Why I (Still) Call Myself an Urbanist

I am an urbanist - someone who studies cities, its fabric and the people who inhabit it

When did I become an urbanist? I don't know.

Seoul

I come from a background of architecture and urban planning. After 5 years of Architecture school in India and an internship with the biggest firm in the country, I was a wary of the practice and the way it manifested itself in Indian cities. So when the opportunity to study urban planning in France presented itself, I jumped at it.

In France, I learnt to take a step back from the built form and focus on a slightly bigger picture. What I enjoyed most about the urban planning course was that I got to work on projects with people from diverse backgrounds who brought views to the table that I could and would not have. It was here where I saw the need for a multidisciplinary approach to urban projects. I worked with the pole des arts urbains on my thesis - the role of Art in Urban Planning. Maud Le Floch, my mentor, introduced me to the term 'urbaniste'. It was one that I gradually adopted too.

Tours

However, in India the term was as bizzare. It evoked confusion from strangers and incredulous laughs from friends. One friend would love watching me meet new people and trying to explain what I did for a living. What was I doing for a living? I was working with urbz, an urban research collective based in Mumbai and Geneva. The practice follows a 'user generated' approach to its projects and is based in what is considered the largest 'slum' in Asia - Dharavi.

Bombay

At urbz I grew as an urbanist. Dharavi taught me about the intrinsic nature of homegrown neighbourhoods, the incremental manner in which they grow and the way the people who live in them constantly shape them. It was a playground to learn about participatory practice, high density living, live-work conditions and homegrown solutions for common urban problems. With urbz, I started looking at cities through a new lens, my travels gained newer perspectives and soon, I considered just being in a city as work itself. I enjoy it. I volunteered to work at the Geneva office for one summer and had saw how a similar approach manifested itself in Europe. The founders, Rahul and Matias, gave me the space to explore my interests and encouraged me to develop newer ones. A lot of my views and approach stems from their incredible work and guidance.

Dharavi

I lived on the periphery of Dharavi in a redeveloped chawl and shared a wall with Bhau, my 80 year old landlord and friend. Bhau was instrumental in showing me how far civic activism can work in homegrown settlements, how it's important to place the spotlight on the user but also to make them realise that the spotlight is there in the first place. Personally, he provided me with a shoulder to cry on the nights I was lonely and was there to celebrate with a bottle of whiskey the nights I was happy.

Rivers and mountains are passé. Urbanscapes on the way home in Dharavi

Right now, I work in Seoul. A friend of mine invited me to join her team architects, designers and planners to work on a range of urban projects in South Korea. I'd never been to any other part of Asia, and I was excited at the idea of experiencing work in this new context. Seoul is my new playground. The buildings are so big, the projects happen so fast and the city comes with a fascinating history of urban development. I live in the heart of a gentrified neighbourhood where there is no dearth of activity or things to observe. What's most interesting about South Korea is that there is a change in its attitude to urban planning. All the research and workshops that I participated in back in Mumbai have the potential of being translated into actual projects here.

So, maybe the question is not when I became an urbanist. But why I (still) call myself one.

I've always been shy to call myself an architect or an urban planner or a designer, or a writer. But we live in a world where we have to establish an identity through profession to be read and understood. And so, I call myself an Urbanist. My job involves a wide range of things - Design, Writing, Workshops, Research - and revolves around the way cities and the people who live in it interact with each other.

Man vs. Sea, Mumbai Monsoon

I first heard of Steemit from @soulturtle who I usually meet once a year at new year's parties. This year, he was raving about the site and encouraged me to get on it. I wrote an #introduceyourself post called Why I Call Myself An Urbanist. I didn't know what else to do or who to follow so the first thing I did was enter 'urbanist' in the search field. I figured that if someone else knew/idenitified with/ was using the term, I'd find something in common. I came across an article written by @voronoi and then sndbox.

Over the last months, I followed sndbox's incubator of multidisciplinary creative endeavours. I saw glimpses of projects that involved architecture and the built environment. Through sndbox, I saw steemit as more than just a content platform. It showed me that the blockchain could alter the way that we view the world. And what is the world if not its urban fabric?
When the call for applications for the second cohort was out, I signed up.

Geneva

So far, my journey on the platform has been a mish-mash of artwork, random thoughts, phone photos, rants and glimpses of my work. I told myself that if I made the sndbox cohort, I would focus on being an urbanist and creating content that revolved around architecture, cities and dive into exploring how the blockchain could have an impact on our surroundings. I'm also in South Korea where the blockchain and crypto community seems to be so active that it could be the perfect experimentation ground.

Seoul
I'm now a part of Cohort 2! It's slightly daunting but I'm also excited to have a reason to focus and talk about the subjects I want to explore for myself. So all the urbanists in the house, raise a glass. Here's to urbanisting on the blockchain.

---

This post explores some of the ideas that sndbox's Cohort 2 members are tasked to think about for the monthly assignment.