MALARIA AND THE CASE OF ARCHITECTURE

http://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2012-news/Read-CDT-focus-on-research

As United Nation predict, the fast growing urbanization in Mumbai will result in numerous challenges among which are the widespread of poverty and unemployment, poor public health and poor civic and educational standards for a large section of the population. Moreover according to David Harvey as a city doubles its size it also experience a fifteen percent (15%) per capita increase in violent, crimes, traffic and AIDS cases. How Mumbai is going to deal with the numerous diseases and the extreme pollution levels in the future?

Malaria is a vector-borne disease that infects human body through mosquitos. It is a widespread disease in India as million of people suffer every year from it and many die. The humid environment in India in the monsoon months is the perfect weather condition for mosquitos and so for malaria. Moreover, heart attack, tuberculosis, cancer, kidney failure, HIV and malaria cause the most common deaths in Mumbai. Last but not least, demographics result shown that the average life span is sixty (60) years old and seventeen (17) percent of the global deaths occur in Mumbai. Malaria is expected to expand in the future, due to the upcoming climate change which will increase the amount of rainfall in India. Appropriate urban planning could reduce in some extent the numerous diseases and pollutions in Mumbai.

Water pollution levels are extremely high. The water infrastructure that transfers the fresh water, the pollution in the sea, the lakes and the rivers pollution, combine with the monsoon floods and the unhealthy way of life of the citizen’s leads to the cause of malaria and many other water diseases. According to statistics eighty percent (80%) of the diseases are caused by water borne pathogens that are found inside the polluted water.

Considering the number of people infected by Malaria and the polluted waters, this project will examine the possibilities of architectural design to improve the hygiene levels of human organism. What are the role and the limits of architecture in these situations?

Specifically, in Mumbai appropriate architectural design could reduce in high amount the diseases and especially the water-borne ones. My research concerns the urbanization growth in the city of Mumbai and deals with the upcoming overpopulation and the reinvention of the living system. The starting point of this research will be to analyze what was the cause of the problem and in continue to examine and re-design the future global city of Mumbai.