Entry Date:
January 29, 2008

Urban Laboratory (UrbLab)

Principal Investigator Adèle Santos


The UrbLab, short for Urban Laboratory, is a collaborative effort between MIT and the southern Indian town of Erode. UrbLab responds to the challenges associated with India’s rapid growth, increasing industrialization, and urbanization. The project builds on a long history of cooperation between India and MIT, including a relationship with the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, and planning officials in Southern India. As a result of MIT’s efforts, the Indian government has taken steps to better integrate physical planning and economic planning at the local level. Future collaborations will be aimed at environmental and urban renewal. Current projects include:

Urban design and planning research in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region: Through spatial analysis, teams of MIT students and faculty have identified under-utilized parcels of land throughout the Mumbai Region, and have begun to suggest landscape, urban design and architectural strategies for re-vitalizing these areas. The first phase of this research, which looks at waterfront precincts, will be published as an edited volume later this year by a research institute in Mumbai.

Urbanism conferences at MIT: In connection with UrbLab’s current research and education focus on Mumbai, UrbLab has begun to organize regular conferences at MIT on urbanism in India. The first such meeting was held in October 2008, and brought together planning professionals and faculty as well as architectural critics and historians from India and the United States. The focus of the meeting was on the culture and politics of transformation in urban India, with a focus on governmental urban renewal programs for Mumbai.

UrbLab has begun to organize 6-monthly meetings in Mumbai where its research findings and recommendations are debated in a public setting. The first such meeting was held in August 2008 during a field visit by four MIT faculty and twelve graduate students. The goal of these meetings is to evolve strategies for implementing UrbLab studies and recommendations. Several of MIT’s Mumbai-based alumni have taken an active interest in organizing these meetings and advocating for change at the local level.

The MIT-India Program has consistently supported the UrbLab’s research by awarding its students travel fellowships to India as well as by co-sponsoring our events in Mumbai and at MIT.