Slum Autonomy - A Paradox: A Balcony That Gives Rehoused Slum Dwellers Back Their Own Way of Using Space

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This article was written by UNI Editorial and published on uni.xyz, a platform for design professionals and creative thinkers.

Q: What is "Slum Autonomy - A Paradox: A Balcony That Gives Rehoused Slum Dwellers Back Their Own Way of Using Space" about?

This article covers topics related to Housing, Architecture, Reclaimed Space, Slumscraper, Social Housing, Modular Housing, Urban Space. A bamboo-railed balcony for rehabilitated slum housing in India turns loose wooden planks into seats, beds, shelves and a corner for worship.

A bamboo-railed balcony for rehabilitated slum housing in India turns loose wooden planks into seats, beds, shelves and a corner for worship.

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UNI Editorial published Results under Housing, Architecture on Oct 10, 2026

Moving a family out of a slum and into an apartment block solves one problem and quietly creates another. The slum, for all its hardship, is a place where every square metre works in shifts: a floor becomes a dining room at noon, a bedroom at night, a shrine in the morning. Stack that family into a sealed concrete unit and the shifting stops. This project begins from an uncomfortable premise: that the dwellers may have understood space better than the housing built for them.

Slum Autonomy - A Paradox is a project by Nikhil Jain and Keval Morakhia, set in India. It proposes a retrofit balcony for slum dwellers who have been rehabilitated into new housing apartments, and it received the People's Choice Award at Retro - Fit 2020.

Two Metres Square, Read as a Lesson from the Slum

The team's starting point is observation rather than form. They studied how slum dwellers lived and worked, and how efficiently they used space, then compressed those lessons into a compact module. The plan reads at roughly 2.0 metres by 2.0 metres, with a 0.3 metre planter running along the outer edge, and the section rises to 2.4 metres. The presentation board asks its questions openly: can a balcony change the way people live, connect people and nature, and stay friendly to cost, environment and user alike? The answer it prints is an emphatic yes.

What makes the module legible is its honesty about parts. The drawings label only three key components: a wooden plank, a railing grid built to hold that plank, and a bird feeder plank set at 2.1 metres. Everything else follows from how those pieces are allowed to move. The railing section, divided into 0.32 metre bays, is less a barrier than a rack, a fixed armature that the residents can load and reload.

Presentation board with plan, section, railing section and 3D views of a bamboo-railed balcony module with planter and bird feeder plank. Image: Nikhil Jain, KEVAL MORAKHIA

A Railing That Doubles as a Furniture Rack

The sequence of sections makes the idea plain. Planks slot into the railing grid at different heights, around 0.4 metres and 0.7 metres, and the same frame becomes a pair of facing benches, a table with seating on either side, or tiered storage. Seated and standing figures occupy each version, and in every configuration the potted plants hold the front edge. The balcony does not offer a list of rooms; it offers a kit of heights, and the household chooses what those heights mean on a given day.

This is where the project earns its title. Autonomy here is not a slogan but a mechanism: the design aims at a multifunctional balcony that gives residents a sense of independence in how they use it and how they vary it to their needs. Pedro de Almeida Grilo, who judged the competition, singled out the clarity of that diagnosis.

Great problem detecting, good problem solving, reasonable desing representation.Pedro de Almeida Grilo, Founder and Architecture Director, CoDA arquitetos, Brazil

Grid of 3D views, sections and front elevations of the balcony module, with seated and standing figures and potted plants along the edge. Image: Nikhil Jain, KEVAL MORAKHIA

A Shrine at Dawn, a Bed by Night

The most telling configurations are the ones that address intimate routines. One arrangement turns the balcony into a space for worship; another lays the planks flat as a single bed frame, with a figure reading beneath the slatted screens. These are not lifestyle extras. They respond directly to the kind of daily life the team set out to understand, where prayer, rest and storage compete for the same few square metres. Giving them a dedicated yet temporary home on the facade relieves the interior without asking anyone to give the ritual up.

Ana da Franca, who also judged the competition, read the proposal as much more than a piece of furniture, pointing to its construction, its modularity and its role in the city.

Strong concept, with very clear presentation. We highlight the constructive execution, the aesthetic concern, the modularity, the viability and, above all, the social intervention as a solution in the city.Ana da Franca, Architect & Founder, Franca Arquitectura, Portugal

Grid of views, sections and elevations showing the balcony set up as a worship space and a single bed frame, with potted plants. Image: Nikhil Jain, KEVAL MORAKHIA

A Feeder Shelf at 2.1 Metres, Above Everything Else

The cutaway view gathers the whole system into a single frame: slatted timber screens filtering light, the bamboo railing wrapping two sides, planter boxes hooked onto the rail, a cushioned seat tucked in the corner, and an adult and child standing in the shade. Above them all, two pigeons settle on the feeder shelf. Placing the bird plank at the top, out of the way of every reconfiguration below, is a small but deliberate act: the one fixed use in a balcony of moving parts is given over to something other than the household.

That gesture answers the board's question about connecting people and nature more convincingly than any planting scheme could. The plants sit at the front edge, the birds sit overhead, and the family occupies the adjustable band between them. The balcony becomes a threshold that is shared, not merely owned.

3D cutaway of the balcony with slatted timber screens, bamboo railing, planter boxes, two pigeons on the feeder shelf and a silhouetted adult and child. Image: Nikhil Jain, KEVAL MORAKHIA

Why This Project Matters

Rehabilitation housing is usually judged by the number of units delivered. This project insists on a different measure: whether the new dwelling can absorb the habits that kept people resilient in the old one. By treating the balcony as a reconfigurable frame rather than a fixed ledge, Nikhil Jain and Keval Morakhia propose a way to add flexibility to buildings that were never designed with it, without rebuilding them.

The paradox in the title is worth holding onto. The slum is being left behind, yet its spatial intelligence is what the new apartment lacks. A module of planks, a railing grid and a shelf for birds will not settle that tension, but it hands residents a tool to negotiate it themselves, and that is a more honest kind of design than one that decides on their behalf.