The redevelopment allows for re-spacing between buildings, more proportionate street width to built height ratio, which provides better daylighting indoors, as well as a feeling of open space outdoors. The looming structures no longer feel claustrophobic and the shared paving in the inner streets can be used by pedestrians and two-wheelers alike.

Proper street furniture, shading, and street lighting make for a better pedestrian experience and makes the community safer for residents. The linearity of built spaces allows for a more efficient layout of infrastructure such as water, electrical and sanitation systems in a grid system.

The redevelopment also clears out open spaces for in-curtilage parking, as well as clustered green spaces, such as the ones of the plotted duplex structures, in the backyards of the housing units, where the women collectively work, in turn increasing productivity and saving time. The space is shaded by trees and can also function as an open space for kids to play under supervision. The houses themselves have space for small workshops to carry out their weaving and other handcrafted goods.

A centrally located large park is used for gatherings, and a playground for children. A paved area for hawkers and stalls is placed next to the community centre with the shops and temple nearby.

Low-Cost Housing Studio  |  Fall 2014

Documentation of Pre-existing conditions and Proposals for Redevelopment

Location: Sundernagri, New Delhi, India
Instructors: Charu Dhawan

Published in the Project Documentation: Sundernagri Slum Redevelopment Scheme
Co-editor, Publication Team

Development of large-scale affordable housing is the greatest necessity of urban India today. Many Indian cities lack low-income housing, resulting in the proliferation of slums and disorganized real estate across the country. Urbanization has resulted in people increasingly living in slums and squatter settlements and has deteriorated the housing conditions of the economically weaker sections of the society.

Sundernagri is one of the largest resettlement colonies of the 1975-1976 Clean Delhi Drive by the Government of India. As a result of the drive, many displaced people migrated to the inner-city slum area of Sundernagri, where previously the land had been donated by PM Indira Gandhi to the existing community.

Following this mass migration, more people started to move into the area from neighbouring communities, and from failing farms. The residents are mostly migrants hailing from rural areas forming a heterogeneous community with multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual characteristics.
 
The objectives of the project were:

• To bring the existing slum within the formal system and enabling residents to avail quality housing and tenure
• To clear up open spaces for recreation within the dense built land in the slum
• To ensure optimal utilization of land in a sustainable manner by designing the pattern of housing for economically weaker sections and low income groups
• To ensure the design is sustainable, easy to adapt to, and maintain by the residents.

HIERARCHIAL REFORM

The first order of business for redevelopment is to delineate hierarchies within the site for better organisation of zones, and then linking those with paths.

Derived from Belapur Housing by Charles Correa, the concept of a hierarchy in space lets people advance through a series of open spaces, that increase in size and quality, from courtyards to community spaces. Inner courtyards provide space for social interaction, as well as a backyard for the surrounding houses, which helps in mitigating Urban Heat Island Effect. Single loaded (double aspect) buildings are recommended,as this allows adequate natural ventilation and daylighting of homes.

Another defining concept is the design of pathways and streets in a hierarchical order, as you go deeper into the site. The Residential Core Road is the main route and provides general access from Traffic Distributor Roads to central spine. All the other streets are Shared Surface Roads creating areas where vehicular access and speed is low, and vulnerable road users feel more secure.

Explore the Initial SIte Documentation Report here: