Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore

BV.DOSHI

 PROJECT DETAILS
Aranya Low Cost Housing
Indore, Madhya
Pradesh
Client, Indore Development Authority
Principal Architect , Balkrishna Doshi
Project Associate , Mr. Himanshu Parikh
Project Supervision : Departmental Engineers
Structural Engineer, M/s Stein Doshi & Bhalla, New
Delhi
Project Engineers , Environmental Engineering
Consultants, Bombay
Plot, 6500
Total Built-up Area, 100,000 m2
Project Cost , Rs. 100 Million

The Indore site was off the Bombay Agra road to the north
of the town and was little over 80 hectares. A total of 6,500
plots was to be provided.

The idea was to mix some middle income plots of about 475
m2 with those of the Economically Weaker Section
(EWS), then to use the profits to raise capital towards the
development of local trades. It was obvious that a livelihood
must be guaranteed within the settlement itself for the majority,
otherwise the project could not hope to work.

Squatter settlements repeat some of the spatial layouts of

villages but without the beauty and lyricism of rural forms. In
the Indoreproject a hierarchy of streets was suggested which
gradually
diminished in size as they penetrated the different
sectors.

 The sole "architecture provided by

designers would be sanitary cores each
comprising plumbing, washroom, kitchen
plus a single room. These could then be
extended as the inhabitants established
themselves. It is hoped that the new
community would eventually generate
building trades and then an upgrade version
of the informal urban vernacular
would
result. So far it is still too early to judge
how the Indore project will turn out.

 Shacks often double as living and

working places, being protected from the
street by a zone of transition.
Roads remain sufficiently wide to ensure
movement of small traffic to transport
There are even public amenities such as trees
sprouting from low walled planters. The space
in front of the house may be used as a sleeping
area on hot nights, and there is often a rear
access alley.

Like other cities in India, Indore was facing an acute shortage of

Housing. As per a study by the IDA in 1981, it was estimated 51,000
families homeless or living in illegal settlements. The project
demanded an approach towards Affordable housing; affordable to
the government and the Urban poor. A rectilinear site measuring 86
hectares was designed on the idea of 'site and services', to
accommodate over 6500 dwellings, largely for the weaker section.

This was an integrated approach for 'a sustainable society' where

the mix of different economic levels of society could stay together.
Unlike the normal social housing where the house and the
inhabitant are frozen in time and the housing does not have the
liberty enough to compliment the changing economy of the urban
poor. Aranya on the other hand is incomplete. By ?incomplete? it is
meant that it is flexible, changing and growing with it?s inhabitants.

It was incomplete 20 years ago, today and may be 20 years later.

The houses built by these 4000 Economically Weaker Sectioned
families may appear incomplete, yet one sees in them vitality, hope
and a desire to match the other classes around. As the people of
Aranya grow socially, economically and culturally the housing
changes, complementing the vision for the project.

Today, we are proud that the houses build about 20 years ago, are
no more recognisable, as were seen by us, during the first few years.
Aranya has effort, to improvise their living standards, which is
reflective in their housing. The housing must give an opportunity to
reflect ones well-deserved success with life

They started with a plot with basic infrastructure, a bathroom and

toilet with the plinth of their house, putting brick by brick on their own,
adding rooms, marking their identity and their signatures on their
dwelling