‘You and Your Neighbourhood’ is the theme of this year’s Z-Axis, the fourth edition of the biennial urban design conference organised by the Charles Correa Foundation (CCF) in Goa. The theme is inspired by the title of the animated film which was Correa’s Master’s thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in 1955. It tells the story of how the protagonist Joe’s neighbourhood began to be neglected when a factory came up there. In the film, the late architect asks: How does a city grow? Can we make neighbourhoods better? The answer is found in the people who come together to effect change.1

The Z-Axis conference, which is being held online this year, with speakers from across the world, comes to a close on September 26. These sessions map modes of engagement with people at the city, neighbourhood, street and housing level. “Our cities reflect our values – of equity, sustainability – and, hopefully, these get reflected in the kind of urban spaces we design. This conference challenges participants to consider which values they want in their cities and think creatively about how to realise that vision,” says Nondita Correa Mehrotra, director, CCF. With projects from Egypt, Morocco, China, India, Argentina and the Netherlands, “there will be presentations that look at influencing policy, implementing projects and enhancing people’s participation,” she says.

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• 1. Architecture can enable this interactivity. For instance, in Correa’s LIC Colony, the initial residents were young couples who made Mumbai their home. It allowed people from different income and caste backgrounds to live together. “It gave them a (sense of) neighbourliness; an identity as a citizen ultimately emerges from that. Cities allow you to reinvent yourself,” says Shivkumar.