January 15 2010

Kevin McCloud, Channel four’s omnipresent architecture presenter has ditched the fields of middle England for an altogether more exotic venture. A jaunt to the sub continent to discover if there is any truth to the claims of Prince Charles et al that architects and planners have much to learn from the slums of the developing world. 

Mumbai is a city of contrasts boasting a 27 storey, $2bn dollar home being built for one family and Dharavi, with one million people crammed into one square mile it is the world’s biggest slum.

Stepping into the latter environment McCloud’s first impressions were not promising, pools of raw sewage flowing through the streets not immediately conducive to positive appreciation. Interestingly however it was not the human waste McCloud found most off putting. it’s not so many years ago that we were wallowing in our own excrement after all. What really bothered McCloud was the presence of industrial chemicals and compounds which have an altogether more insidious impact on the body. 

Residents of the slum are surprisingly hostile to outsiders, no doubt keen to avoid loss of any further space to yet further arrivals but also borne out of a mistrust of government and authority. Only after a tortuous negotiation/bribery with slum leaders was McCloud allowed to enter and film. 

Upon finding an accommodating family however, whose well schooled children spoke excellent English, things began to look up. The 21 strong brood occupied a 4 bedroom house which as some simple arithmetic will attest does not afford a great deal of privacy. 

Everything is communal in this “intense” environment, a situation that requires serious planning for conjugal arrangements and sleeping quarters that are not for the faint of heart. A rat contrived to enter a bag hanging from the ceiling above McClouds quarters for some less than sweet dreams. 

"They’ve kept that sense of community which humans have developed over thousands of years and which we’ve thrown away in the past 50.  People love complexity." McCloud enthuses as he  tours crowded alleys and chaotic shacks painted in pastel blues and oranges. “We get bored of straight lines and white boxes, shopping centres and industrial estates because they’re dull”.

McCloud marveled at an impromptu street performance as a group of Muslims spontaneously fell to the floor and commenced praying. The thorny religious divide which has seen sub ghettoes of belief appear and violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus was not broached, McCloud instead focusing on the flexibility of space where individual rooms double as workplace, dining room or bedroom. A way of doing things that is contrasted with our own segregated and regimented lifestyles.

Amazingly the slum is economically vibrant, 85% of residents are in employment (in the UK it is around 72.5%) with streets lined by independent stores and even self made millionaires operating thriving hubs of backroom industry.

Worth an estimated billion dollars a year these operations are illegal, unregulated and untaxed: “Capitalism here is in rude health”, McCloud muses. Likening the sight to Britain’s industrial revolution the intrepid presenter marvels at the rapid progress of a society which has achieved in 20 years what took us centuries.

Startlingly this compressed and condensed form of everyday life seems to bring about a sense of contentment and happiness. "We measure beauty in our environment, car, gardens, personal items. Here it’s all in the individual, everyone is beautifully dressed, most children go to school, there is little crime, everyone shares everything, the generations mingle and talk, no one here is lonely," explains McCloud. 

This is contrasted with ‘Broken Britain’ where the elderly can lie decomposing in flats for three months: “You have to ask which is the more civilised society”.

Part two will be broadcast tonight on Channel four at eight pm.

Post your comments

Your name (required)
Your email (not displayed)
Comments (required)
	All comments are pre-moderated and must obey our house rules.