THE 1,4 FUNDS

Its Exclusive! is what Ms. Alice Flanagan told me. Yes 1,4 is a fund that is an exclusive private club that runs in Ranwar which gives admittance to only 24 members. only 24!.
Going a little back to the history of these funds, it was a little more than 40 years ago that these funds were started, in fact only recently the funds celebrated its 40th anniversary with much fanfare and some and nostalgia (unfortunately cant reveal some little secrets with which the members are made fun off, but yes that showed the sincerity with which the members run the funds and be together in times of need.) So back to history, the funds were started by a group of women around the Ranwar square and they used to pay Re.1 and 4 anna as the membership fees per year and hence the name 1,4 funds.
The funds were created mainly for the reason that the women gather money by the year and enjoy with money, and if any member needs some in difficulty help them too. They used to used the funds also to have a picnic for the members once a year.
Some activities, all the members get together and celebrate their being every alternate month in the form of a dinner which is hosted by four members in one of their cottages. Hence they have 6 dinners a year, and all the 24 members get to host it once in a group of four. And they enjoy their time with full course dinners cooked by some of the best cooks (from what i have heard and will soon experience, Ranwar has some of the best culinary skills) and some great East Indian drinks like Kheemad, the base of which is country liquor mixed with some spices.
What they talk, we can imagine. It ranges from talks of their lives to nostalgia to doing something fruitful for their village juntaa. So they have a motive and its to celebrate once every two months and enjoy the exclusivity of being a part of a club which they call it 1,4 funds.
Today the members pay around Rs.50 as membership fee per year, apart from hosting these wonderful dinners ( i need not mention, i already got an invitation to the next one and i am so looking forward to it!)

Through these community initiatives we can only see some thought for the being, being together and living peacefully with one another. Interestingly, places like Ranwar gives an opportunity to have some clubs and initiatives of these sorts which still binds them together.
Like the literary club in Ranwar some grand years ago to Rest Ranwar, women's day celebrations, evening rosary's, 1,4 funds, and many more initiatives bring a lot of reflection as well as importance to the existence of these spaces and the link of same to their culture and lives that they live everyday!
i am sure there are many more clubs like 1,4 that i have to still hear about. But just celebrating life is something one should hear from them!

Organisation of a city

It is clear amidst organization of a city that its design is like a growing organism. Why it moves towards an organic format is due to the city dwellers giving it form and shape at every node of a its existence. And hence we should not hesitate in calling the inhabitants the true designers of their own city. They give life to the formulations of a city making it a living organism.

--(after reading 'Design of Cities' by Edmund N. Bacon)

Physical Forms of a City

While reading 'The Image of the City', by Kevin Lynch. Lynch in Image of a city talks about a concept of Imageabilty of a city, of how an inhabitant would break down the image of his own city into various physical forms. A great reading for everyone i must say. Some excerpts and analysis from the book on Physical forms of a city.

A city can be divided in Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks to make a physical form. A form that can be converted to images on the city by its own residents. Further on these 5:
1.) Paths: These are channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally or potentially moves. STREETS, WALKWAYS, TRANSIT LINES, CANALS, RAILROADS. For a lot of people these become the predominant elements in their image. People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths where environmental elements are arranged and related.

a path in Ranwar, essential these are the winding lanes through which the observers(residents) of Ranwar move around their own space.

2.) Edges: These are not paths they are boundaries between two phases. Linear breaks. SHORES, WATEREDGE, RAILROAD, CUTS, EDGES OF DEVELOPMENT, WALLS. They are lateral references rather than co-prdinate axis. They may be barriers, more or less penetrable, which close one region from an other; or they may be seams, lines along which two regions are related and joined. These edges as elements, although probably not as dominant as paths, are for many people organising features, particularly in the role of holding together generalized areas, as in the outline of a city by walls or wall.

the waterfront in Bandra becomes the edge not only for the suburb, but also for all the inner districts.

3.) Districts: These are conceived as two-dimensional extents which has the notion of "inside of", and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character. Most people structure their city to some extent in this way, with individual differences as to paths or districts are more important. In most case these kind of district are defined by the residents and not the authorities. And even if they are defined by the authorities they are always re-defined by the residents. The Hamlets of Bandra like Ranwar, Shirely, Rajan, Pali etc. become the districts of Bandra, they are combined by various other districts that are marked by the roads like the carter road, waterfield road or tuner road or bazaar road. It is very interesting to notice the transformation of districts while one is traveling through these. actually one would not notice them as they are very resident centric divisions.

4.) Nodes: These are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling. JUNCTIONS, PLACES OF BREAKS IN TRANSPORTATION, CROSSING OR CONVERGENCE OF PATHS, SHIFTS FROM ONE STRUCTURE TO ANOTHER, OR SIMPLY CONCENTRATIONS, STREET HANGOUT, ENCLOSED SQUARE. Some of them become very important to the district. They become symbols, points of interpersonal relationships, meeting points or points of convergence. They are relative to paths, edges, districts and could be these also at times. They are just an unanimously accepted  format of public hangout spots. They are always found in every image.

St. Agna square in Ranwar by the day, used for various purposes by the residents, like in this case to dry chillies which will become some tasty masala after a point. The square is an important node for the residents to meet, chat and play.

by the night sometimes it is used for community mass

5.) Landmarks: They are points of reference, but only external for the observer. They are rather simply defined physical objects, BUILDING, SIGN, JUNCTION, STORE, MOUNTAIN, ART WORK. Is known to single out one such object from a group around them. Interestingly most of the times Landmarks incorporate in public language and becomes a common point of reference. They are of a local/global nature. They are frequently used clues of identity and even structures, and seem to be increasingly relied upon, even at times when the structure ceases to stand there. Once a history, a sign, or a meaning attaches to an object, its value as a landmark rises.

the oratory at the entrance of Ranwar from the Waroda road on the Veronica street is a very used point of reference

All of these are mainly of two natures: 1. Individualistic, 2. Collective. Sometimes both work, sometimes only one does. These leads to cross-refrencing and overlapping of these forms making a very interesting city image. The image of a given physical reality may occasionally shift its type with different circumstances of viewing. Thus and express way may be a path for the driver, but will be an edge for a pedestrian. But the categories seem to have stability for a given observer when he is operating at a given level. 

None of the above mentioned forms exist in isolation in a real case. The city shall cease to exist if they do. Districts are structured with nodes, defined by edges, penetrated by paths and sprinkled with a landmark. Elements regularly overlap and pierce each other.

Also important to understand is that these might change with time or wear a different character. eg: nodes become landmarks, become edges, or become districts with the expansion of limits of a city, but once you break them down to core elements the image of a city becomes clearer.

Element Interrelations:
These elements are simply the raw materials of the environmental image at the city scale. They must be patterned to provide a satisfying form. At this point it gets imperative to understand that these elements which are being studied here with parts rather than wholes are a necessary feature of investigation at the primary stage. After a successful differentiation and understanding of parts, a study can move on to consideration of a total design. And hence again i mention that we cannot look at these in isolation, to the effect that if one element is disturbed in one way or another, the ripples are seen through all the elements.

A large street, with its ambiguous character of both edge and path, may penetrate and thus expose a region to view, while at the same time disrupting it. A landmark feature may be so alien to the character of a district as to dissolve the regional continuity, or it may, on the other hand stand in just the contrast that intensifies that continuity. Districts in particular, which tend to be of a larger format are thus related to various paths, nodes, and landmarks. These other elements not only structure the region internally, they also intensify the identity of the whole by enriching and deepening its character.

The identity of a window may be structured into a pattern of windows, which is the cue for the identification of a building. The buildings themselves are interrelated so as to form an identifiable space, and so on.

All these elements operate together in a context, In the context of the systems, sub-systems of a city which is inhabited by its several inhabitants who have created their own style and image of their own city.

reference: 'The Image of the City', by Kevin Lynch

Why Mumbai's Slums are Villages

While browsing through the web and the URBZ webpages : http://urbz.net/ , i came across this really interesting article on Mumbai's development on the Village and the Slum front. The essay in the article very interestingly points out the growth of these urban formats through the times of the Portuguese and then the British. The Author takes the example of Khotachiwadi as a village that was termed as a slum, by the British Authorities so that it can fulfill its dream of larger urban development in the ares. Khotachiwadi and such other Hamlets in Bandra like Ranwar (the one i am studying), Vasai, Thane etc., speak of a distinct history and is a subject of study for a lot of Urban Planners, Designers etc. These Hamlets constituted a format of living and have a very distinct texture to themselves.
read on for more on the article


Why Mumbai's Slums are Villages:
Mumbai’s history reflects two distinct phases. One is the south-oriented story that starts with the development of the docks by the British in the seventeenth century. The other is an older, northern-bound story that starts with the Portuguese conquest and domination of the regions around Vasai village in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The essay argues that the point of intersection of these histories is one that can potentially explain the overwhelming presence of poor, infrastructure deprived habitats – often referred to as slums – that dominate the landscape of the city.
more on : http://www.airoots.org/why-mumbai’s-slums-are-villages/comment-page-1/#comment-3921

Space and Thoughts

its been a long break from the blog world..so here i return.

this post will mainly be an anthology of thoughts that have come across while i have been reading various authors/writers. will try to credit the author wherever i have adapted a thought. the rest would be analysis and self thoughts:

On SPACE as a dwelling unit:

--The space that we in-hibit isn't merely a dwelling unit, it defines the spaces in our mind and our outlook towards life too. Often, when you are struggling in a small space (as in the case of mist areas of Mumbai), the thinking too revolves around those two tiny rooms. the corners and the boxes!

City and its Collective Memory:

-- One can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory, it is associated with objects and planes. The city is the locus of collective memory. This relationship between the locus and citizenry then becomes the city's predominant image, both architecture and of landscapes, and as certain artifacts past of its memory, new ones emerge

- "Architecture of Cities", by Aldo Rossi (Pg 130)

Of History in India:

-- "In India we live, move and have our being" in a historical environment and yet we are not aware of the treasures that surround us. Thats because we take these for granted. 

are we loosing the grip of our histories due to this redundancy? 

The Chief aim of Architecture is to be Functional:

-- He forgets the environment into which he will implant his buildings because he is attracted be new and modern innovations and gadgetry. He fails to realize that form has a meaning only within the context of its environment. 

i am very sorry have completely forgotten where i read this and by whom 

is it written, but it was something that was not missable.

Social and economic forces:

-- " The city is becoming less the result of design and more the expression of economic and social forces." 

we very regularly see this happening all around us, specially in the post-independance Architecture where the government housing and building were to built not only here in Mumbai but across the country. The form just became an expression of what the government was doing with the growth of the country and the way it would deal with such issues in the future! Time and again the economic and social forces rule the way a city has to look, the urban planners forget that the city needs to maintain and conserve its lived in heritage.

--this week seems to be the writing week!