The inquiry of what is spatial? Is spatial knowledge limited to certain practices? What is the relation between the form and the spatial experience? What are the different contributive forces at macro and micro scales? These have always been the questions that are ever-growing with your interaction and experience with the physical, social, cultural, human, and beyond-human forms of space. To spatially understand a space that uses tangible as well as non-tangible aspects and to understand incrementality as a primary force of just or unjust spaces is the base aim of this paper. 

Understanding and Recognizing that the socio-spatial dialectic, where the spatial shapes the social as much as socio shapes the spatial is a key factor for critical spatial perspective.1 

Why spatial becomes so important? Because everything around us is spatial, be that the mundane activities or the four walls of your home, because you are always in a space. This space is an amalgamation of histories, context, peoples, cultures, and practices which gives a characteristic spatial quality to every single space. 

Adding the dimension of justice/injustice to this gives a newer-looking perspective to the everyday space. It unfolds the unjust outcomes and patterns resulting from complex processes. Identifying spatially unjust spaces (outcome) is relatively easy but the different factors producing these geographies (process) are much more difficult.1 

Over the last several years, Mumbai has seen a large and increasing influx of people for several different opportunities that the city provides. With this, the need for space to accommodate is also ever-growing. And thus one finds the fabric of Mumbai comprising several different typologies, which also iterates itself with the type of land, geography, land rights, cultural history, communities, political and apolitical forces.

The typical diagram of a Chawl is a set of rooms strung along a corridor. These can be single-storied or a double-storied structure. The British government identified these as a source of disease.2

Earliest of these go back to 1925 where originally chawls were introduced to comply with the housing needs for laborers where Burnett-Hurst describes them as Pestilential plague spots and as spaces that can never be described or pen downed to their actual state of affairs.3

Though this certain typology cannot be generalized but has to be understood as something which has and is always reiterating itself with each having its own finer grain details.

Understanding or setting up standards to decipher the typology of slums could be very difficult.  But after years of familiarizing myself with the physical form and with the lived people, I understand them as subtypes of chawls, as two rows of houses act as a chawl here. With a similar diagram having in between passageways shared between them. Many such chawls come together to form a slum. 

If looked at from afar one would term them as unorganized, organically grown settlements. While the back of it remains true, on looking closely one can start finding a pattern/ logic behind the organic growth. Declaring a settlement/ site as a ‘slum’ (in the books of the government) was politically introduced for rehabilitation benefits for the users as these lands can get an FSI of up to 4 depending on the density against the base 1.33 FSI in the rest of the city.4

On the site, houses are arranged next to each other to have a row-like formation. A Gali (passageway) connects the two rows of houses and forms an interconnecting network. This urban maze then unfolds and leads to common washrooms, community temples, large and small maidans which are shared between a cluster of chawls see fig 2. The opportunity of urban commons and a front space in front of each home extends and spills the home beyond the given four walls. 

 The House then starts to function as a place for starting up of business/ side business (formal and informal). It affords the housewives to start their side jobs by holding tuitions or starting up a kitchen. These practices have resulted in the formation of a self-grown market spine that stretches across the site and gives a place for all ranges of trades and activities ranging from general stores, medicals, clinics, salons, tuitions, food corners, etc.

Incrementality is an important practice that allows the structure, building, and house to extend, expand, and grow itself as and when there is need and availability of materials and finances. On a household scale, it allows makeshifts and new interventions that affect the spatial quality of the space and afford the growing requirements of a family. The need for incrementality arises from the fact that these smaller interventions are cost-effective and feasible for a larger population. And is certainly cheaper than buying altogether another home in today's time. 

On the ground, it is a slow and evolving process that happens over a long period, and different factors affect or shape the resultant outcome. The need for this develops as the original layout of the house accommodates a living/sleeping/multipurpose, a kitchen, a mezzanine, and a mori (bath/ washing space) and lacks an individual toilet, all in an average of 200sq ft rooms see Fig 2 & 3. Often thus the home then spills beyond these given four walls to the passageways in front which affords a space of leisure to the people.

Case I: Without Extensions 

The most common way is to vertically increment their house in response to the need for more space. In the case of this neighborhood, the height restriction was about 4.5m (10 Years Back) which allows a maximum of G + 1 layout. So originally the modification happened to the same extent as the original layout with no added extra space.

 The above house would then have an internal or external connection to the ground one and would act as an interconnected or separate space.  Furthermore, the quality of space that this would offer would be far better bringing in an ample amount of light and ventilation inside. One can say this was still a far better, simpler, and just way of incrementing one’s house. 

Case II: With Extensions 

Over the last few years, certain compromises with the earlier height restrictions also started to emerge with the maximum height going above 4.5m to touching almost 5m. Then the next trend would be to have a balcony space, which earlier was completely prohibited. These alterations are largely promoted by the local contractors. All of this is mobilized with the help of the neighborhood bureaucrats and the beneficial political relationship between both of these agencies. As 1. This would be one of the secondary means for both the parties to earn a bit more and 2. It fulfills the clients desired aspirations and imagery. 

Probably what would have started with a single household (developing an image) influences the neighbors and forms a pattern. The ground conversation that goes on this is “ Agar usne bhi uthna badhaya hai ghar toh hum kyu nay badhaye” “ If they have increased their houses beyond the given limits then why should we not” So thus every house whenever they decide to increase their house starts following the same image and tries to take as much as space as possible both vertically and horizontally. 

But later, as every house of the chawl starts extending in this exact way, this brings barely any light inside the home leading to dark spaces inside the home and the entire passageway. As most of these houses have another house behind them, the only possible side to bring in light inside is the one opening in the alley. And soon the entire chawl becomes dull and unlit and the quality of the passageway fairly reduces. 

The families certainly do not recognize these facts as their primary goal (of achieving a certain image or their house) is satisfied. Also, they are very little aware of the positives of having a good-lit space with natural light and the negatives of a dark, dingy, and unlit space. And can be recognized as one of the major spatial injustices produced. 

Case III: Beyond Four Walls 

Other forms of smaller retrofit patterns start to emerge 1. Increase in the plinth heights (Bharni) 2. Verandahs in front of the house. Both of these have a certain implication on their surrounds with the latter encroaching the passageway from both sides and leading to barely a meter-wide circulation space. For a home, the extended verandah affords certain  certain activities and life while for the whole chawl and its surrounds, it 

 creates a spatially unjust space as a previously available ground for children to play, people to have a walk) vanishes. When a home decides to increase its plinth height it is in response to the water accumulation problems the earlier lower-level homes have but when these differences increase more, these problems start to shoot out more for the houses at lower levels.

Here, the concept of collective behavior becomes the base for understanding and forms a middle ground between these complicated negotiations. It is social, in the sense that the train of thought and action in each individual (here household) is influenced more or less by the action of each other. It is collective, as each individual acts under the influence and in accordance with conventions which all quite unconsciously accept and which the presence of each enforces upon others.6

 This further unfolds itself in the spatial practices/ patterns which leads to spatially unjust spaces with less or no specific intentions. Here, the way of life is so defined and limited to the idea of just claiming of more space and increasing their home physically, that in this process the impact of it is ignored or left out unconsciously leading to more and more unjust spaces. 

Incrementality is the need of today's time and should and must be a major practice in the near future. However, it could work fairly better with the intervention and some interference of an architect or a person with the understanding and importance of spatial quality. How to intervene in such a complex network? How do you improve a house's light and ventilation? 

How do these increments respond and affect the immediate houses and thus the chawl? In fast and quickly opted times where there is a crunch of space and time, there is a dire need to ask and to respond to these questions. As simple as a direction to the form in which incrementality can happen could provide the homes with a better quality of life.