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https://theconversation.com/how-indias-slum-free-redevelopment-fails-residents-by-ignoring-their-design-insights-and-needs-204031>
"I’m in Ahmedabad, India, standing where families once built their homes under
the shade of large trees. Today, those houses are a flattened dust bowl at the
edge of a construction site. Apartment buildings are replacing the low-rise,
high-density settlement called Ramapir No Tekro, the city’s biggest informal
settlement.
I’m feeling the inevitability of political forces intent on shaping the city in
a new image. Walking through the community, I see shops closed and homes
reduced to rubble. It’s hard to reconcile these images with the once-vibrant
streets I remember.
The 8,500 homes that housed 150,000 people in Ramapir No Tekro are being
redeveloped as the government aims to achieve a “slum-free” India.
Although the stated aim of providing affordable housing to bring people out of
poverty gives me hope, I feel heartbreak and frustration as residents continue
to be short-changed. They receive poor compensation, the underlying reasons
people build informal housing are not addressed, and authorities refuse to see
value in the informal architecture that the residents created. Apartment
designs lack key features of the settlement that our recent study identified as
improving residents’ lives."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
