Access to high quality spaces—especially housing, is foundational to achieving almost all the Sustainable Development Goals.
We integrate deep community engagement with democratized access to architecture, engineering, social support, home financing and more. As a result, those on the margins are afforded true agency over where and how they live. This measurably impacts gender equity, health and well-being, social inclusion, and climate resilience.
Our Managing Director and Founder, Sandhya Naidu Janardhan, has recently been awarded the Berkeley Rupp Prize 2024-25 celebrating her work in community-led design and for her contributions to the architecture practice. She will be in residence at the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley during the fall of 2024 semester.
Ground-up Slum Redevelopment
SANJAYNAGAR NEIGHBOURHOOD, AHMEDNAGAR, MAHARASHTRA
The Sanjaynagar neighborhood is home to 298 families and sits across two acres of land. Despite enduring challenges caused by poor physical infrastructure, the community enjoys rich social cohesion, forged over four decades of surviving alongside each other. When we began work in 2018 to redevelop the neighbourhood, we knew that protecting—and enhancing their existing bonds was vital. And that like all humans everywhere, they had the right to dignified spaces to live, raise families, work and play.
Neighbourhood Regeneration using Community Engagement, Placemaking and the Arts
NATWAR PAREKH, MUMBAI, INDIA
Natwar Parekh, a resettlement neighbourhood in Mumbai’s Govandi, is home to more than 25,000 people, previously slum and pavement dwellers, who were relocated into tiny apartments, most of which do not have proper ventilation or natural light. This impacts their health, safety, and inclusion.
Seven years ago, we started using space-based interventions to unite informal street vendors, build a popular children’s library, turn garbage-strewn alleys into inviting outdoor spaces and encourage youth-initiated placemaking projects including the Govandi Arts Festival.