This project draws its design and analytical foundations from Arturo Escobar’s concept of the pluriverse, placing radical interdependence, inclusivity, and co-existence at its core. By focusing on Kolkata’s “Grey Town,” the work foregrounds spatial and cultural diversity, contesting universal heritage narratives and advocating for multiple, community-defined ways of inhabiting urban space. The mapping of colonial legacies, economic activities, and social stratifications serves to illustrate the area’s plural histories and ongoing negotiations between Bengali residents, traders, and varied cultural groups.

The analysis integrates Escobar’s pluriversal design principles by prioritising relational networks and collaborative urban futures. It does so through stakeholder mapping, participatory strategy development, and comparative frameworks that value dialogue among different actors and forms of knowledge. Proposed interventions, including curated heritage walks, workshops, and cultural hubs, aim to nurture social belonging, celebrate hybrid memory, and support locally autonomous processes for heritage conservation and renewal. In this way, the brief encapsulates a design ethos that welcomes many worlds in the city, making space for intersectional identities, collective storytelling, and adaptive urban transformation.