ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of urbanization goes hand in hand with the migration of informal workers to urban areas, making them denser. Focusing on the streets, The urban streets are vital spaces for the livelihood of the urban poor. And due to dense migration, Streets have become the physical manifestation of urban problems related to poverty and/or inequality.
There are a lot of diverse users and varied activities continuously taking place on urban streets but the space is limited, hence urban space is contested by different users and the continuous growth of informal activities on streets brings new challenges for designers, urban planners, and other stakeholders. The current urban planning paradigm ignores this important issue and hardly addresses it through the urban planning process in our country. In such a situation, urban planning requires close scrutiny and a different approach with regard to regulations, policies, spatial planning, design principles, and institutions through which development strategies affect the lives of the working poor in the urban informal economy.
The problem is interpreted using the tool of Design thinking. “Design thinking is a people-centred approach to finding solutions to complex problems.” (Herbert Simon,1970). The objectives of the research paper are to identify various design thinking methods and tools, study how these tools and methods are applied in urban planning and design through case studies via various works of literature and then develop a methodology that can bridge the theory and practice of the built environment for selected streets of Pune city.
Briefly, the aim of the research is to study the existing street conditions of Pune city through primary surveys and to meet the present and future demands through various qualitative, participatory and design thinking tools.
