Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. It is when both the body and the mind are injured. Sometimes the event causing trauma goes beyond the body and affects everything around it including the place ---- thereby wounding the culture. One such event which led to a cultural wounding in India was the mill owners strike of 1982. This event changed the place identity of the mill abode of Girangaon from its rich girni culture to a pure consumer culture. It caused immense gentrification and led to a cultural trauma of Girangaon and its people. Cultural trauma occurs when the locals feel their place is threatened by an event that leads to irreversible damage and changes the space that was once theirs in turn redefining its identity. In such cases, we as architects need to look beyond the trauma of urban violence and redesign spaces keeping the culture intact
The site selected for the intervention in Girangaon is the Lalbaug precinct in Parel which lies next in the line of redevelopment. The true culture of Lalbaug lies in its nitty gritties, impermanence and constant interaction. The possible traumas caused by gentrification such as lack of community interaction, loss of sense of place and spatial character pose a threat to this rich culture. Thus, the design needed to explore spatial changes that go beyond building construction and engage socially and politically as agents of spatial change by understanding the underlying triggers, and devising cures that would provide new imaginations in order to counteract the bleak, speculated dystopian future. Reversing the mentality of architecture from constant growth and ownership, this thesis was conceptualized around ‘Designing for informality’ by working out simple solutions for the existing adversities on site.
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Student’s Name: Ms. Prachi Kadam
Thesis Guide: Ar. Mridula Pillai
L.S.Raheja School of Architecture
Winner- Charles Correa Gold Medal 2020- 21
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