Our Parking 

"Parking is a ubiquitous phenomenon in our present-day cities. With growing car sales and infrastructural projects across the country to make driving easier, parking is an unavoidable encounter people have, irrespective of whether or not they own a car." - Radha

In order to address the issue of parking in Borivali and other regions of Mumbai, we were to document certain aspects of it, plan research on specific areas of interest, and come up with creative solutions or documentation of what we come across. 

What intrigued me was the fact that parking as a space has never been of so much importance. In this city where parking is provided and used as a mere law that has to be followed for the construction of a building. There has been a lot of work on parking in which people have proposed different views and usage of the same space but again it gets restricted to a multipurpose space for the workers and helpers, etc. Through this course I was eager to learn and understand the different types of parking spaces, how they are formed and how people use them in different contexts. 

We had a brainstorming session where we had to give absurd answers to a series of questions.

We selected our own words to combine with parking and formed new series of queston from which one or questions combined together would be taken further to work on.

The work then uses Parking and food as the keywords and question - 

What will a restaurant look like if it was combined with a parking?

How does parking of different spaces of food consumpton look like?

The day was spent roaming around in the neighborhood collecting photographs and documenting the different spaces of eating.

Public spaces are crucial for human exchange, community health, economy, and democracy. A society where people of all income levels meet in public spaces is more integrated and socially healthier. In Mumbai, the lack of a healthy public domain unfairly affects the urban poor, who rely on local streets for socialisation.

‘Informality’ is defined in terms of social exclusion, either through the absence of state intervention or economic activities outside the regulated framework. The informal city is a result of development plans that leave 'slums' unmapped. However, the informal city is integral to the way Mumbai operates. This city, which includes road-side vendors, shop owners, contractors, and labourers, has various levels of informality based on specific political and economic situations. 

“Tactical urbanism is essentially how the informal city is built - step-by-step, piece-by-piece. In this section, ‘tactics’ will be defined as the act of finding opportunities within the fabric of existing structures to improve the practice of everyday life. Improving the livability of cities begins at the streets.” - Sourav Kumar Biswas 

Taking this perspective ahead and connecting my question of Parking and food, I look at streets which transform into so-called ‘informal’ stalls (Tapri) that open up on the streets. How does it change the livability of the streets? how the vehicles become the seating and gathering spaces? And thus how is the informal parking and tall transform into a dynamic place of eating and social.

Through my visual exploration of "Tapris and Parking in Mumbai," I intend to convey the spirit of the city's street life, where the common tapri functions as an intersection for commerce, community, and conversation. What interests me is the reciprocal between parking places and tapris. Parking spaces are extensions of the city, blending in perfectly with the tapri's fabric in a place where every square inch of pavement counts. Nevertheless, in between the noise of conversation and the smell of just made tea, there's an intricate routine of compromise and bargaining—a dynamic exchange between cars jostling for a spot in the limited parking lot and people looking for a place to stop and engage in everyday practices. I find it fascinating how these parking spots and tapris act as catalysts for transformation, bringing life to the city's forgotten nooks and corners. 

I try to capture the ever changing quality of these locations, where vehicles become a meeting spot, individuals from many backgrounds come together to enjoy tea, munch on snacks, and have conversations. Customers crowd near the stall, sitting on car bonnets, two wheeler seats transforming mundane parking into an opportunity to socialise.. It's intriguing to see how these informal tapris and the parking spaces evolve into transient restaurants where people mingle and strike up discussions over a shared chai. The boundaries separating public and private domains become less distinct in these transitory areas.

I open up how they are not just places to grab a quick snack or a cup of tea; they are microcosms of Mumbai's spirit, by capturing the shifting patterns of parking and consumption of food and combining photographs in a format similar to a newsprint to document the temporary character of these areas.