Pushing the Envelop

The distinction between formal and informal settlement lies in the application of rules, codes, zoning plans, property rights and so on. In the formal world, the whole structure of formalities is the foundation of development. Informal settlements do not consider formalities. That is why they are called informal. In order to understand the concept of incremental development, this chapter is about growth in that other world, called the formality.

Many formalities have a restrictive character. Zoning plans limit the built-up area and the maximum height of buildings. This set of limitations is called the envelop. As regulations can be complicated, the envelop can be complicated too. Planners and architects have to figure out what the envelop precisely looks like and sometimes they need the help of law experts. This process is called pushing the envelop.

Incremental development in the formal world has much to do with pushing the envelop. Not only rules do determine the envelop, enforcement is also contributing to what is finally happening. If the rules are not enforced, they become obsolete. Changes in building codes also change the envelop. Thus, envelops are subject to continuous change and incremental development is a matter of continuously pushing the envelop.


Photo 1. Window with a weather shade and a box-grill.

To stand the heavy rains of the monsoon, a good window needs a chhajja, a weather-shade. Such a parapet is subject to building codes and may not extend more than two feet from the façade. Most buildings have weather-shades as an integral part of their structure.

As many households prefer to have the windows open, it is a safe precaution to build a box-grill on the outside. Safety in this case primarily means the safety of not falling out of the window. Adding a box-grill to the window is to the discretion of the inhabitants. Thus, the design of the grills shows a great variety. Some have beautiful ironmongery while others stick to utilitarian patterns. The space claimed by the box-grill is an extension of the house and often gives room to flower pots and various household items. It is not allowed to build the box-grill beyond the weather shade, which restricts the common box-grill to a depth of two feet.


Photo 2. Variety in box-grills.

A second feature in the extension of apartments is the balcony. In Mumbai, balconies may not extend more than three feet from the façade, whereas to make a balcony genuinely work as an outdoor space, it requires a minimum depth of six feet. For a reason the city of Mumbai limits the depth of the balconies to three feet. If you are lucky and have your window under a balcony, you may make your box-grill three feet deep.


Photo 3. Narrow alleys demand regulation on weather-shades.

These regulations on façade extension are especially important to the narrow alleys. Urban blocks in Mumbai are often close to each other.


Photo 4. Dharavi, Mumbai. Balconies built over to gain another room.

A common practice of incremental development is building over balconies and terraces, in order to add another room to the building.


Photo 5. Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Roof terrace built over.


Photo 6. Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Added weather shades to protect modern airco-units. Built over balconies.


Photo 7. Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Two(!) buildings showing different approaches to the use of weather shades and balconies.


Photo 8. Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Practical use overtaking classic forms.

Mumbai is known for its mix of Indian and colonial architecture. The photo above shows what can happen when the two meet in one building. The three windows in the top right hand corner have original classic ornamentation. They are typical European classicist elements, probably meant to frame the window in a recessed manner, thus protecting it from the weather. Apparently, this was not enough to stand the monsoon rains in India and weather shades of considerable size were added. The convenient grill boxes soon followed. The grill boxes now serve as a garage for the air conditioning units. Due to the limited size of the grill boxes, those units block the view from the windows.

The lower part of the building tells another story about pushing the envelop. Commercial activities probably take pushing the envelop as a daily exercise. Shopkeepers take it to the limit when it comes to parapets, advertising, signage, and so on. Every extension possible is used to extend the shop to the street and to connect the street to the shop. The goal is to embrace the client in the street. Most successful are those who manage to connect most smoothly the private space of the shop to the public space of the street.

An interesting phenomenon is the perception of the façade as a whole. Seen from the life in the street, the ground floor is where it all happens. The upper parts of the façade are just the backyard compared to below, being the front. It illustrates the importance of the building edge, housing the life of the street.


Photo 9. A puzzling envelop.

In informal development, the placing of a flowerpot, an air conditioning unit or a box grill is no big deal. In the formal world, much more has to be taken into account. The above photo would certainly raise some tough questions. Is it allowed to have separate weather shades for air conditioning units? Is it allowed to make box grills serving only such units? Which rule permits the screen under the weather shade of the ground floor? Or is it all legally covered by the balcony on the second floor?


Photo 10. Pushing too far: photo taken one hour before the next…

Pushing to the limits may have some repercussions. The Patel Mansion building in the above photo had a long life of 110 years. People made adjustments as they needed, as far as rules allowed them. It showed on the outside that this building was alive and changing. One day, inhabitants pushed the envelop of their apartment thus far that they made a breakthrough between rooms, without permission. They knocked out a bearing wall. Cracks occurred throughout the building and scary noises were heard. Alarmed authorities hastily evacuated the building, averting a disaster. Within a day, the building reduced itself to rubble. No one was injured.


Photo 11. A section of Patel Mansion at Dockyard Road collapsing. Photo by Kamlesh Pednekar, DNA.

Pavement Dwellings

Living on the Sidewalk

Probably the most elementary form of informal settlement in a big city is the pavement dwelling. As the name suggests, the dwellings are located on sidewalks in streets of any size. The initial activity can be street vending, on a sheet or in an improvised little stall. The development continues with vendors spending the night on their spot, putting up a little shelter, family coming over, and so on.


Photo 1. Near Dockyard road, Mazagaon, Mumbai. Single storey flexible pavement dwelling, built with extensive use of recycled materials.

Settlements in a vulnerable location are often made of flexible materials like sheets of cardboard, plywood, corrugated steel, and tarp. The mixed use of materials requires very smart solutions. Structures that are more permanent, such as masonry and concrete, are built by dwellers with less risk of destruction. The risk can be reduced by physical factors such as less cramped lots. Political conditions also provide security. As compensation for their votes, leaders protect dwellers from eviction.

Photo 2. Pavement dwellings on the bridge over Reay Road, Mumbai. The use is mainly residential, accommodating employees of the neighbouring ship repair area. The ladders suggest the presence of attics.

Photo 3. Backsides of pavement dwellings on bridge over Reay Road.

Pavement dwellings by their nature stretch out like a ribbon along streets. This makes them more vulnerable to eviction than larger, grouped, pockets of informal settlement, especially when their presence substantially reduces the available space in the street. A narrow road is therefore a more risky location than a wide boulevard.

Photo 4. N.M. Joshi Marg, Byculla, Mumbai. Half the street is blocked by a house, reducing traffic pressure and providing a safe haven for the pavement dwellers on the right.

A dwelling’s position between vulnerability and security is reflected in its architecture. The use of materials is one of them, although the local availability of materials may have a higher priority. The application of recycled materials or sheeting is not restricted to insecure locations. Masonry and concrete however are rarely used other than in situations with a high security.

A good indicator of a sense of security is the care for aesthetics. Painting over the façade and the use of decoration evoke the message that the primary need for shelter is met.

Photo 5. N.M. Joshi Marg, Byculla, Mumbai. These structures are more permanent, as the neat use of paint is telling. Many of them have an attic.

Photo 6. First floor with a view.


Photo 7. Permanent structures, built of masonry. Painted in blue, matching the tarp and the drums.

Typical for the pavement dwelling is its adhering to a wall of a different building. The height of the dwelling is often related to the height of that wall. Dwellings with an attic often sit against higher walls.


Photo 8. A row of pavement dwellings sitting along a very long wall. The height of the dwellings follows the height of the wall.

The roof of most pavement dwellings is sloped up to the wall behind, draining the rainwater to the front and on the street. If it were the other way round, the rainwater would inevitably seep into the dwelling.


Photo 9. Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Probably the smartest of all pavement dwellings.

A very special case is a fence available on the kerb of the sidewalk. It is a rare occasion but it can be used very effectively.

Generating Process

Incremental development by attachment

As studying incremental development nowadays mostly deals with high-density locations, it is important to consider incremental development in earlier days, when space was aplenty. Initial settlements in Dharavi can be found in Koliwada (400 years old) and near Sion (twentieth century). The detached houses had open ground around them. Over time extensions were made by adding rooms, building detached rooms, adding storeys, covering courts, changing use, covering roof terraces. Incentives for adding rooms are extension of the family or extension of business. Rooms are also rented out to third parties.


Photo 1. House near Sion Station Mumbai. The yellow house on the right, in the back, was gradually extended with many add-on rooms.

Studying the details of where buildings connect, reveals the historical order of this incremental development. Builders have to work around problems resulting from choices made in earlier days. Often compromises have to be made and these compromises are very informative. In the centre of the photo below, the small two storey extension partly covers the window of the bigger house. It tells us that the top of the bigger house, which is a vertical extension itself, is the older part.

In Koliwada, the original fishermen village with its incremental development is gradually encroached by informal settlements of squatters. In this typology, a division is made between these two. Roughly, this division coincides with the distinction between formal and informal housing. Similar to the practice of the formal-informal boundary being a grey area, the division between traditional incremental development and squatter encroachment cannot be made sharply. There is a lot in between, like property owners allowing squatters to build to the walls of their houses. Non-dwelling settlements (stalls) are often the small representatives of this semi-formal practice.

Photo 2. Darukhana, Mumbai. Ship repair area. Two-storey extension (front) of steel clad workshop (behind). The façade on the left shows how removal of parts of the façade is also a form of incremental development. Note the small candy stall on the far right, another ‘incremental development’.

In fact, these incremental developments are part of the natural growth of buildings throughout their lifetime. The term “generating process” is used here to indicate cases with a recognizable initial building of substantial sizes. The term is borrowed from Christopher Alexander.

In contrast with the wholeness of the described incremental development, today’s developments show a harsh division. It is referred to as ‘encroachment’. Squatters settle informally on land around formal settlements such as high-rise and apartment blocks.

Photo 3. Agripada, Mahalaxmi. Apartment blocks representing formality, engulfed by informal settlements.

The phenomenon of encroachment reveals weaknesses in the current formalized style of architecture and urban planning. The design, or should we say fabrication, of this type is unable to create sufficient life around these buildings. The space is dead in terms of urban dynamics and it might be considered natural that newcomers settle on these barren lands. Even the use of the word encroachment may be disputable in such cases.

New Transit Camp

Settlements in fixed parcelling of land

The New Transit Camp in Dharavi provides specific conditions as it has planned, fixed, parcelling of the land. This is rather unique in Dharavi. The plots are about 10 by 20 feet. The long side of a plot is to the adjacent plot. The short 10 feet side is open to an alley.


Photo 4. New Transit Camp Dharavi: planned parcelling of land. Image GeoEye / Google Earth.


Photo 5. Dharavi New Transit Camp, Mahatma Gandhi Road. Facades showing the long side of the plots. Typical detached houses with pitched roofs.

Photo 6. Dharavi New Transit Camp. Short end facades in the streets perpendicular to Mahatma Gandhi Road. Almost container-like extensions, due to uniform land plots.

As a result, the main direction of incremental development is vertical here. Horizontal extension is only possible on the first floor. A cantilever over the alley is common practice. Stairs are put outside of the ground floor, in the alley, with access to the first floor through a floor hatch. The image is almost like the stacking of containers, due to the fixed dimensions of the property. Roof shapes are often pitched, as that is the economic way of draining the roof towards the alleys. Due to incremental development, the alleys tend to be fully built over.

[further research: retrieve original zoning plans from BMC]

Photo 7. Long end facades. The alley on the right is fully overbuilt, subsequently changing the roof shape from pitched to slope.

Photos 8. Alley with typical cantilever extension of the first floor, an “open roof tunnel”.

Photo 9. Stairs in alleyways. The original alley is 6 feet wide.

Random

Attached incremental development

Informal settlements initiated by squatters have an appearance of strong randomness. The parcelling of land is done on the spot by pushing and pulling boundaries, not on the drawing board. Walls are shared. The newer settlement is “attached” to the existing. Floors are added, leaving the ground floor available for business. First floor is mostly extended as a cantilever over the street, providing both extra floor space and a weather shade to the shop below.


Photo 10. Dharavi. Variation of materials and forms.


Photo 11. Dharavi. Incremental improvement. The use of materials is shifting from recycled sheet elements to plastered brickwork.

Photo 12. Dharavi. Further incremental upgrading. Almost all provisionally used recycled material is replaced by permanent structure. The extended roof serves as Chhajja, a weather shade.

Because of the incremental process, stairs are often visible, in front of the only open façade. There are many reasons for putting the stairs this way (see also: Multiple Floors).

Photo 13. The blue house is attached to the white house, as can be told from how the roofs meet. Remarkably, they do share a wall but not the ladder.

The appearance of the houses in photo 13 has many practical backgrounds. The white house runs a sugarcane-juice shop. For hygienic reasons, the ladder is sealed with metal sheeting. A canopy of corrugated steel keeps dirt and rain out. The business in the building on the right apparently needs similar protection by a blue tarp, whereas the workshop in the centre has different standards. The blue house on top pushes the urban envelop. The room protrudes over the workshop and the window has a box grill, extending the room even further.

Photo 14. In corner buildings, expansion over both streets allows for more space at the first floor. The result is a structure with the top-heavy appearance of a mushroom.

Photo 15. Developed to a high level. Everything is in place. Doors are recessed as sophisticated weather shades. Then the view from the red house’s window is traded against the revenues from the advertisement sitting on the box grill.

Light Structures

In A Dynamic Setting

In neighbourhoods directly bordering the sea, such as Darukhana in the port of Mumbai, the open space over the water is an attractive opportunity for expansion. The tide is something to bear in mind. There is two meters between the levels of low tide and high tide in Mumbai.


Photo 16. Darukhana, Mazgaon, Mumbai. Low tide, revealing the supporting piling of the light dwellings.

Darukhana’s main employment is ship repair and ship recycling. The use of sheet-shape building materials is therefore an obvious choice. Many of these come from the dismantled ships. These structures are very light, compared to concrete and masonry. Another advantage is the flexibility. Repair and expansion are easy, material is local available. In terms of sustainability, this is an exemplary site.

The roof shape is straightforward. Its slope is down to the waterside, which is the logical thing to do, as it would otherwise drain to the street, with all inconveniences. The street would turn into a mud pool; the water would be pouring from the roof right in front of the shop or the house. In the end, the water should go to the sea anyway.

To protect the ground from being washed away by the tide, the shore is paved with heavy stones. In order to keep it accessible and capable of bearing the piles under the dwellings, the stones are stacked stepwise, thus providing sufficient horizontal surface. In addition, the stairway form helps to dampen the incoming waves.

Click photo to enlarge.
Photo 17. The shore is paved stepwise, providing excellent ground for these dwellings.

Notwithstanding the wish of many for more comfortable housing, there certainly are things to be appreciated about these dwellings. Their design is practical, straightforward and natural. Everything is in the right place, and in that way it is perfect.

Pavement

It is 2008. Many streets in Dharavi have no pavement. They are just open dirt and gravel. The encompassing Sion-Bandra Linkroad is appropriately paved, as is the Dharavi-crossing 90-Feet Road. The remainder of the streets is partly paved, partly sealed with stones and gravel, or not sealed at all. This has dramatic effects on daily routines. First, traffic is compromised. Walking over loose laying stones is far from comfortable. The accessibility of shops and workshops is hindered. Second, the open streets are a source of loose sand and dirt creeping into everything, everywhere. Everything in the neighbourhood is covered with a thick layer of brown dirt. This dirt only disappears when rains wash it all away during monsoon. In the nine months between monsoons, the dirt steadily accumulates. Then, during monsoon, the dirt roads turn into mud pools. An unexpected advantage of the open soil is its capacity to absorb the water rapidly. Whereas many cities suffer flooding drains, dehydration of the underground, and falling of the water table, the open structure of the roads in Dharavi is a blessing for groundwater.



Cleaning up a dirt road is not an easy task. To sweep litter from stones and gravel is quite an effort. Bearing that in mind the image of an average street in Dharavi is a miracle. A crowded street inevitably is littered during the day, certainly in an overcrowded area. Considering the fact that there is very little waste and litter to be seen, these people must be very tidy. If they were not, the street would be paved with a layer of garbage by now, instead of dirt and gravel.

Apparently, people litter near to nothing and sweeping is carried out regularly. Goats and dogs pick out the bio-waste quickly and efficiently. Burnable waste is collected and used as fuel. PET-bottles and metals are collected by the highly sophisticated recycling industry.

The lack of pavement is a symptom of a local government unable or unwilling to create communal provisions. As most of Dharavi consists of informal settlements, that formally do not exist, the government does not consider it its task to provide infrastructure and services. In addition, the local government lacks manpower and means to create infrastructure, education and health care of reasonable standards. It is a chicken-and-egg-dilemma. The registration office of the municipality is understaffed. As many residents have no access to the formal system of the city, they cannot be registered. Tax collection on these people is impossible, leaving the municipality with too little means to improve the registration office, let alone to spend money on infrastructure. As a result, many in Dharavi do not pay taxes and the money stays among the people. The void left here by the government is sometimes filled by civic communities, who organise things on their own account. This is how schools and other provisions are created. In worst cases, criminals fill the managerial vacuum.

The potential of self-organisation in a society, of course has its limitations. Whereas the scale of problem increases in terms of numbers of people, the feasibility rapidly deteriorates. The paving over of a big street has that many stakeholders that it cannot be organized by local groups. Parents collectively founding a school for their children can be overseen, but a street to which indeed ten thousand people should contribute, is a different thing. Paradoxically the feasibility of a communal provision decreases when the number of potential contributors rises.

Pavement in alleys is for that reason a lesser problem. Scale is on the advantage here. Many alleys are hardly a meter wide and inhabitants on both sides often join their efforts to lay pavement. This being fairly easy has to do with the small number of stakeholders who, in addition, enjoy a direct effect.

At the crossing of alleys and spots with uneven levels, the results may vary in quality. Especially pipe laying in paved alleys will end in odd results. Breaking up the neat pavement made by the neighbour is indeed not the best way to make friends. The increase of the length of the pipe also increases the number of people involved, thus decreasing chances for a good solution. It happens that water piping is laid in wastewater gutters. One might wonder why water piping is not mounted a bit higher; let us say above doorway level. It would be more convenient for pedestrians.

On locations where the municipality is active, one finds good pavement. Chawls are dwellings developed by municipalities or housing-corporations. The communal character of these buildings can easily be recognized by the roof shape. The uniform way of building creates a continuous roof over multiple houses. Individually developed houses have independent roofs. Exterior space is an important part of housing and in chawls this space is in general properly developed. Chawl-dwellers are keen on distinguishing their housing from the informal settlements around. The formal context in which chawls are created has no similarities with informal development, which is generally built on individual initiative and without a legal context.

On any location lacking collective provisions, that is about everywhere in slum, the lack of proper pavement has dramatic effects. It is needless to explain that such obstructions right in front of one’s company is bad for everything. Both customers and enterprise are not helped by it, to say the least. It remains unclear why entrepreneurs barely take initiative and at least pave the part in front of their business.

A small piece of pavement made of broken millstones.

These photocompositions of reality and fictional pavement were used in a 2008 study on the costs of proper pavement. The pavement of all streets in Koliwada, the oldest part of Dharavi, would require an investment per capita the equivalent of two small bottles of soft drink.

By the end of 2009, a considerable area was paved. The area near Sion station, the Dharavi Main Road through Koliwada, and other roads. The positive effect is dramatic and underscores the importance of proper infrastructure. Making pavement alone is not enough. Once it is there, it will be opened to allow water pipe laying and so. Closing the pavement afterwards is often done sloppy. Maintenance is as important as the initial making.

The situation in the street is worsened by digging works remaining open too long. This problem stretches beyond Dharavi. On many locations in Mumbai pavement lies open while carrying out of works is not seen anywhere in the wider vicinity.

In the old centre of Mumbai, it shows that entrance lanes to buildings create large interruptions of the sidewalk. This practice is so frequent that the sidewalk lost its continuity. One finds loose pieces of sidewalk, alternating with all kinds of entrances. Some are paved neatly, others are half sealed with gravel, and many are no more than bare ground.

Walking old Mumbai has its ups and downs.