An Alternative Plan for the Re-development of the Kathputli Colony, New Delhi

This project is an alternative urban design scheme for the re-development of the Kathputli Colony in New Delhi, India. The Colony, approximately half the size of Gamla Stan, is located 30 minutes west of the City Centre and consist of a myriad of improvised dwellings. The residents of the colony are primarily artists, performers, craftsmen and puppeteers and have lived on the land since the 1970s. Now the land is set to be re-developed, directed jointly by the Delhi Municipality and a private developer, Rajeva, as part of the political initiative to turn Delhi into a “World-Class City”. The new scheme consists of two gated communities, a block of high-rises and a luxury skyscraper. The residents of the colony have been promised accommodation in the high-rise block, but have protested the proposal, and received a lot of media and scholarly attention. They argue that the new buildings with their small and isolated apartments do not cater to their needs. The existing landscape of dwellings which they themselves have constructed contain a number of different spatial qualities on which they depend to be able to continue they’re subsistence - Bazaar streets to sell their wares, courtyards to congregate with their families, squares on which to perform, roofs on which to sleep on during the hot summer months. I visited the colony twice on my two months journey around the country last semester. On the second visit, all of the dwellings had been demolished. The brief I have set for myself is to design a more exible and faceted alternative plan with new building stock that will able to cater both the needs of the ex-residents and the Indian middle class