This dazzling building won honorable mention in a skyscaper contest. Yes, it’s quite amazing, with an open air, interconnected environments. But it’s being touted as a way to regenerate and reinvigorate the massive Dharavia slum in Mumbai. And that’s the problem I have with such massive structures being plopped down in distressed areas. Most of the poor there would be forced to relocate during construction, rents would soar once the building was built, and any remaining poor would have to pass through security checks in the building when going to their menial jobs inside it. Such buildings are meant for the wealthy, are built like fortresses, and do nothing to alievate slum conditions except to push the poor elsewhere. It might as well being a starship filled with space aliens landing in a slum for all the good it will do for the current inhabitants.
Under the present system of corporate capitalism, slums are set to burgeon to an extent that would seem unbelievable by today’s standards The system creates poverty and then excludes the poor, investments matter more than people. There is some information on this matter in this wee article that I wrote up about a year ago: http://annarky1.wordpress.com/2010/03/