[ Room ] for Play Study of play spaces in low-income residential typologies, Mumbai

Abstract

[Room ] for Play investigates the spatial conditions of play within dense low- to middle-income housing typologies in Mumbai that have come up over the past seventy-five years. The study examines five predominant housing forms- slums, site-and-services schemes, chawls, redeveloped SRA buildings, and private apartment redevelopments, that together constitute 75% of the city’s residential fabric. The research focuses on how children experience and appropriate everyday spaces for play, while also observing how teenagers, adults, and the elderly participate in shared spatial life. Using a comparative methodology across five neighbourhoods, the research combines on-site observation, measured drawings, and semi-structured interviews. The findings identify spatial configurations that enable or inhibit playful practices and reveal a gradual erosion of such spaces in redeveloped, newer housing typologies, highlighting the urgent need to reintegrate play-conscious design in future urban housing models.