Extreme Urbanism 6: Designing Sanitation Infrastructure

This studio examines the issue of sanitation infrastructure in Mumbai, with a special focus on community toilets in the city’s informal settlements. The site is an informal settlement with an organized community group that will serve as the constituency or client group for the studio. The studio will work towards evolving a broader strategy for upgrading the entire settlement in situ. Sanitation infrastructure will serve as the instrument that guides the reorganization of the urban fabric relating to water supply, sewage and sanitation, as well as its relationship and integration with community spaces more broadly.

The studio engages with modes of governance, as well as implementation and financial models, which have the potential to make sanitation infrastructure viable and sustainable, and enable transformative effects in the larger landscape of informal settlements in Mumbai. Students will develop prototype projects, which may be implemented in the future. To this end, the studio will work collaboratively with the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) in Mumbai. The UDRI will host the students for the week in Mumbai and coordinate the research and investigations of the chosen site. The project is also supported by the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (LMSAI), who will facilitate inputs from experts in other disciplines across the University.