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INTRODUCTION TO HOUSING - Spring 2022

WEEK-3
12th January, 2022

Stuti Parikh
(20BAR070)

Title of the Topic: Hutment

Reading:

1. The Terrain of Home and-within Urban Neighborhoods by Kaiwan Mehta.

Understanding:

Today with India’s growing population, the question of urban and rural settlement is murky.
Over these last couple of decades, the ideology of living has changed with time, along with
the consideration of cultural and economical aspect. However, the tendency of mankind is
to not clutch to a difficult circumstance, but egotistically finding his way.

The article here explains a factual scenario on hutments of Mumbai. The subject still lies on
how they should be distinguished. Whether it is a residing place to working single men or
classified for people with discrepancy in their income, the chawl is merely four walls without
the sense of ‘home’. Whether it is a temporary, erratic settlement for an individual, a place
for a blended family, or treated as a communal space for toiling millworkers, every other
hutment has its own identity.

Looking into this subject of matter, despite the disparity, in my opinion, there are yet a few
similarities that we’ve analyzed not only in India but universally. Taking up an instance of
Rio De Janeiro in the late 1800’s, the ‘cortiços’ resembling beehives, were badly structured
tenements patched together and heaped upon one another. The inhabitants here too lived
in tight and congested circumstances with limited amenities. Where 15 families shared a
washroom in a chawl, kitchen areas were shared as well in this type of settlement. ‘Chawl
Culture’ had an element of a loggia overlooking the street, although the cortiços were
internally chaotically built and lacked privacy.

On a similar note, we also see cultural aspect here as a hindrance too. One of the largest
slum settlements in Karachi; Sindhis, Bohras, Ismailis, Punjabis, Pakhtuns, and Kashmiris
are among the ethnic groups who call Orangi Town, home. Being ethnically diverse and not
religiously, Orangi Town houses 99% of Muslim community as majority.

Additionally, the issue of millworkers occupying a chunk of land for the sole purpose of work
was not just a problem in the past. Considering my native city Ahmedabad, the ‘Hollywood
Street’ is an ideal example. A communal settlement, whose source of revenue comes from
sculpting idols of Lord Ganesha, exists till date.

To put it briefly, the existence of community living is seen worldwide. Each having its
benefits and drawback; it could be a last resort for someone and an elementary choice to
the other. In the end, what makes it a home from just a fortified area is the intangible
relationship between the man and his space.

Second Year B. Arch. | Institute of Architecture and Planning | Nirma University, Ahmedabad