Feeling the pulse of a street and a neighbourhood

An open house on March 21, 22 and 23 that is being organised as part of an initiative titled The Pelathope Urban Living Lab will explore the questions of social cohesion and meaningful development in neighbourhoodss

Though running parallel to North Mada Street, Pelathope hardly shares in its spotlight. Pelathope is a cul-de-sac and its days unspool to a rather fixed script with little room for improvisation. The odds are high that anyone unfamiliar with Mylpore has not heard of Pelathope (which means “jackfruit grove” in Tamil). Even Google maps would be silent on it: as this old name of the street is overshadowed by an official name, one popularised by Google Maps —Vedanta Desika Swamy Street.

Next weekend — March 21, 22 and 23 — is going to be in the public glare as a result of what is called The Pelathope Urban Living Lab – Open House, an initiative by SKDO in collaboration with PLUS, Curating for Culture, UCAN and Cultural Heritage Narratives.

According to a communication from the organisers, the initiative offers an “opportunity to explore the rich history and cultural heritage of Mylapore.” As the name suggests, the Open House is open to all, and it is aimed at discussing “opportunities to collaborate in setting up a meaningful community design initiative focussed on the neighbourhood scale as part of the urban living lab.”

The open house would be marked by exhibitions, archival showcases, guided walkthroughs, and community conversations (which allow visitors to can engage with architects, historians and residents about the past, present and future of Mylapore).

The communication notes the Open House would witness the launch of two key initiatives: The Pelathope Community Archives and The Mylapore 15-Minute Cultural Neighbourhood Map.

The communication elaborates that the Pelathope Community Archive consists of oral histories from previously unrecorded or forgotten narrators, archival photographs, and documents highlighting the history of Pelathope and Mylapore, organised around thematic areas of culture, community, infrastructure/planning, and ecology. This exercise is underpinned by the hope that the “discovery of unexplored histories will resonate with others in the neighbourhood, leading to alternative readings of Mylapore that can foster a better understanding of the dynamics of neighbourhood change.”

The communication adds: “The Mylapore 15-Minute Cultural Neighborhood Map is a crowd-sourced document that seeks to highlight the unique cultural heritage of the neighbourhood. This serves as a starting point for creating a broad-based and inclusive (re)development framework that leverages the cultural and heritage assets of Mylapore. The expected focus of this framework includes enhancing the local economy, preserving and enhancing tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and identifying high-impact community projects such as last-mile connectivity interventions and shared community spaces that can improve social cohesion and tangibly enhance the quality of life in Mylapore.”