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The Case of the Palace of Books and a Street Corne

The Case of the Palace of Books and a Street Corner:
As the year comes to a close, we’ve put together a #newsletter that brings you a story of hope and new possibilities. Residents from Natwar Parekh - a marginalized neighborhood in Mumbai’s Govandi, came together to codesign and build a children’s library. The story takes you through how, what started off as a tiny idea has transformed this neighborhood of 25,000 people, made the Govandi Arts Festival come true, set in motion other infrastructural developments here …and continues to ignite sparks of curiosity.All this would have been impossible without our library partner @bookwormgoa, and all the festival collaborators @streets_reimagined01 @lamplighterarts.cic @inbritish, including many more artists, performers, partner organisations etc. We hope that in the coming years, we can collaboratively co-create more vibrant spaces for communities to gather and thrive.Read the full newsletter at the link in bio.Image Credits: Rajesh Vora and Tejinder Singh Khamkha

We are excited to announce that we are being featu

We are excited to announce that we are being featured at the Art, Architecture and Design Biennale 2023 @iaadb2023 as part of Samatva: Shaping the Built, an exhibition showcasing the work of 80 women architects. We’re incredibly honored to be featured alongside incredible women who have been crafting the narrative around architecture and design and continue to do so..Our slum redevelopment housing project in Maharashtra was chosen to be displayed at the biennale and the exhibit captures the process of community engagement undertaken to bring it to life. This project was co-developed with multiple other stakeholders and it behooves us to mention that we’re not a typical architectural practice but have found ourselves wearing multiple hats to be able to design and build communities. We hope to collectively galvanize larger impact in the coming years!Sandhya Naidu Janardhan @sandhyajnaidu from our team will be presenting the journey and process of the project as part of the Living Room Conversations to be held on 14th December. To view the exhibit, catch us at B4 Barracks, Red Fort, New Delhi from 9th December to 31st March.Special thanks to Swati Janu @swatijanu from @socialdesigncollaborative for giving us this opportunity!Credits:
Residents of Sanjaynagar, MHADA, GOI, Govt of Maharashtra, Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation, Curry Stone Foundation, Snehalaya (Social Partner), Rang De (Housing Finance), Hunnarshala (Concept Design), Burhade Architects (local architect), Integrated Design, Bangalore (Landscape Architect), Phoenix Consultants, Pune (Plumbing Consultants), Vidyutsallagar Pvt. Ltd , Pune (Electrical Consultant).

@sandhyajnaidu presented CDA’s work at IFLA Asia

@sandhyajnaidu presented CDA’s work at IFLA Asia-Pacific Regional Congress 2023 hosted by Japan Landscape Architects Union (@jlau_2013 ) in Tokyo last week. Titled ‘Living with Disasters’, the conference delved into how landscape and ecology play a critical role in the built environment especially in the context of climate change.In recent years, climate disasters have exposed the entrenched inequalities in our built environment while at the same time, helped realise that irrespective of our privilege or marginalization, we are all deeply interconnected. Speaking at the Wellbeing session, Sandhya presented our slum redevelopment initiative to drive home the point that redevelopment cannot be viewed as a purely real estate problem to solve, and that it needs to be approached from a sense of care for the place and its people to create healthier communities.Photo credit: Jeff Hou @hou2jeff
Photograph in the presentation by: Rajesh Vora
#ecology #Wellbeing #climatechange #communitybuilding #inclusivedesign #regenerativedesign

We are happy to announce that we have received the

We are happy to announce that we have received the #art4resilience Knowledge Into Use Award 2023, by @global_resilience_partnership!Through this award, Natasha Sharma (@fliesinmycurry) Lead, Public Arts and Design from CDA is collaborating with Nikhil Sharma and Himanshu Meena from Elementree Foundation @elementreefoundation to work with the children and youth in Govandi and create a climate vocabulary around changes in their everyday environment.
Read more at the link in our bio!

Sandhya Naidu Janardhan recently spoke at @tedxban

Sandhya Naidu Janardhan recently spoke at @tedxbangalore about how a more empathetic approach to rehabilitating marginalised communities can help us build not just safer and better homes but also preserve the strong social relations people have built over the years. Click on the link in our bio to watch the entire talk!Reposted from @tedxbangalore @sandhyajnaidu reimagines slum redevelopment, emphasizing the power of communities over physical homes. Discover the profound value of social capital and join the movement towards empathic design. Together, we can transform slums into spaces they proudly call home.Watch their full talk using the link in our bio! 🔗#CommunityDesign #EmpathicRedevelopment #TransformingSpaces #SafeSpaces #slumredevelopment #communitydevelopment
#climateresilience #resilientcommunities #climatechange #participatorydesign #socialhousing #publichousing #communitybuilding #lowincomehousing #tedx #tedxtalks #ted #tedtalks #tedfellow #housingforall #pmay #slum

This #WorldEnvironmentDay we bring to you updates

#Throwback to this article in the @impactalpha tha

#Throwback to this article in the @impactalpha that talked about how our slum rehabilitation project in Ahmednagar uses a unique blended finance model and is innovating #climateresilient techniques for safe and affordable housing for marginalised communities.Quoting our Founder and Managing Director, @sandhyajnaidu, the article says: "(Sandhya Naidu) Janardhan’s team at Community Design Agency is exploring whether it could potentially issue a type of carbon credit for slum redevelopment. “For it to really happen at the scale that we want, in a timely manner, we need multiple [financial] players,” Janardhan says."Thrilled to have been feature alongside practices such as @mht_mahilahsg, @clintonglobal and @habitatindiaClick on the link in the bio to read the article. There is a paywall but you can read one article for free if you register.
---Reposted from @impactalpha
The Sanjaynagar slum in Ahmednagar, about 150 miles from Mumbai, was a desolate piece of marshland about the size of a baseball field until about 40 years ago. It is now home to 900 people living in tiny metal shacks.One afternoon in 2018, while children played in Sanjaynagar’s narrow lanes alongside a herd of goats, Sandhya Naidu Janardhan and her team at Community Design Agency met with the slum’s residents to discuss a plan to co-design new of homes for the community. The goal: house people in permanent structures that would shield them from the region’s increasingly intense heat waves and floods, offer running water and better sanitation, and give locals a greater sense of social empowerment. Link in bio.#blendedfinance #carboncredits #safehousing #affordablehousing #communityled #participatorydesign #slumredevelopment #climatechange #housingfinance #PMAY #homeloan #climateresilience #cop26 #climatefinance #resilient #urbanslums #slums #ahmednagar #maharashtra #mumbai

Catch our Founder and Managing Director, Sandhya N

Catch our Founder and Managing Director, Sandhya Naidu Janardhan (@sandhyajnaidu) at @tedxbangalore on May 28th!Reposted from @tedxbangalore What happens when we redevelop India's slums through empathetic design?Architect @sandhyajnaidu will share her vision for building 135,000 communities over the next 20 years at #SafeSpaces on May 28!💡 Reserve your pass today using the link in our bio!#TEDx #TEDTalks #TEDxBangalore #ideasworthspreading💡

Bhawna Jaimini (@jaiminibhawna), Lead Community De

Bhawna Jaimini (@jaiminibhawna), Lead Community Development at CDA, will be speaking at the Nazaria Arts Mela this Sunday, April 16, where she'll discuss her experience of working with marginalised communities to help them reclaim their narratives and self-represent themselves. Hosted by @nazaria.in at @harkat.studios from 14th to 16th April, the Mela will also see performances from our rap and theatre mentees from @govandiartsfestival on Friday and Saturday respectively. Click on the link in our bio to purchase the tickets!#govandiartsfestival #govandiartsfestival2023 #celebratingcommunities #creatingjoy #govandi #mumbai #communitydesignagency #publicart #publicspaces #publicspacedesign #communityled #publichousing #socialhousing #socialdesign #socialarchitecture

Two articles featuring the @govandiartsfestival in

Two articles featuring the @govandiartsfestival in @questionofcities_ !The first article covers the essence of the Govandi Arts Festival, the journey of the 37 mentees, the spirit of the people of Govandi, their lives and challenges, and how the Arts Festival has helped the community to come together and reclaim their identity.Speaking to the co-curator of the Govandi Arts Festival, Natasha Sharma @fliesinmycurry, the second article focuses on what it takes to organise a community based and led Arts Festival and the role art plays in reclaiming public spaces.Click on the link in our bio to read both!#IndiaUKTogether #SeasonofCulture #CultureConnectsUs #govandiartsfestival #govandiartsfestival2023 #celebratingcommunities #creatingjoy #govandi #mumbai #communitydesignagency #publicart #publicspaces #publicspacedesign #communityled #publichousing #socialhousing #socialdesign #socialarchitecture