Dharavi_MumbaiIt’s that time of year again when our students embark on their field trip to experience first-hand the kind of developing contexts they have been analyzing throughout the course and acquire new skills that will enable them to put their ambitions into practice.

This year our group will be traveling to India with co-director Carmen Mendoza Arroyo and guest professor Reena Tiwari, where they will be take part in a five-day workshop on alternative building techniques at the Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies in Kerala, and another four days in Mumbai visiting informal settlements such as Dharavi (pictured above) to understand the urban issues faced by these megacities. Students will be exposed to small-scale interventions, low-tech building techniques, and community groups, as well as larger urban issues such as mass-immigration, informal settlements, land rights issues and slum-upgrading challenges.

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Reena Tiwari of Curtin University in her recent workshop with our students on Bottom-up Strategies for Community Development

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The workshop at the Laurie Baker Center (pictured above), named after the British-born Indian architect and founded for the research, training and advocacy of the sustainable and appropriate building methods he espoused, will combine lectures, presentations, audio-visual sessions, field visits to selected colonies and institutions constructed by Laurie Backer, and hands-on work with masonry using mud, bricks, bamboo and rubble. Students will learn about additional building techniques that are cost-effective, affordable and  environmentally sound.

We wish our students a safe trip and enriching learning experience! Stay tuned for updates about their experiences on our Facebook page.

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