The official target of producing millions of quality homes for all can be re-imagined, as one in which the process of construction itself becomes a transformative moment.

In both Colombia and India, homegrown settlements are present but differ largely in their social make-up. 

urbz' publication on Dharavi published by Strelka Press

After a handstorm workshop to make a variety of user-oriented objects and with a pilot house on its way, a report about the updates of the Homegrown Cities Initiative

Housing must be seen as a process rather than a product: its values lie in the relationship and inter-action between the actors, their activities and the produced house.

The Handstorm workshop brought together various actors from all around the world to build things that could improve the neighbourhood based on discussions with residents and with the help of local artisans

All you need to bring along are your hands, a desire to produce something useful and beautiful which you feel the residents would love to use and loads of enthusiasm.

The Handstorm Workshop will draw on energies that flow from creative manual involvement, acknowledging that it is always wired to the brain, to form a collective of power that attracts attention from the rest of the city.

In Rio “pacification” is a code word to describe the invasion of neighborhoods by squads of policemen walking around their guns pulled out, ready to shoot. 

Does Dharavi reveal a contemporary urban model that defies functional urbanism?

The tool-house as starting point for designers to learn from local skills, practices and aspirations.

Architecture relies on inputs of the occupants to incrementally design a house extension in Sakinaka. 

Behind the famed Renaissance hotel by the Powai lake is a small, homegrown village called Paspoli which is home to the workforce of the hotel. 

Pedreiero Ataide opens up his house in Sao Paulo's homegrown neighbourhood, Paraisopolis to architecture students to learn the intricacies of on-site construction and renovation. 

What does the mutation of colonial Bombay into global Mumbai mean for architectural forms and public life?

People with various expertise engaged themselves for a pragmatic yet humane urbanism.

Where affordable housing is scarce but people have tweaked the system and the land to achieve the best possible results in the given circumstances. 

The so-called slums of the city are in many ways attempts at increasing affordable housing units through a different construction and financial system.

Olivier Pascal-Moussellard wrote one of the most compelling descriptions of Dharavi to date which was published in Le Monde.