Yellow Workshop: Local resources - Leveraging regional skills and metabolism

The workshop was led by Hansjürg Leibundgut, member of the Academic Committee of the Holcim Foundation. Case studies illustrating the importance of local resources for a more sustainable world were convincingly presented by experts including planning advisor Lucy Musgrave (United Kingdom) and architect Francis Kéré (Germany), winner of the Global Holcim Awards Gold 2012. 

At the 3rd Holcim Forum 2010 held in Mexico City, the workshop led by Hansjürg Leibundgut presented the “Triple Zero Manifesto”: The construction of buildings should consume no fossil fuels, produce no emissions, and leave behind no waste. This time, after heated discussions, the workshop came to the conclusion that the Triple Zero Manifesto does not go far enough – because it does not cover the behavior of people, which still remains completely unsustainable.

Read more: Reduce CO2 - With technology to zero emissions »

“We hope that you don’t expect a new manifesto,” said Niklaus Haller when presenting the workshop results. “We took the old one and added a new zero: zero corruption.” Furthermore, the presentations and follow-up discussions revealed several common denominators: that a reality check is necessary to make sure that solutions really work, that the identity of a place can be understood only through physical presence on site, that our cities are ultimately composed of neighborhoods and that urban growth has been increasingly ignoring this aspect, and that we need critical facilitation to help bring ideas from other places and share knowledge to bear on the local condition.

All in all, the goal must always be to achieve a good and sustainable life for everyone. That is why return on investment is not necessarily always only a financial issue. It must also take into consideration the social and community values upon which each system is based. A concrete project idea evolved from these theoretical considerations in the Yellow Workshop: the Research Action Project in Paspoli Village, a low-income community located next to luxurious hotels, middle-class housing, and international corporate buildings. Through this project Paspoli Village is to be seen not as an “island” but as a part of the whole and with the help of local residents upgraded in a sustainable manner.

Mobile workshop

Led by Aneerudha Paul, Director of the Kamla Rajeha Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA, Mumbai, India) and Ainsley Lewis, Head of the Bachelor of Architecture program at KRVIA, the participants of the Yellow Mobile Workshop first visited Fatima School and Hanuman Temple in the densely developed neighborhood of Vikhroli. The girls’ school and the temple share certain rooms in a completely natural way, thereby demonstrating how communities can exist next to and with one another, sharing limited resources and making use of synergies.

The second stop of the workshop was Bhavan’s College in Andheri – a giant campus that includes not only the college buildings but also sports facilities, gardens, and a temple. The campus also serves as a place for youth festivals and many other events. Finally, the participants visited the KRVIA Center in Juhu, one of the most important knowledge centers for architecture and urbanism in Mumbai. 

Fatima School & Hanuman Temple

The Fatima School in Vikhroli is a small community-based primary school for girls. The Hanuman Temple nearby is a place of worship dedicated to the Hindu monkey god. Both are located in the Park Site Colony of Vikhroli, a densely packed area that has houses, shops, small businesses and schools connected by narrow lanes. Both sites are examples of how small properties can be shared and put to alternative use at different times of day. Space around the Temple is used by a pre-school for tiny-tots as well as by small-scale businesses. The two sites illustrate how diverse communities can co-exist and optimise scarce resources to create a safe environment for families that have limited access to space for recreation, education and sanitation.

Bhavan’s College Campus

Bhavan’s College is one part of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, a reputed educational trust founded in 1938 with the support of Mahatma Gandhi. Affiliated to the University of Mumbai, it offers graduate, post graduate and doctoral level courses in the arts and sciences. The large Andheri campus is also home to other institutions of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Trust that offer degrees in technology, communications and management. The campus extends over 18 hectares with buildings for teaching and learning functions, event spaces, as well as grounds for sports, gardens, a lake, and a temple. The campus is a large multi-purpose open space in a densely built area of Mumbai that offers both functional activities for the college, but additionally hosts external civic events such as student gatherings and youth festivals.

Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture

Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Insitute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) stands in a tree lined avenue of Juhu, an affluent area in north-west Mumbai. KRVIA is among the premier schools of architecture and urbanism in India that offers full time degree courses at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels under the aegis of the University of Mumbai. It has an active research and design cell, fellowship and exchange programmes with other universities in India and abroad. The KRVIA campus is an enclosed set of interconnected modernist buildings that are raised above the ground to create usable and shaded outdoor space. KRVIA’s facilities include studio spaces, exhibition spaces, a library, an auditorium, computer lab, model workshop, and a canteen and shared sports facilities. The institute was founded in 1992, and has since become an important centre for knowledge in architecture and urbanism in Mumbai.

Mobile workshop facilitators: Aneerudha Paul and Ainsley Lewis