Mass Inhabitation
Rethinking Mass Housing in the context of Borivali
Suburban Mumbai currently (Borivali) is undergoing a massive wave of Redevelopment. Buildings that were built in the 1960s and 70s are now 30-40 years old and getting demolished only to be re-built as High-Rise towers which are housing a very high density of people in a lesser area. How do we then re-imagine the built form to cater to the growing elderly population of the city?
Bhaktiyog is one of the Housing schemes proposed by Baburao Paranjape in the 1970s to develop mass housing for middle class Marathi Brahmin families in Borivali. The intent of the course is to question the nature of housing currently being produced in the form of redevelopment and to re-imagine the same
Site visits to Bhaktiyog and Interviews with the residents helped locate the context of the society and the importance of community living and shared facilities. The central open ground is one of the most important spaces in the entire society considering it acts as the only social space for all age groups to gather / play/ gossip and spend their evenings in.
This observation influenced my imagination for the design- the mass was imagined to have voids or terraces at various levels which would localise the scale of larger terraces.
The financial model to re-think the quality of housing was chosen as Partial Redevelopment and Partial Retrofit.
The plan was to rehabilitate all inhabitants to the newly developed building and the C shaped building would act as Coworking spaces- which would help finance the redevelopment project.
Co-Working is a concept that has emerged in the past decade in India where a group of individuals or a small team can rent tables or small offices to work in , respectively. The bar building was proposed to be retrofitted and its units to be sold or rented .
Design Intent
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Proposed Internal layouts of each unit after addition of 30% area - REHABILITATION
According to the Financial model, each tenement gets and additional 30% area which makes the unit afford a WC in the bathrooms and a small balcony that can act as a breathing space. In the new typology, a total of 15 or 16 units per floor addition of space.
The existing typology of a single corridor running throughout the C shaped building was maintained in the proposed building as it facilitated interaction and visual contact with the ground as well as with units in front of each other.
It enabled a network of care and sense of community in a city that is otherwise rapidly producing homes that isolate each other.
Proposed Internal layouts of each unit in the RETROFIT building for SALE or RENT
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The program diagram shows the allocation of spaces and helps as a tool to design the relationships between live and work scenarios such that they're not completely disconnected from one another.
The section helps visualize the terraces at different levels which acts as a new ground for the higher floors.
Ramps were proposed to bring these newer high grounds upwards. Here, the idea of Amenities is challenged as against existing redevelopment projects which provide spaces for gyms,swimming pools which are rarely utilised and do not cater to
an ageing population.
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The solid void diagram explains the visual connection with the terrace that the stagger affords.
The plans change at alternating levels in a manner that the staggering of units on the ground and second floor is same while that on the first and third is same. This was done in order to bring a sectional Play, keeping the toilet cores one above the other.
After the fifth floor, the builtform is staggered behind by 5 metres intentionally. This was done in order to maintain a visual connection of residents on lower levels with the mid level terrace.
