WasteLess Musings- A sensitive approach to Urban Renewal in Chennai, India

Abstract: The city of Chennai evolved around the river, Cooum. The river supports irrigation to agricultural fields in the north and supplies water to the city of Chennai. It also acts as a major flood carrier for the city. Before the 1960s, the river was clean and used for activities such as bathing, boating and fishing. During the colonial rule, the city was initially planned to sustain a much lesser population than the current one of 10.4 million. This has put a huge strain on the Cooum river. Within the city limits, the river has degraded mostly due to untreated waste water and sewage inflow and unauthorised dumping of solid waste. In areas where the river has dried up for years, there ae slums along the river banks and flood plains. The city bears the brunt of the impacts of climate change between the months of September and December when it is hit by torrential rain every year. After the disastrous floods in 2015, a new development plan for the city is being made that involves cleaning up the Cooum river so that the flood situation within the city can be regulated. However, the restoration project involves the relocation of several slums to areas 20-22kms away from the city, resulting in the formation of ghettos in these relocation sites. This thesis aims to find a balance between environmental and social sustainability where the environmental needs for the city can be integrated with the social needs of the residents along these areas of intervention. The thesis also analyses how the issues of waste management can be partially solved through architecture by using waste as a cost-efficient building material.