Generating Habitat

Kaiwan Mehta speaks with Dirk van Gameren about a recently held research exhibition on Charles Correa’s remarkable housing designs, where each project highlights the tropes of space, structure and detail

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Note from the curators Charles Correa (1930-2015) was arguably one of the most important and influential architects to have worked in post-Independence India. As an architect, planner, activist and theoretician, he realised an extensive oeuvre, both built and un-built, in drawings and writings. In an age where urbanisation seems to have become uncontrollable, Correa’s thoughts on housing and urbanisation are as urgent and thought-provoking as ever before. Every day we are confronted with the fact that urbanisation is transforming the world at an unprecedented rate. Population growth and migration are projected to add another 2.5 billion people by 2050 to the world’s urban population, with the majority of growth expected in the Global South. Because of poor land-use planning and the failure to produce sufficient numbers of affordable housing, the rapid urbanisation of the Global South is characterised by informal or unplanned urban growth. During last year’s UN-Habitat conference in Quito, affordable housing was identified as a key factor in the goal to achieve sustainable urbanisation worldwide. In both academia and in practice, one can observe a renewed interest in this issue. How can we as architects and urban designers come up with better and more sustainable approaches to urban growth? Is it possible to conceive new housing models and types that are not only affordable but also respect cultural values and are climate responsive, and allow for a gradual transition from rural to urban life? Can processes of urbanisation and densification create new open and public space, instead of making the existing ones simply disappear?