Vadodaria Manasvi Tushar

HD4005

Slum rehabilitation projects have become a norm in Ahmedabad. Although such models of subsidies and cross subsidies in slum rehabilitation work well on paper, they are often marred by poor quality of design, which is completely devoid of any consideration for the form of living, cultural, sociological, and even economic aspects of the community in slums. The intention of this project is to provide a close reading of the slum settlements and more importantly provide a close link between the readings of the site and design decisions at all scales of the project. In this particular case, the slum land, which is close to the river, is marked for a Town Planning scheme. Typically in such cases the inhabitants are rehabilitated on the outskirts of the city which disrupts their livelihood and associations and networks in the city. It is for this reason the inhabitants of the slum have expressed their concern that they do not wish to be relocated to another site. They would prefer to be on the same site. The project explores the possibility of phase wise redevelopment of the site, in such a way that residents are not displaced away from this neighborhood. Since the site will get reconfigured into multistoried buildings the project also opens up land to also increase the supply of affordable housing on this site as well, while improving the structure and quality of open spaces. The site circulation is structured as a carefully articulated structure of vehicular movement and street like movement in such a way that the exiting forms of works can continue to find space at the street level.