Which elements from the neighbourhood I grew up in, can I carry forward to envision an ideal neighbourhood?
I grew up in a neighbourhood that was defined by the activities and festivities that
took place in it. Navigation was never my strength; the neighbourhood was mapped in my mind through memories of these activities at specific places. Today, I can say that these experiences have honed me into a social being, one who knows how to interact with her surroundings. ‘How could this experience of mine be taken forward and translated to design a more
cohesive neighbourhood?’, ‘How can stakeholders of a neighbourhood come together and transform it from a solely shared space to a socio-cultural space of collective responsibility?’ are questions that led my research.
As a starting point, sensory and experience based maps categorized my observations and used the ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ tool to raise questions.
Celebrations where age did not divide people into groups, initiative led to people coming together and the fact that ‘people’ and our shared experiences shaped and defined my neighbourhood growing up.
I realised that convenience often dictates decisions in design. More often than not, public infrastructure isolates different groups. I consciously kept community and initiative at the center of designing this neighbourhood, thus developing ownership and a sense of collective well-being. Next, I mapped the stakeholders and their potential roles, and read case studies to realise the details that I wanted to embed in my design.
As a result of my research and ideation, I came up with concepts that I believe could transform the way we live. ‘Nature Cards’ by Ideo speedened up my process.
For starters, ‘Anyone can Water’ is a system to water plants that can only be trigerred by people. What might be referred to as ‘a step back’ when it comes to technology and automatic drip based irrigation systems, this design keeps ‘collective responsibility’ at the centre.
Similarly, I realised that a lot of the public infrastructure, expecially in parks isolates people of different ages. While everyone loves spending time with people their age, I believe that a lot can come out through exchanges between, for example- toddlers and grandparents.
‘ToPlay ToGather’ is an installation conceptualized with the aim of pushing people of different ages to spend time together.
The following map brings together such concepts in one space. As architect B.V Doshi pointed out in his documentary, social, economic and cultural activities placed in one space often feed into each other.
In my ideal neighborhood, I envision myself stepping out of my house on a bicycle, crossing the park, watering some plants on my way. I see myself picking up a magazine and a hoola hoop from the common ‘Play for all’ inventory, spend some time under the sun, eat a plate of Pani Puri on my way home.
As an extension to this project, I designed a set of spaces and activities to add to the ethos of the neighbourhood. A collectively owned nursery, a weekly open mic, and a space for all the pets in the neighbourhood to come and socialize were few of the ideas that sprouted.
This was definitely one of the most rewarding projects I worked on during college, the space being so close to my heart was an added bonus!
Vee Documents 
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