Covering just 2.4 square kilometres, Dharavi is home to hundreds of thousands of people and more than 10,000 small-scale industries that support national and international markets. Yet despite its economic importance, Dharavi faces a constant threat: investor-led redevelopment that could displace the communities that have built and sustained it for decades.

At the core of Ayesha’s research is the concept of “hybridity” – an architectural framework that explores how different functions coexist in close proximity to support sustainable urban development. She examines hybridity in Dharavi at three scales: the single unit, the community, and the settlement as a whole.

1. First, many families both live and work in the same unit. A family of potters, for example, collaborates within the household and with neighbours to sustain their livelihood. They share infrastructure like kilns, and labour, creating cost-effective systems supported by only a few permanent employees.
2. Second, hybridity also shapes identity within communities. Dharavi’s leather district, for instance, developed around minority communities that created spaces suited to their social and economic needs. Religion, caste, language, and occupation all influence how space is organized in Dharavi, helping marginalised groups build networks and improve their circumstances.
3. Finally, at the scale of the settlement, this hybridity creates remarkable sustainability. Residents meet most of their daily needs on foot, generating lower carbon emissions than many other urban areas. What formal urban planning often struggles to achieve worldwide already exists in Dharavi.

Conducting fieldwork with a baby turned out to be an unexpected advantage. Women and children approached Ayesha to interact with her child, bringing these underrepresented perspectives into the research. She observed that the hybrid built-environment enables many women to combine care work, household responsibilities, and economic activity, giving them a central role in family functioning and local economies.

Areas for improvement were also revealed, including increasing access to recreational and social spaces for these highly marginalised groups – namely women and children in informal settlements – who are often excluded from public life and community activities.

The implications extend far beyond Dharavi. Informal settlements house an estimated 880 million people worldwide, many shaped by hybridity. Ayesha argues that these social and spatial patterns offer key lessons for building sustainable cities – if planners are willing to listen before it is too late.