Learning from Mumbai: Practicing Architecture in Urban India-

Subhra Mazumdar

The city of Bombay or Mumbai has held a fascination not only for fortune seekers and cine aspirants but also for students of architecture. They flock to the city charmed by its Gothic accents, its ability to house twenty million spirited inhabitants, thereby juxtaposing the historical and the contemporary into an urban milieu, both innovative and daring. The current volume, ‘Learning from Mumbai: Practicing Architecture in Urban India’ is the experience of its authors, who had first come in contact with the city as students at the J.J. College of Architecture and have recently returned from Amsterdam with a view to compile a quantitative data base on the city. The final outcome of their labour has yielded a series of essays by the city’s leading architectural practitioners, besides an over view of the historical face of the city. Different though, has been their experience of living and interacting with young Mumbaikars who form the bulk of the population of this ‘young’ city, where the average population is under the age of 30. The initial part of the volume deals with Mumbai’s statement architecture held up for consideration within a contemporary context. The keynote article by Rohan Varma traces the city’s beginnings from a cluster of seven islands occupied by fishermen communities to its steady rise and prosperity into a mega city of today. The essay by Charles Correa, also included in this segment on Mumbai’s historicity, deals with its arterial lifeline, namely its unique transport system, fed by trains and buses that carry its millions . Another interesting take of this segment can be explored through the writings of Rahul Mehrotra who has examined the innovative use of spaces, taking into context the erstwhile mill complexes of Learning from Mumbai Practising Architecture in Urban India Publisher: Mapin Publishing Authors: Pelle poiesz, Gert Jan Scholte, Sanne Vanderkaaij Gandhi Pages: 188 the city. His interesting conclusion – by default, the private sector is determining the emergent form of Mumbai – shows a fundamental shift from the earlier scenario when the government of the time was the chief architect of its planning and delivery process. In this tendency to ‘clean it up’, the city is faced with an awful disjuncture according to these city framers. His suggestion of developing the city’s eastern front holds water, as it appears to be a crucial zone for transforming the city, rather than the cosmetic development of old mill lands.

And moving away from the grass roots of this planning of the city’s living spaces is the suggestion for its luxury segment which, according to Steven Buenda (he heads a plan for developing a new business district in Wadala), still turns to foreign sources for its ultra luxury sky scrapers and airports. But the greatest learning experience for this Dutch architect has been to understand the need for communication and networking as clients here outweigh a project’s worth with similar samples in other Indian cities as opposed to foreign cities. Thus, it is the ‘organic city’ concept that he has found most useful and gladly shares his thoughts with his readers. As for Mumbai’s iconic architectural name, Hafeez Contractor, who too has shared some of his thoughts about the city in this book, reveals that only 150sq km of the land is given for human occupation in the city and the rest of it is swallowed up by mangrove forests, a national park and railways tracks. That is why, for him, the city’s landmark distinction is not the predictable Taj or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus but “the achievements of those people who built their lives from scratch.” Naturally his priorities are not impressive landmarks but the basics of a toilet, running water and food for his Mumbaikars. This, in a way, is a priority for other architects of the city too, such as Sushma Deodhar who has worked extensively in both the private and government sectors. Her solution naturally is the exploitation of the current floor space index. But her master stroke is placing a finger on the resilience of the city where a calamity is simply a shift from routine rather than a crippling shock wave.