Brief on Project:
I was part of the 2022-23 cohort of Urban Fellows Programme at IIHS (Indian Institute for Human Settlements. There I worked on building a repository of multimedia pedagogical tools and archiving KNOW (Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality, Work Package 5: Global South) Housing Activism project focusing on planning education with urban inequality, through research and capacity building.
I created tools from workshops conducted across 4 cities (Indore, Delhi,Ranchi, Bangalore) - 10 workshops - 5 years - 80 activists & community workers - 15 academicians & researchers.
Below is one of the tools I made:
What is a masterplan and how to read it?
This video demonstrates the thought behind designing a masterplan, through the planning of a hypothetical imaginary city called 'Gulabpur.' This was an activity conducted in housing activism workshops in Indore as.
My observation was that the idea of the 'hypothetical scenario of redesigning your city' was difficult to get across. Most participants would go by what existing cities or their cities look like rather than how they would do it if they had to. But this was the key aspect of the workshop in order to understand the thought behind why things are placed where they are, and that it is a complex process involving tradeoffs.
This is why I chose to show it through 'Gulabpur', a fresh canvas, nothing to refer to. The order of elements in this video was carefully planned, such as first colouring respective elements and then describing that this is how the plan shows land use (gradually introducing the concept of 'land use') with different uses being associated with different colours. The viewer is then encouraged to find their location(s) in their city's masterplan, interact with it, and see if it agrees to declared land use or opposes it (involving risk).
It was made in Hindi keeping the audience in mind and was shared with activists to conduct more of this activity in their workshops, and well as participants to revise concepts taught in the workshop. The video ends with instructions for how to conduct this if one wants to as attached in the image following the video. Below that is a photograph of my toolkit being used in a workshop, a thoroughly delightful moment for me!
