Raising an Issue
Slums - also known as shantytowns, squatter cities, and informal settlements – are undeniably a serious urban problem. They epitomize city cores that are overcrowded, unhealthy, and emblems of profound inequality. But among architects, planners, and other thinkers, there is a growing realization that they also possess unique strengths, and may even hold lessons in successful urban development. Prince Charles the British monarch post his visit to Dharavi - India’s largest slum- in 2003 noted the “underlying, intuitive ‘grammar of design’ and predicted that “in a few years’ time such communities will be perceived as best equipped to face the challenges that confront us because they have built-in resilience and genuinely durable ways of living.” In saying so he echoed development specialists and slum dwellers themselves in arguing that slums have assets along with their obvious shortcomings. Their humming economic activity and proximity to city centers represent big advantages over the subsistence farming that many slum dwellers have fled along with the constant upgrading and expansion of homes.

The 2010 focus of 361⁰ -The Conference is on Design & Informal Cities. It aims to address the need for design interventions in the informal sectors of urban existence which are integral to the city. Scheduled between 22 to 24 October 2010, it is being organized jointly by the Indian Architect & Builder magazine and Citizens’ Groups that are actively involved with issues concerning informal settlements in Mumbai and especially the future of Dharavi – one of Asia’s largest informal settlements, under much scrutiny. We believe, the question of design of these settlements has not been adequately articulated when discussing and imagining ‘Futures for the Informal City’ – and the role of the platform remains to draw the attention of all local stakeholders on the role of physical design in the evolution of this informal sector as a part of the larger urban grid

IA&B
Indian Architect & Builder (IA&B) is India’s niche ‘B2B’ magazine that focuses on contemporary trends in architecture, design, professional practice, technology and products. A 23-year old magazine, IA&B caters to architects as well as every member of the AEC industry. With a readership of 300,000, IA&B goes beyond just being a magazine by extending itself as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the AEC Industry with online portal (www.aecworldxp.com), events, key client works and expos. (www.iabforum.com)

Jasubhai Media:
The Jasubhai Group is a dynamic services company, specialising in content through print, onground and electronic media. Established in 1967, the group initially comprised of three major companies - Engineering, Publications, Events and Technology that cover a range of operations from special-interest publications and exhibitions to process instrumentation. The Jasubhai Group is primarily involved in four core business areas viz: Business & Technology Media, Engineering & Manufacturing and E-learning, Software Services and AEC. (www.jasubhai.com)

SPARC
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. In 1984, when SPARC was formed, it began working with the most vulnerable and invisible of Mumbai's urban poor—the pavement dwellers. SPARC's philosophy is that if we can develop solutions that work for the poorest and most marginalised in the city, then these solutions can be scaled up to work for other groups of the urban poor across the country and internationally. Since 1986, SPARC has been working in partnership with two community-based organisations the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan. Together, they are known as the Alliance. Today, the Alliance works in about 70 cities in the country and has networks in about 20 countries internationally.

The National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF):
The National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) was founded in 1974 by Jockin Arputham when he fought on behalf of a community of 70,000 to appeal a 1976 eviction order. It has a membership of 750,000 poor households spread over 70 towns and cities in India. NSDF assists slum dwellers to obtain secure tenure, access adequate housing and develop basic infrastructure including water and sanitation. In the 1980s NSDF formed an alliance with Mahila Milan and SPARC, and this alliance became the basis for establishing Slum Dwellers International in 1996.

Uraban Design Research Institute (UDRI)
The Urban Design Research Institute is a public charitable trust that focus on the urban environment and works towards its improvement. The UDRI is a forum that supports interaction among architects, urban designers and professionals from such related fields as urban economics, sociology, planning, conservation and history. UDRI’s objectives is to generate awareness, on various issues concerning the city such as urban transportation, housing, infrastructure, governance, environmental issues, urban conservation among multiple stakeholders citizens, researchers, the media, policy makers and implementation agencies and to give content to public discussion on major issues concerning the urban fabric of Mumbai.

Slum Dwellers International (SDI)
is a global non-governmental organisation (NGO) that manages networks of the urban poor and slum dwellers that are organised into federations and which are usually based in the Global South. It is an international network of federations of the urban poor who share ideas and experiences, and support one another in gaining access to adequate land, infrastructure and housing. SDI brings together poor men and women from urban settlements, through national and international exchange visits, events and meetings to enable the rapid transfer of knowledge, experiences and skills directly between poor people in different countries. People living in poor communities learn to see their own situations in a new light, to share their own knowledge, and to learn from the experiences of others facing similar challenges.

PUKAR
PUKAR is an initiative that aims to contribute to a global debate about urbanization and globalization.
PUKAR takes Mumbai as its conceptual base and laboratory for cross-disciplinary research projects. The organization was founded in 2001 and organizes seminars, workshops, talks and film screenings in English, Marathi and occasionally other Mumbai languages, and focuses specifically on producing a new space for critical engagement. Its goal is to generate new urban knowledge by encouraging maximum participation of Mumbai’s citizens in this process. PUKAR’s team consists of a group of scholars, social and cultural activists and professionals in the fields of art, journalism, film, architecture, urban planning and social sciences. PUKAR has an innovative transnational structure that allows PUKAR to tap into transnational circuit of scholarship and activism in creative ways and to bring respective concerns of Mumbai to these global circulations.