Book launch: The Homegrown City

Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava are co-founders of urbz, a network of urbanists, designers and anthropologists with offices in Mumbai, Bogota, Geneva and Paris. 

Their collaboration began in 2008 in Dharavi, a large settlement in the heart of Mumbai, India. This neighbourhood was developed by its inhabitants without architects, engineers or planners, against all odds. It is here that Rahul, Matias and their colleagues shaped urbz’s unique approach to urban development, one that places residents at the center of the process. 

Their journey from Dharavi to cities around the world — including Seoul, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Cali, Geneva, Nantes and Paris, is compiled in their new book, The Homegrown City, which they are presenting for the first time. 

The book makes the case for a radically new path to urban development based on collective initiative, local knowledge and use value. It reframes cities as places where people are co-creators…