INCREMENTAL HOUSING STRATEGY BY FILIPE BALUSTRADE AND SARA GRANDSON

V.Gayathri Devi12041AA080,Housing Elective, Section-B

Architects Filipe Balustrade and Sara Grandson have developed a strategy to develop informal slums into permanent urban districts through a process of gradual improvement to existing dwellings instead of demolition and rebuilding.Developed in Bombay, India, the Incremental Housing Strategy is intended to allow districts to improve organically without uprooting communities.

A pilot project will be implemented in Pane, India but the architects believe the strategy could be appropriate in any country with similar urban conditions.

The architects have developed three house typologies (below) consisting of simple frames that allow for later expansion.

After creating works for Ram Kolas at OMA/ AMO, Neutering Riddick, NL architects, and Thomas Sandal, I found it essential to search for the opposite experience: to work for the ones who cannot pay," says Balustrade.

In September 2008, architects Filipe Balustrade and Sara Grandson were invited by Sheila Patel and Jock in Apothem (www.sparcindia.org) to come to India to design an Incremental Housing Strategy. The strategy had to be implementable anywhere.

implementation collage: kwacha houses incremented and customized

•Filipe had previously designed and built a school and community centre in Rosina, Rio de Janeiro’s largest slum, in a participatory design and construction process together with the locals. The project was called Sam architecture and it was documented in a movie which was shown in Cinema Ziti in Stockholm during Brazilian Film Festival. This movie was also in exhibition in the Architecture Museum of Stockholm and in Botkyrka Konsthall; Sara has been working on a strategy to connect Stockholm, framing the future urban development as urban bridges between segregated suburbs.

 aerial collage: the new archipelago of incremented kaccha houses rising from a sea of well built permanent homes in a typical slum

Soon after Filipe and Sara arrived to Bombay, a team of international architects, urban planners, landscape architects and graphic designers volunteered to set up the strategy which uses the existing urban formations as starting point for development. Organic patterns that have evolved during time are preserved and existing social networks are respected. Neighbors remain neighbors, local remains local.

Far left: Savita Sonawane from Mahila Milan explaning strategy to slum dwellers of Netaji Nagar. Far right, Filipe Balestra sketching possibilities.

 informal office in Koregaon Park, Pune Life inside a kaccha house I

  Life inside a kaccha house II Life inside a kaccha house III

The strategy strengthens the informal and aims to accelerate the legalization of the homes of the urban poor. The communities are asked to engage with the construction process to customize each house, i.e. each family will paint the house the color they want. After all, who knows better than the people themselves how do they want to live?"

They developed 3 basic prototypes for the slum dwellers to choose from. These are 3 basic typologies. House A is a two story home, structured like a 3 story home to ensure safety in future vertical extension; House B has Incrementable ground floor, which is left open for either parking or for the family to turn that open space into a shop. House C has an incrementable middle floor, to hang clothes or to be used like a living room. All proposals are for one family and 270 sq foot area (grant regulations).

: Life inside a kaccha house IV