Contested Spaces: Balancing between Formal and Informal

In any city, public places play a role which go beyond just being an open space between buildings. These public places can become a stage to numerous social as well as economic activities along with civic engagement. Amongst these spaces, streets have the ability to hold together a diverse group of socioeconomic background. This strength of the street, attracts vendors and vending activities to the street. These vendors provide people with daily goods and services at an affordable cost which are key in day-to-day life. Streets employ millions of traders in India alone and yet is an aspect which receives little attention. Development pressure, increasing space demands, fast moving vehicles, and hostile social and political environments are making the streets a highly contested space. The studio will focus on understanding and analyzing these contested spaces, to design a system where vendors, pedestrians and vehicles coexist.