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Rahul and Matias were invited to particiapte in a one-day long charette organized by Studio X (Columbia) Mumbai along with Smita Srinivas, Ritu Mohanty-Padora and Gijs Van Den Boomen. Our site was the area starting from the Bandra end of the Sea Link to Bandstand. We explored the village around the Kudeshwari temple which occupies one of most charming Sea Link /Mahim Bay view points in the region.

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The village is the Rio favela style settlement up the hill you see driving through the Sea Link. To reach the village from the end of the bridge, we walk through a brownfield area occupied by a sewage treatment plant, scrapyard of traffic signal lights and the remains of the Sea Link infrastructure-construction sites and workers barracks, most of them owned by the Maharashtra State Road Corporation.

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Sewage water treatment plants

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We found a way through a settlement on the Parish land. It was full of cottage industries producing candle wax artifacts for Mount Mary Church as well wood furniture workshops and other such small scale artisanal productions. We walked along Christian and Jewish cemeteries and even discovered an unexpectedly posh restaurant called Cafe Goa at the entrance of the Village.

We discussed the possibility of design interventions, which service the villagers along with the risks that such interventions represent for those very settlements. We also examined the presence of a multi-storied SRA  (Slum Rehab Authority) building in the middle of the village, which seems to be a point of aspiration for many residents.

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However, there seems to be some obstacle to its completion since the construction appears to be stalled. We talked to a few people who work and live around the building and found that waiting for a flat in that building was a hope shared by many even though there was no official sign that the buildings would actually be constructed for the residents.

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Such a response of hope is quite widespread. Through some previous research in other neighbourhoods we found out that it is often a need for social security and valid citizenship which comes with the flat number. Research has also shown that often moving into a high-rise building destroys livelihoods and local networks that the present form provides them. For us this is the biggest urban design and planning challenge: How do we respond to aspirational needs without jeopardizing the employment structure of the neighbourhood, and giving due respect to an urban typology – that of the urban village- which is widely prevalent in the city.

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Children from the village took us around and knew every route, nook and corner of the entire neighbourhood right up to Taj Lands End.

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The luxury hotel is protected from its surroundings by an aggressively barbed wired wall. From there we walked towards Bandstand and explored settlements which have grown on the rocky beach between the sea and the road.

Our ongoing explorations and discussion will be presented at Studio X and subsequently continue on the blog.

Click here for more videos.

URBZ is glad to announce the launch of its new Eastern Waterfront Website. This Website features the work produced by students from Columbia University, JJ School of Architecture and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This urban design studio was lead by URBZ co-founder and Columbia University faculty Geeta Mehta. URBZ has been organizing the studio in Mumbai and is still coordinating the interaction between the three institutions. More work will be uploaded in the coming months and thereafter. The site is open to contributions by other institutions, organizations and individuals interested in the future of Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront. Please visit often: http://ewf.urbz.net.

We are hoping that the work published on this site will contribute constructively to ongoing discussions on the future of Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront. While Mumbai can consider itself lucky to have much of its shipping needs supplied into its core areas by a thriving Port that directly or indirectly employs up to one lakh (100,000) people, many voices are demanding an improved and widened public access to this Eastern Waterfront for the city at large.

The Columbia-JJ-TISS studio seeks to address some of these pressing issues in the context of an overheated city, which seems to be reinventing itself by the day. This Website is an attempt at opening the debate to the larger public and an invitation to all users and stakeholders to participate and contribute.

On 27 February last several cities in Chile were asot a seventh grade 8.8 earthquake in the Richter scale.This was followed by a tsunami that hit several coastal towns, destroying more than 100 fishing coves.From URBZ Chile we appeal to help rebuild these cities. Help us

El 27 de febrero pasado varias ciudades en Chile fueron asotadas por un terremoto grado 8.8º en la escala Ritcher. Este vino acompañada por un Tsunami que azoto varias localidades costeras, destruyendo más de 100 caletas pesqueras.Desde URBZ Chile hacemos un llamado a colaborar en la reconstrucción de estas localidades. Ayudanos

Contact
abasolo@urbz.net
matias@urbz.net

In neighbourhoods directly bordering the sea, such as Darukhana off the port of Mumbai, the open space over the water is an attractive opportunity for expansion. Of course, the tide is something one has to bear in mind,  especially as there is a two meter range between the levels of low tide and high tide in Mumbai.

Photo 16. Kuala Bandar, Darukhana, Mazgaon, Mumbai. Low tide, revealing the supporting piling of the light dwellings.

Darukhana’s main employment is ship repair and ship recycling. The use of sheet-shaped building materials is therefore an obvious choice. Many of these come from dismantled ships. These structures are very light, compared to concrete and masonry. Another advantage is the flexibility. Repair and expansion is easy, since material is locally available. In terms of sustainability, this is an exemplary site.

The roof shape is straightforward. Its slope is down to the waterside, which is the logical thing to do, as it would otherwise drain to the street, with all resulting inconveniences. The street would turn into a mud pool; the water would be pouring from the roof right in front of the shop or the house and in the end, the water would drain into the sea anyway.

To protect the ground from being washed away by the tide, the shore is paved with heavy stones. In order to keep it accessible and capable of bearing the piles under the dwellings, the stones are stacked stepwise, thus providing sufficient horizontal surface. In addition, the stairway form helps to dampen the incoming waves.

Photo 17. The shore is paved stepwise, providing excellent ground for these dwellings. Click photo to enlarge.

Notwithstanding the wish of many for more comfortable housing, there certainly are things to be appreciated about these dwellings. Their design is practical, straightforward and natural. Everything is in the right place, and in that way it is perfect.

Anuradha Mathur and Rahul Srivastava with UPenn students at Sewri, on the Eastern Waterfront.

Today we joined a group of landscape architecture students from the University of Pennsylvania who are exploring some of Mumbai’s most ambiguous spaces. After co-authoring SOAK, a ground-breaking study of Mumbai’s relationship to water with her partner Dilip Dacunha, Anuradha Mathur brings her students on the trail of their urban investigations and speculations along the waterfront. We visited Sewri Fort, Mahim beach and Worli Koliwada. See the photo album of the visit.