Transformations: the changeability of space

Dharavi is one of the most densest areas of Mumbai. People are stuck together in a place where shortage of space is a common feature. And still, habitants find a way to create more space inside Dharavi's boundaries.Spaces with existing use are transformed in a multifuntional use. Sometimes forever, sometimes temporal. Like a street, that has been partly covered with a green cloth in order to create an altar for muslims. The street isn't anymore just a street; inside it's character is another function embedded that also changes and influences the appearance of the street. It transforms the street in something more. The normally thought fixed infrastructure appears to be actually very flexible, by inventing and allowing the multiple use it can contain. In some areas of Dharavi, for instance Yasmin Road, the street can be divided in layers, that each contain another use. Those layers are not completely fixed, since the use can change by night or day. Market stables are in some areas in the morning packed like big brown lumps, while in the evening they unfold and transform the pavement in a shop.Time of unfolding depends on the area; in other places its the opposite. Some places on the border become open space during sunday; the normally with cars occupied parking space changes in cricketfields and meeting places. A square transforms every time when it changes use, like playground or place to hang laundry besides circulation and distribution. All examples of the abillity of the habitants of Dharavi how to optimize space, without losing identity. In a certain sense, they are more developped then us when it comes to those hot items listed above. Forced because of a lack of space, they create spontaneus new places that enrich and change the topology of the space. Charles Correa was talking about the necessity of increasing the amount of land in order to create more public space and facillities to host more people. In a certain way, the people of Dharavi already applied his idea in a more inventive, complex way then I imagined at forehand.