Teaching Informality in Architecture & Planning Curriculum

Teaching informality in architecture & planning curriculum

Darshini Mahadevia, Ravi Sannabhadti, Neha Bhatia

National BINUCOM conference, Informal Settlements in Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning Coimbatore, 1-4 September 2016 Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CONTENTS:

• INTRODUCTION TO CEPT UNIVERSITY

• ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM

• Undergraduate Programme

• PLANINNG EDUCATION: CHALLENGES & DEBATES

• ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN PLANNING CURRICULUM

• CONCLUSIONS

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

INTRODUCTION TO CEPT UNIVERSITY

• The Ahmedabad Education Society (AES) established the Centre for Environment Planning & Technology (CEPT) in the year 1962 with the inception of School of Architecture (SA).

• Today, CEPT is registered as a Society and Public Charitable Trust.

• Since it’s inception, CEPT has operated as an autonomous academic institution free to develop its academic programs and award its own diplomas at the end of various programs of study recognized by the State of Gujarat and the statutory regulatory body for technical courses - the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

• CEPT became a University by the Gujarat State Legislature Act of 2005 with effect from April 12, 2005. It has been recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956 in February 2007.

• The University is also recognized as Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CEPT UNIVERSITY : ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CEPT UNIVERSITY : PEDAGOGY

• Teaching programs focus on building professional capacities; thus are centered on ‘studios’ or ‘labs’ where students engage with well-designed life-like problems.

• Coursework, seminars and research assignments, aimed at developing conceptual and analytical abilities of students, and skill-enhancing workshops support learning in studios and labs. Students also enroll in travel and documentation programs and to intern in professional offices to widen their exposure.

• Programs mandates completion of only three quarters of the total credits. Remaining credits can be completed by choosing from the wide range of elective courses offered at any of the five faculties of the university.

• The belief that educating professionals requires practicing professionals and academics to work closely together firmly underpins CEPT University’s pedagogic philosophy. Therefore, CEPT University works as a collaborative of academics and practitioners.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CEPT UNIVERSITY : FIVE FACULTIES

• Faculty of Architecture (FA) (1962) - Design for the private realm.

• Faculty of Planning (FP) (1972) - Planning and policymaking for the public realm.

• Faculty of Technology (FT) (1982) - Building habitats and infrastructure.

• Faculty of Design (FD) (1992) - Interiors, crafts, products, and systems.

• Faculty of Management (FM) (2007) – Managing design, construction, and operations.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM

• 5 years Undergraduate Programme wherein certain studios, mandatory courses and elective courses dealing with ‘Informality’ to some extent.

Studios/ Mandatory/ Elective Year Courses Aim 2013-14 Studio 4: Environmental and • To explore relationship between dwelling, Cultural Dimensions in community and urban localities through Housing housing design and influence of climate, materials, space use patterns and services in housing design. Studio 8: Pre-engineering a Pol • To expose students to an urban setting situated in the old part of the city of Ahmedabad - A pol having a mix of different socio-economic groups of people and design housing using prefab material and pre-engineered technology .

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM Studios/ Mandatory/ Year Elective Courses Aim 2014-15 Studio 4: Living on • Focusing on dwelling environments of a small the Edge community - Salt pan workers with integration of cultural patterns and environmental characteristics in process of developing an architectural form.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM Studios/ Mandatory/ Year Elective Courses Aim 2014-15 Studio 8: A Public • Exercises included (i) investigating the relationships Affair between fundamental architectural expressions of a space and manner in which people occupy and inhabit that space; (ii) Unraveling various aspects of Indian urban spaces through methodical studies in order to understand the nature of their occupation. • Lectures and Talks undertaken:  Life in Indian Cities  New Urban Directions  Inclusive Cities  Equitable Urban Transportation  Construction and Management of Public Infrastructure  Using spaces under flyover 2015 Vertical Studios : • Participatory Design Processes onwards Thematic studios • A Place for Water offered to students of • Housing Informal Settlements Indian Cities 2nd & 3rd year • Building with HistoryImpulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM Studios/ Mandatory/ Year Elective Courses Aim 2013-14 / Mandatory Courses: • Building Materials : An in-depth exploration of 2014-15 various aspects of building materials like material properties, production processes, skills and tools required for construction, environmental impact, economic considerations, and usage across different typologies of buildings. • Building Systems and Services: Covering various aspects of building systems; the course deals with estimation of water needs, mode of supply, quality aspects of water, principles of wastewater recycling, modes of available conventional and non- conventional treatment, end-quality and reuse applications for buildings and sites, principles of storm water drainage, treatment and end-use.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE CURRICULUM Studios/ Mandatory/ Year Elective Courses Aim 2013-14 / Elective Courses: • Cities in History and Theory with an overview of 2014-15 the various urban theories of the last 150 years that would enable students to understand the idea and form of cities. • Walking the City : With focus on urban issues , it was conducted walking on pre-selected routes of the city, observing and documenting urban phenomena. • Domesticity and Housing in India: Using housing histories in Paris, New York and London as a theoretical base, it explored meaning of domesticity and urban housing type in India over past 100 years. • Place Making and Urban Design Guidelines: To develop an understanding of urban form, coherence, variety and room for individual expression. • Humanizing Cities: Involved students into an investigative processInformal to readSettlements and analyzeIndian urbanCities area and examine, it forImpulses its forhumanInnovation angles.in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

DISSERTATION TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE ADDRESSING INFORMALITY

Year Title of Thesis Understandng the processes of transformations in parts of an indian city: A case study of Bandra village houses in context of Mumbai city Notions of privacy in built form: A study of housing types in Ahmedabad 2013 Study of house-forms of Salvi community, Patan: Patola makers house Post-occupancy evaluation of re-habilitated earthquake affected villages in Kutch Documenting factors responsible for changes in the single dwelling housing in mass housing Housing of traditional Kolkata: Understanding adaptability of a type in the context of urban transformations Thermal comfort in Class 4 (low-income group) Housing : A case study of IIM-A and ATIRA Study of changing modes of ornamentation in dwelling in Ahmedabad A space for all: Proposing a methodology for evaluating gender-inclusiveness of space Deconstructing a ghetto: A case of Juhapura 2014 Sense of place and the migrant identity in a Tamil enclave in Dharavi Understanding the transformation in houseform due to industrialization - A study of old town of Sihor Adalaj: Transformation of an urban village: A study of change in dwellings of different socio-economic groups Pol houses of Ahmedabad and reusability : Understanding through functional transformation, extendibility and recyclability Adaptive reuse of dwellings for small scale industries in old city cases study of Chhipwad, industry activities in Surat 2015 Understanding change by modelling: Micro causes and macro changes: A study of old city Ahmedabad Dweller's perceptions and development of built environment: LearningInformal throughSettlements interaction withIndian a chawlCities community near Keshavnagar, Ahmedabad Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

PLANNING EDUCATION: CHALLENGES

• Need for building capacities for the upcoming massive urbanization and transformation in the country.

• Develop capacities for addressing multiple roles and re-strengthening the domain of planner.

• Balance between generalised planner and specialised planner (Generalised skills go long way while specialisation field changes with requirements of time)

• Balance of theory, skills and values

• Capacities to learn from practice and modify practice through theory • Practice is a relay from theory and theory is a relay from practice ! • Internationalizing the knowledge (theory) and localizing the practice !

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CHANGING APPROACH TO PLANNING – NEED TO REFLECT ON EDUCATION PEDAGOGY - 1

• Urban planning was an urban design project upto 1960s, in the global North, the professionals largely being the architects/ architect planners. • From 1960s to 1970s, the approach changed to rational or comprehensive planning, which was based on positivism, with planner assuming a superior role, knowledge and skills. • During 1970s and 1980s, in the global North, it was realised that the planners did not have absolute control over the spatial dynamics and the planning was re- conceptualised as a process and not a product - planner a facilitator of people’s views and skills in the business of making planning judgements. • Neoliberalism in the global North and other countries, and the elitist capture of the state in countries such as India that has not yet experienced the state benevolence, doubts about the planner acting on behalf of the state have been raised.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CHANGING APPROACH TO PLANNING – NEED TO REFLECT ON EDUCATION PEDAGOGY - 2

• Post-colonial state has universalized formal citizenship, but not substantive citizenship (Sandercock). • Emerging state-citizen relationships are creating demand for counter-hegemonic planning practices, where planning may happen from below. • Planning opens up for practices beyond the professionalized borders, with respect to housing, water and sanitation, transport, public spaces, municipal budgeting, etc. • Planning has begun to respond to demands / claims from below

Does Planning Education Curriculum and Pedagogy Respond to these Changing Demand on the Profession?

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

URBAN INFORMALITY

• How do we define ‘Informality’?  “Informality is the people’s spontaneous and creative response to the state’s incapacity to satisfy the basic needs of the impoverished masses” (Roy (2005)).  An expression to Giorgio Agamben’s paradox of sovereignty (a the power to determine the state of exception) (1998).  An organizing logic which emerges under the paradigm of liberalization (Sayaad, 2004).  Called an idiom of urbanization by Roy and Al Sayaad (2004), which has become a mode of production, outside the organized system (taking from the labor studies where informal is outside the organized labor force).

• Can be viewed in multi-dimensional contexts: Urban housing and tenure, Urban transportation, Urban renewal/ development, Community development, Inclusive Cities, Informal economy and livelihoods, Governance, etc.

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN PLANNING CURRICULUM

• Informality is a cross cutting issue in courses – theory and studio • In Theory Subjects  Fundamentals of Housing  Housing and Community Development  Cities for People  Urban Housing Strategies  Planning Theories – Urbanization theories and Planning Processes  Poverty and Inclusive Planning  Participatory Methods

• Studios-based exercises such as perception studies, preparation of development plans (DP), local area plans, city-level housing strategies, infrastructure plan etc.

• Elective courses offered in Summer & Winter schools

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

ADDRESSING INFORMALITY IN PLANNING CURRICULUM

• In Studio exercises:  Local Area Plan/ Area Planning Studio  Housing and Transport sectors in the Development Plan  Housing Project Studio

• Elective courses offered in Summer & Winter schools  Inclusive Planning – Winter School in partnership with SEWA  Inclusive Street Design  Streets for People  Gender and Development

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning TEACHING INFORMALITY IN ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING CURRICULUM

CONCLUSIONS

• Currently, CEPT University has research centre that generates research materials on informal developments – housing, transport, climate impacts on urban poor settlements, employment, etc. • Informality is a cross cutting issue in the courses • There are special course addressing issues of inclusion and informality • There is a need to generate more teaching materials • Need to contribute to national level discussions on planning curriculum • Need to deepen and continuously upgrade the existing courses

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning THANK YOU

Informal Settlements Indian Cities Impulses for Innovation in Architecture and Urban Planning