This Thursday and Friday on the 29 and 30th of March, a wide range of experts on affordable housing in developing countries will be coming together to talk in Mumbai at Homegrown Cities – Local Construction Practices in Urban India – A Conference on Affordable Housing, organized by the Sir JJ School of Architecture and Lafarge together with URBZ, the Mumbai-based urban collective devoted to facilitating the production and exchange of information, knowledge, ideas and practices towards better cities for all.
Based on the idea and URBZ’s belief that residents are experts in their neighborhoods, this conference offers a refreshing approach: alternative routes to affordable housing for poor communities in an “attempt to break the self-defeating logic in which state-sponsored and private sector initiatives in the sector seem to be locked in today.”
Building on the research and practice of students, leading practitioners from India and abroad, and local contractors and masons, “it focuses on a a much-overlooked aspect of Indian cities: the ability of so many neighborhoods to produce their own homes.”
Click here for more details about the program and speakers.
ps: Check out our post on Praise and Criticism of the $300 House, which features an article written by URBZ founders Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove.