generates 40% of state domestic product. A land in bombay is around 100,000 ruppies/square feet which is the most notable change in bombay. In the proposal for Dharavi redevelopment, the map of dharavi was made not because the government loves the people but because it's the biggest real estate opportunity for the government. The government is the rightful owner of these lands because most of the slums in mumbai are squatter settlements which means illegal occupancy of land.

From these lectures, my interest was drawn to the fact that the proposed plan has not been accepted by himself and definitely the slum dwellers. His criticism was based on the destruction of the mosque on the proposed plan. he stressed that the mosques has to be kept. My critic however is that if the mosque should be retained, then other temples in dharavi too has to be retained. In short, one conclude say that proper analysis were not carried out before the proposed plan design (a dream of shanghai 2).

useful links: www.sra.gov.in

day 4: map production of sensing of dharavi

Today is a day of map production. In the morning, we started to document our recordings of day 1 and day 2 so as to generate a map of our first 2 days experience of dharavi. Working from morning to night on informations conceived and trying to replicate these informations to maps without access to internet connection and adequate softwares (GPS) was very tiring. we thought of different ways to replicate the map for hours and finally we were able to get one.

We recorded each senses on microsoft excel from which we generated the map on the trace paper. the green colour indicates the positive senses and the blue colour shows the negative senses. The expansion and contraction of the two colours along the path we travelled shows the intensity of our sensations. From the map generated, one could say that the senses through the boundary is steady while that of the section through dharavi is dramatic.

day 3: tour guide trip through dharavi

Early in the morning, the tour guide came to pick us from the hotel and took us to the heart of dharavi. we walked through different communities/nagars in dharavi throughout the day. Seeing the two faces of dharavi (commercial and residential) was a true revelation of the significance and power of dharavi with a population of about 1 million. Except for 13th compound which is almost totally commercial, the whole of dharavi is entwined with living and working. 13th compound provides job of over 10, 000 types, with aluminium, leather, and plastic being the major busineses. When looking for recycling companies, 13th compound is definately a place to go. Dharavi is the largest slum in asia, and 13th compound is the home of waste recycling. Sorting and recycling of used materials by people and local companies are the competition of the day. The workers get about 100-200 ruppies per day which is 1 euros 30 cents – 2 euros 60 cents. In other communities, businesses such as food production, clothes, pottery, and among others were present. Infact, some of the nagars have a business they specialize in. for example, the khumbarwada which is highly polluted with smokes from burning furnace specializes in pottery. Dharavi is also the home of poor sanitation with 1-4 houses sharing taps and 1500 people per toilet (not accurate). In fact, 71% uses community toilets, 27% uses open places such as rail tracks, rivers, roads, 1% uses personal/individual toilets, and 1% uses pay and use toilets.

After walking through dharavi throughout the day, our legs looked like this.

day 2 : sensing the section through dharavi

Now, I have some energy after having a long night to sleep. The task was to carry on day 1's notion into the slum itself. I was really scared about the smell, I asked myself the question that if the boundary’s could have -3 to -5 intensity, what will the inside core be?. Moving through the slum, navigating ourselves with the sun, moving through 900mm narrow allies with electricity wire directly above us, turning around back to the same point, busting into dead ends, kids following us, meeting community heads in their obviously distinct houses, dogs barking at us, after 5 hours, we finally made our way through the slum. what is the smell like?

The intensity of the smell of the core was much lesser ranging from -2 to 0 to 2 though a little bit high at few times. I perceived different smells like burning rubber, flour for bakery, cooking food, baby sheet. I discovered that most smells relates to their jobs and the smell has a spatial form within dharavi. For example, the muslim nagar is very dirty, choked and the gutter also stinks while the koliwada has refreshing air and less choked. conclusively, the interior core of dharavi is more bearable in terms of smell than the boundaries.

Day 1: Sensing the boundaries of Dharavi

Getting to the hotel by 6:00a.m in the morning, with no rest, the task was to map the boundary of dharavi (a 6 hours walk) with our sensations (smell, sound, sight, and touch/vibe). Divided into groups of 3 (myself, Stephan PH, and Kevin) with two sweet India ladies from Sir JJ school of architecture (daksha, and Sonam), I focused on smell, Kevin on sight, Stephan on touch/vibe, daksha on sound and sonam on general. The smell which was the sense I was conscious of straight from the airport is something very interesting. Simplifying the technique of getting the information on smell, I noted descriptively what I smell and also the intensity of the smell and whether it is positive or negative, using a grade of -5 to 0 to +5. Walking along the boundary of dharavi slum, getting lost for 2 hours, finding ourselves, reorienting ourselves with the scrappy map, we managed to find our route.I smelt foul chicken odour, burning rubber, mangrooves, human faeces and urine. I smelt dirty gutter, CO2 waste from cars, engine oil, rotten foods, fruits remain, sugar canes. One interesting thing is the intensity of these smells, which is really heavy and ranges from -3 to -5 and at few times +3. the smell of smoke from the cars is so much. At a point my nose got blocked and I had to blow my nose so as to perceive the smell. In short, the smell along the boundary of dharavi is heavy and thick and there are much interference of odours from automobiles and the residences.

Oouuchh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Maybe it’s worth saying that under a tree, a bird sheet on my head, it was really disgusting!!! (I will always remember this). Now back at the hotel around 6pm, time to eat, watch a movie on dharavi and go to bed.

Along the boundary of dharavi are, railways routes and two distinct visual settlement. the sight of dharavi on one hand, and the sight of bandra on the other hand.

On the road to Mumbai

A day to my departure, I was really excited and restless. As I was parking my bags, I reflected on my motivation letter. I was curious about Mumbai, curious about dharavi. I wonder what world is like in dharavi, I thought of lagos in my home country, reflected on Netherlands where I live presently, and immediately summed up courage that I have seen the two ends (worst and best) of livelihood. Maybe, that was presumptuous. On Sunday morning, myself, Stephan, jasper, and arie, departed from Schipol to Istanbul to India.
First impression: On landing at 4:30a.m at Mumbai airport (12:00 in Netherlands), I was really tired because of the long journey. My first impression was drawn to the emptiness of inside the airport, the renovation, and the smell. I saw the security guards sitting quietly on the seat with nonchalant attitude. Moving through the airport, in a short time my awareness grew, trying to experience the space. My attention was drawn to the smell. I smelled a particular thick heavy odour. I asked Stephan and Jasper whether they perceive the smell or not. On getting outside the airport, my sight was now working fully; I saw a vast number of people. I remembered Salaam Bombay. I immediately became conscious of myself, my body, and my properties. I saw the taxi, and I smiled. We took the taxi straight to shivar hotel in dharavi.

Kolkata

The task was to identify a particular slum in kolkata and develop a tour guide for the slum, with the class divided into groups of 3. myself, alejandra, and charlotte were in kolkata group. Kolkata, delhi and Mumbai are major cities in India, each with his own identity. kolkata is famous for culture, delhi for history and mumbai for films. Exploring the city of kolkata on google, google earth, net, in search of a particular slum is an endless search. The slums are so interwoven that it is difficult to define the boundary of a particular slum. one could say that both the formal and informal settlements are fused together in this city. maybe, the situation is similar in mumbai or not. when we get to dharavi, the largest slum in india, we will be able to tell.

fractured network and the vital city

In this seminar by steve read, he related the talked about the concept of "Framing lives", in our fractured network cities. The life force of the city is the active attention and movement of people. The city grows like an organism. Lives are framed by places we found ourselves( a typology of place). This framing implies our horizon. We can't have attention of everything, we can only have that of our horizon in which everything starts to make sense by creating a context, for example, a card on the table all makes sense in relation to each other. we are sense-making creatures. In framing lives, we move from one scale to another, from indoor to local to global. Scale is not just normative, scale is constructed and specified in systems of technical movement infrastructures. We are able to act more than locally because of technology. A layering of phenometechnical grids.

Rights to the city by David Harvey

Right to the city means the right to change the city, to make the city after our heart desire. We have human rights, individual rights, and collective rights. The right of the city is the collective right. City is the most complete way of reshaping the world after our heart desire. In this present world of complexity, the question is what kind of social order do we want?, what kind of people do we want to be?, and what kind of urban personality now exists? Capitalism is framing our world, our urbanisation. an example is the case of dharavi, a land that worths billions of dollars. In the face of capitalism, the challenge for the government now is how do we get people of the land. However, if capitalism is framing our urbanisation, then i think collective rights to the city will be lost.

Culture and imperialism

In this seminar by F. Recchia, we talked about globalisation, colonalization, culture and imperialism. Globalization could be seen as the change of spatial and temporal contours of social existence, or internationalization of national economy. the impact of globalisation is interconnectivity due to the flow of capital. Spaces are being shrinked.

Imperialism on the other hand is the practice of expanding the authority and power of a country by acquiring territory or dominating the economic and political systems of other countries; empire's system of government. In the past, we talk of colonization, but in the present it is imperialism. Third world countries have gained their independence but they are still dependent. Some could say there is no more colonization, but personally, i think imperialism is a modified version of colonization. western countries have economic power and the third world countries depends on them a lot.

However, there was a debate on what gives global power?, is it the control of media or the control of economy?

Biomapping

These workshop is based on mapping the city, not in the conventional way but in a way that deals with human, emotions, in short the body. We chose a location around Aldi/poptahof hostel in Delft and the idea was to read the emptiness of the city. Does the city go empty?, maybe yes, maybe no. Smell, sound/noise and movement were the parameters chosen to read the emptiness. Myself, kevin and slvia read the movement (humans walking, bicycling, and cars) of the city at 3 spots on location which are Aldi, Turkish Shop, and De hoven. We used photography as the tool for collecting the data by standing at different spots focusing on a particular location and taking pictures for 15minutes at every 30 seconds. The result is shown in the diagram as the city's heartbeat. Metarmorphorically, the city has a life just like a man; it breathes; slowly, fast, quietly, or randomly.

Heterotopia

Eventhough, i didn't agree with Lieven de cauter in this seminar with his attempt in classifying heterotopia into three spheres which are economy, culture and politics, i still appreciate his effort. From my understanding of the six principles of heterotopia by michel foucault and Gil M. Doron text of "the dead zone and architecture of transgression", i believe that heterotopia is so complex that it is difficult to classify them into the three spheres. Our present world is so complex that it is difficult to distinguish what is economy from what is culture and from what is politics. In fact, Foucault also mentioned in his paper that our present epoch is that of simultaneity, juxtaposition, and moment. Rather than simplifying or categorising heterotopia into these three spheres, i believe that the complexity of our world influenced the diversity of heterotopia and it could takes different forms.
Squatter sleeping on a bench used for advert (heterotopia)

Riot in the street (heterotopia)

Additional text read, "the dead zone and architecture of transgression" by Gil M. Doron

Mapping (chronotopology)

In this workshop by antonio scarponi, the question was how to map our present urban realities? Talking about our urban realities; we talk of complexity, speed, population, globalization, and so on. Myself, charlotte, kevin, and alejandra decided to map the temporalities and dynamism of our present society. we chose "clock" as an urban device which people are often associated with in terms of social practices. people often relate and look at their clock, for example, i have to be here by this time.........i have to go now.......i have a seminar now ..................... The clock dictates where and when to do something, it directs their path. Mapping the activities of people on the clock reflects the reality of our society, the social classes and what each group could be doing at a particular time. we mapped the activity of the people from fiji and the people from rotterdam on the clock so as to see what each group will most likely be doing at a particular time. Mapping is much more than geographical.

Photo-Graphy (4)

View Album

space study with still images
the workshop on photography is one that really interests me. it opened my eyes to a new dimension of photography. the final assignment of the workshop focuses on using still images to study how objects/humans act in space over time. i decided to study people in front of waiting areas like receptions and coffee machines with a timing of 8 seconds interval. the result is shown below.

At the end of the workshop, i learnt a new dimension of photography. Rather than the normal convention of videos, still images can be used to construct stories and study spaces.

Photography (3)

View Album

the idea was to take the picture of objects from the same distance at the same scale. the result shows a sequence of images of an object from different views.

Photo-Graphy (2)

Something i will never think of taking a picture of...................
For a whole night, i was thinking about something i will never take a picture of, but couldn't find one. After i woke up the following morning, as i was dressing up for class and was about wearing my shoes, i discovered that i never looked inside my shoes ever since i bought it and will never think of taking the picture. Inside my shoe is so dark and dingy.

"inside my shoes"

I think we will never think of taking pictures of things we see but don't look at. I see my shoes everyday but doesn't look at the inside.

Photo-Graphy (1)

Bad photographs.

As one can see that this is a nice image which we often see in movies but its a bad photograph. what i simply did was to work on the pricinple of refraction so as to hide the faces of the people. I took the picture with two panels of glass infront of me and i turned the flash light on.

the resulting impression is that of people doing a shady business.

Fantasy Saves Planning

The challenges of building slums in a formal setting?

How can we build a slum in TU Delft?

How do we get the building materials?

How are we not going to be caught by the neighbouring cops?

We (urban body students) sets out strategies in executing the mission. We mapped out the site and sourced for materials tactically from construction sites, wastes bins, and boukwunde basements. The construction was done within 6 hours.

Some could describe the workshop as challenging while, others could say this is interesting and fun. But i will describe it as the reality of some.

Space, body and Phenomenology

I must say that the lecture was really complex but i was able to pick some few things. I understood that thinking is an event which is a path, a way that opens up an area, a new event, a new experience of space which is time related. By bringing unity into our being, phenomenology gives us genuine experience. The kind of world we are is not about measure but a "path" which is our thinking.

Planet of Slums

From my experience,

Lagos slums is a replication of the confrontation between the formal and the informal.

Some could describe slums as parasites, but i reserve my opinion to that even though i agree that they are eyesores to the city.

From my experience, i could say that they are eyesores and at the same time benefits other parts of the city. by way of example, they provide cheap labour. These scenario is a dichotomy of the formal and informal

Body Scan : Place Scan

After the understaning of my body as a series of layers, body scan and place scan is a true test and reflection of the awareness of my body.

Body Scan?

lying quietly on the floor

with my eyes closed

i could feel the presence of people in the room

their noise put pressure on me

and my body temperature increased.

my breathing was faster

Place scan?

looking through the windows

with my eyes opened,

i saw the beautiful landscape

i saw the grasses moving

i heard the sound of the wind blowing

Experiencing Space

At every point in time,

Our body is surrounded by space,

Body in space or space in body,

Whatever?

The question is............................

Does our body experience this space?

Maybe, it's a dilemma of our time, maybe not,

People often walk in long corridors,

Travels from one place to the other,

Relax in their homes,

But, do we understand these spaces?
Do we understand our body?

Does our body experience the spaces?

...............................................................

In this workshop by Susanna Recchia, i realised that my body consist of not just the flesh but a series of layers which interacts with the space. An understanding and awareness of these series of layers helped me to understand our space, our architecture, and our world. In short, body awareness influences the perception of our spaces.

motivation letter

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH……, WHAT DO YOU DO………?
When writers like Mike Davis talks about slum, they always mention a city like Lagos, Mexico, and Mumbai. Most people in the western world try to imagine what these cities may be like? But all they know are the data’s on the net and the stories or books they have read. However, getting information about a place and having a personal experience of a place are entirely two different dichotomies.
I am living in the western world and I had lived in Nigeria, precisely in Lagos for 23 years. Even though, one could claim that I lived in a formal setting in Lagos; I often confront the informal setting, the slums everyday and I understand fully the way the system works. Imagine when you live in a city with a population of about 10 million and density of 24182/km2 with no proper planning or whatsoever, then what happens. What kind of place am I talking about…………………?

A place where corruption thrives,
A place where diseases grow and germs spreads,
A place where overcrowding and congestion are the order of the day,
A place where there is no law and security,
A place where there is no insurance or privacy,
A place where there is no electricity and sanitation,
A place where there is no place………….

So, when the going gets tough what do you do?, Maybe Mumbai is similar, maybe not, but it will be interesting and also challenging to experience this system and see how it works.

A place of residence in Lagos for people.

Overcrowding and congestion are the order of the day