Mumbai’s title of “Urbs Prima in Indus”, the first city of India, is derived from the fact it was the most populated and therefore largest city in India in the late 1800s. As a major trading port, the island attracted labour, businessmen and professionals. Unfortunately, the bubonic plague of 1896 reduced a growing city to shambles. Turning adversity into opportunity, the authorities envisioned a modern city and set about creating it. The Mumbai of today has emerged from a devastating pandemic.
An exhibition on the history of urban planning in Mumbai, titled (de)Coding Mumbai, was held at Ice Factory of the city’s Ballard Estate from June 12 to June 25. Sameep Padora, a city-based architect, designed it with sPare , the research wing of his firm. It opened with an introduction to the 1896 plague. At a time when the city was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, there was much in the show that resonated with contemporary times. The sPare researchers used large panels with maps, illustrations, photographs and models of the buildings described, along with write-ups, to trace the city’s urban development history.
Panels of the (de) Coding Mumbai exhibition held at the Ice Factory of Ballard Estate in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: VIVEK EADARA
The exhibition material has recently been converted into a book, also called (de)Coding Mumbai. It is a mirror image of the show and is valuable as a useful tool for urban planners. Like the exhibition, the book is divided into four phases and uses 18 case studies, each dealing with a locality in the city, to examine the evolution of Mumbai’s urban development control regulations.
Shift in priorities
The researchers found that earlier policies reflected a vision which today’s regulations lack. For instance, the city authorities in the late 1800s appeared to focus on living and working environments, whereas modern-day planners have allowed the value of real estate to influence development schemes. The case studies clearly show this shift in priorities. The fundamental policies that shape Mumbai’s landscape such as the Development Planning (DP), Development Control Regulations (DCR), Transfer of Development Rights, the Slum Rehabilitation Act 1995 and Cluster Development are critically discussed through the specific buildings and localities that form the subjects of the case studies.
The researchers say in the book: “The megacity of Mumbai is at the verge of another paradigmatic shift in the ways its urban form will be produced and that will have serious implications on liveability and the working of the city.” This was what made them undertake the whole exercise. “Housing within a city constitutes the majority of its built form and in a sense the quality of housing defined the image and qualitative experience of a city. Despite this obvious connection, state housing policies and the consequent regulatory frameworks often prescribe an architecture for housing unmindful of the living environments they create,” the book says.
Highlights
- de(Coding) Mumbai is an exhibition on the history of the city’s urban planning.
- Large panels with maps, illustrations, photographs and models of the buildings described, along with write-ups, used to trace Mumbai’s urban development history.
- Earlier policies reflected a vision which today’s regulations lack.
- The exhibition material has been converted into a book of the same name.
Sameep Padora says: “We argue for reversing this framework that creates insensitive living environments on ground like the SRA […….