Urban Typhoon brought together artists, architects, activists and academics from all over the world with the residents of Koliwada, Dharavi (South Asia’s largest slum) to collectively generate ideas, visions, plans, and archive biographies and histories of the fisherman village at risk of demolition. The workshop’s philosophy was based on the idea that communities should be allowed to determine their future and that everyone, no matter the age, language or qualification should be allowed to participate in the process.

As a participant of the workshop, I worked on a team in which we ran sessions with the Koliwada’s youngest residents (ages 5-12) to reimagine their neighborhood through drawings.  These drawings were exhibited throughout the village and even inspired the painting of murals in the neighborhood.