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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2008

  • Work on this object began.

2013

  • Work on this object ended.

2016

2024

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Yerwada Slum Upgrade

This is a Project. It was architect: Prasanna Desai Architects and project headed by SPARC, Samudaya Nirman Sahayak and Pune Municipal Corporation and collaborator: Mahila Milan and Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI). It is dated 2008–2013.

Rather than evicting the large population of urban poor in India to demolish the slums, India’s authorities have partnered with aid organizations to design houses in situ. For the Yerwada Slum Upgrade project in Pune, India, community workshops with Pune’s Prasanna Desai Architects used three-dimensional models of the existing settlement to give residents perspective on their communities’ space, street hierarchy, and density. Full-size house models were constructed from colorful cloth walls and bamboo framing, allowing slum dwellers to visualize size and layout. Residents helped determine the final layouts, maintaining existing street patterns and housing footprints. Once the houses are built, each family receives a ninety-nine-year lease and the community becomes a legal “colony.”

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/420778991/ |title=Yerwada Slum Upgrade |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>