Informal Mumbai

Text by Droog:

Though their reality is harsh, slums demonstrate people’s capacity to improvise, self-organize and create value regardless of circumstance and institutional wellbeing. As people selfcoordinate around common goals, they show that improvisation, as a means of coping, can have structural implications that can be surprisingly sophisticated and robust. 

Led by Bas Princen and in partnership with Studio-X Mumbai, the Droog Lab will seek to convey the possibilities of informal societies and to translate them into a broader design outcome. 

Project team 

• Renny Ramakers, director (Droog) 
• Rajeev Thakker, partner (Studio-X Mumbai)
• Bas Princen, leading designer  
• Ranjana Dani, consultant (MIT Institute of Design, Pune, India) 
• Lilet Breddels, consultant (Archis/Volume) 
• Agata Jaworska, content & project manager (Droog)
• Andrew Brash & Jorge Manes, lab interns (Droog)

Read more about the Lab here.

• date:  2011 
• location:  Mumbai 
• local partner: Studio-X Mumbai
• lead designer: Bas Princen
• presentation: 2011