Attitudes towards the use of dead spaces within towns and cities vary drastically around the world. While many first-world countries enforce planning regulations to maintain control over every piece of land and restrict unauthorised building, in less developed regions there are many urban centres in which every centimetre of space is precious and put to good use.
In Mumbai, India, architecture practice Studio Mumbai observed that locals were creating dwellings in the narrow gaps between buildings and decided to recreate a section of a tiny area sandwiched between their own studio and the adjacent warehouse as their contribution to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s 2010 exhibition, 1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces. They produced a “cast” of the negative space, with its typically confined passageways divided into small rooms, and even featuring the tree that reaches through the walls on the site.