Workshop in New Delhi
Fantastic Norway was in November 2010 invited to participate at the Urban Typhoon workshop in New Delhi. Participants included architects, planners, artists, poets, researchers and social scientists from all over the world. The workshop was organized as collaboration between URBZ and KHOJ.
The aim of the workshop was to discuss the future of Khirkee Village extension, one of more than 1300 unauthorized neighborhoods in New Delhi. Combining local knowledge with creative approaches, different topics and ideas were discussed and tested within the workshop group and local community.
One of the main challenges for participants coming from other places will be to find respectful and constructive ways to engage with people in Khirkee. The workshop doesn’t offer a formula for participation. The equation with “the community” has to be invented by all participants individually and collectively. This is where creativity is most needed.
The Fantastic Norway representatives teamed up with a social entrepreneur from London and an urban planner from MIT (Boston). Addressing the ‘unknown’ and ‘unauthorized’ aspect of the village, our idea was to create a guidebook for the area, focusing on one nameless and unpaved, yet bustling street, which serves as the main commercial corridor in Khirkee Extension.
We thought by doing this, we could perhaps stimulate brainstorming among community members of what an “authorized” or “formalized” Khirki Extension could and should be visioned as in the future. Maybe our guide – created by outsiders – would spur dialogue among insiders about the changing identity of the place.
Read more at:
