{"id":10838,"date":"2014-10-04T18:31:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/incremental-housing-strategy-2\/"},"modified":"2015-06-29T16:54:12","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T14:54:12","slug":"incremental-housing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/incremental-housing-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Incremental Housing Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Incremental Housing Strategy is the legalization of a natural construction process developed globally by the urban poor. When Urban Nouveau* arrived in India the Lehman brothers had recently collapsed. In consequence, the budget to build social housing was reduced to 30%. Urban Nouveau* looked at this with a positive attitude and worked on the best way to apply the remaining budget with maximum benefit to as many people as possible. After spending months on site everyday, listening to the local people, eating their food, understanding their needs and desires as well as how they live, the strategy came up: to leave the home made urban villages (slums) everything as they are, bringing water, sewage and electricity to every house, and transforming the old shacks into new homes.
\nThree prototypes were co-designed for people to choose from. 10% of the value of each house (\u20ac500) was to come from the beneficiary families. Since many of these families could not afford to pay this amount, Urban Nouveau* co-designed a process in which the families would help demolish the old shack and rebuild the new home, thus paying for 10% through sweat equity. Four years after the strategy been accepted the project is finally up and rolling.<\/p>\n

Three questions about Incremental Housing Strategy<\/strong>
\ninterview to Urban Nouveau*\u00a0by Laura Andreini<\/em><\/p>\n

Laura Andreini<\/strong>: What is the status of the Incremental Housing Strategy project
\nin Pune?
\nUrban Nouveau*<\/strong>: In Pune, Urban Nouveau* worked as a bridge between the local government and local communities. Urban Nouveau* sat with everyone around the same table \u2013 20 to 30 people meetings \u2013 and made sure fair agreements were being made. Our goal was the holistic evolution of the urban villages (slums) of Pune. Everything was going very well, but we made a big mistake: we co-designed a process that brought the revenue to the beneficiary families directly from the central government. This meant there were no tolls in between source and destination. This being unusual made quite a buzz and there were some dirty stuff going around. At one point Municipal Commissioner Parveen Pardeshi was forced to leave the country! Pardeshi was the most important politician in the city and Urban Nouveau*\u2019s biggest supporter. Without him, everything would freeze. And that is exactly what happened. This was four years ago. Today, our viewpoint is different: we see the Incremental Housing Strategy as our debut in urbanism, rather than in architecture. We invented a strategy to turn slums into formal districts by bringing water, electricity and sewage into every home while transforming old shacks into new homes using co-created prototypes for people to choose from. Now governments and private urban enterprises are asking Urban Nouveau* to design the informal parts of their cities and post-war zones. Why should only the formal parts be designed? Urban Nouveau* is ready to improve urban areas anywhere, teaming up with locals. The task is to extract the top 10 social priorities and to work constantly with the community so the creation is everyone’s baby. The status of the strategy today is in-motion. Our engineer Dhananjay Sadlapure informed us that 572 out of the total 1200 houses from the pilot project are under construction.\u00a0It took four years. The dream is slowly materializing.
\nL. A.<\/strong>: Describing the strategy you use the expression neighbors remain neighbors, local remains local. Can you explain this idea and how it is implemented in Urban Nouveau*\u2019s work?
\nUrban Nouveau*<\/strong>: Yes. Can we start with economy? If you demolish a slum to build social housing units, you are demolishing hundreds of small businesses which support the lives of thousands of families. Let\u2019s continue with what we call sustainable gossip: the public and private ratio in a slum\/ urban village is about 50%-50%. I mean the space inside the houses is about the same as the space between the houses. On a housing block, you get about 90% private space and 10% public space. And usually \u2013 in a city block \u2013 one does not know one’s neighbor. To mingle is very important – people are stronger when they are connected – they develop relationships and use them to help eachother. You need your neighbor when the only time there is water is in the middle of the night… this is the case in Yerawada, the urban village cluster we were working with in Pune. Neighbors remain neighbors, local remains local means the change maker needs to make sure she\/he knows what is going on in the neighborhood before proposing anything whatsoever. At Urban Nouveau* we say one has two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as one speaks. Simple mathematics: understand first, then propose. A dialogue, using architecture as a tool for processing public opinion. This was necessary. To work with a growing conscience.<\/p>\n

L. A.<\/strong>: It seems you are working with both creation and preservation of social environments. What is Urban Nouveau*\u2019s most critical zone of action today?
\nUrban Nouveau*<\/strong>: The cancer of urban development is eviction. So far there is no cure for cancer but Urban Nouveau* is working on ways to heal this since 2005. Why? When people are forced to leave their homes because some entity decided to make a lot of profit building a new neighborhood, there is a problem. If you break a home, you break a family. If one is deeply interested in profit, one needs to think beyond it. When people live in a well balanced environment, harmonic process unfold. Personal wealth is being substituted by local wealth. The same with security… At Urban Nouveau* we see evolution as a socially connected activity, not a hidden deal for a few. The end of mystery: if it is good for one and terrible for ten, it is really not good for anyone. That is the illusion we de-materialize. If it is good for one and ok for ten, we are evolving. Great for all, today, is not so easy since everyone is hanging on someone else… But this is the direction. That is why we work with incremental processes: baby steps in the direction of collective strength through the sequential co-creation of consensus. If a city needs to grow, it should grow without evictions. In the end of the day, it is the people\u2019s cities we are talking about. Since there are absolutely no limits to what humans can do, let\u2019s articulate collective visions and implement them collectively, for one and all.<\/p>\n

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