The idea of the ‘Everyday city’ is based on the concept of Everyday Urbanism that was proposed in 1999 by Margaret Crawford & others, wherein the city is seen above all as a social product and which focuses on informal urban spaces. They point out that it is not what the planning initiates for the city but what the people seem to generate as an outcome of their everyday needs. How relevant is this in the context of the Indian city? And, how does it work for Bangalore & other cities?
What is the Everyday city here?
Is it … the chai-wallah delivering the two cups of chai on the street vendor’s make-shift table?
‘everyday life’
or
‘everyday spaces’?
It may take us a while to understand what the everyday city is. For now, the intent of this on-going exploration is to show how everyday practices result in an informal city. Jeffrey Hou in his talk on Messy Urbanism: Bottom-up Placemaking argues that urban designers may be able to develop an alternative form of practice where the production of the urban space is a collaborative effort between the planner/designer and the people of the city. What can help get us there?