Co-Creating the Urban Future: Urban Design as a Tool for Integration and Legitimacy

Informality has played a key role in how societies have evolved around the world with both the formal and informal sectors thriving symbiotically off each other. Precedent design solutions aimed to curb haphazard growth of informal settlements have been largely unsuccessful, relying either on eradication or on imposing formality.

My thesis puts forth a collaborative design strategy for Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront that strengthens the existing linkages with the formal sector while providing legitimacy and higher standards of living for the informal inhabitants. It is imperative that informality’s role in the development of the urban fabric of the city is recognized.