UDC was invited to conduct this workshop on Urban Participation and Intervention at the Indo-German Urban Mela in Chennai, with the objective of highlighting the importance of public participation in the process of building cities.
Workshop Objectives

• Increase awareness about current planning conditions
• Identify community assets, issues, and joint opportunities
• Identify potential partnerships between citizens and stakeholders – government departments / agencies, experts, and NGOs
• Share knowledge on initiatives, projects (past or ongoing), and proposals that already exist to address major challenges
• Identify specific interventions that can serve as solutions or recommendations
• Document and present community opinion to decision makers

Participants were divided into groups under the three themes – Water, Waste, City. UDC facilitators led each group, and were in charge of enabling discussions and encouraging idea generation.

Facilitators worked with a framework of ‘Preserve, Change, Create, Connect’ for each of theme, and each group created a wish-list based on the questions:
What to preserve from the existing scenario?
What to change in the future?
What to create new?
What is fragmented in the existing scenario that would work better if connected?

Project team: Balaji Mohan, Bankim Kalra, Bharath Gandhi Palanisamy, Nischal Buddhavarapu, Tahaer Zoyab, Vidhya Mohankumar
Partner Organisations: Goethe Institute Chennai, MOD Institute Bangalore