ADAPTIVE RE-USE OF MUMBAI’S UNDER-UTILISED PORTLANDS
This category, ‘Adaptive re-use of Mumbai’s under-utilized Portlands’, traces the evolving association between the port and the city beginning from the initiation of Port activities and their role in transforming Mumbai from a humble archipelago of agrarian islands to a global metropolis, to the eventual disassociation wherein the process of urban degeneration begins, leading to the under-utilization and ultimately the abandonment of vast stretches of port areas thereby requiring regeneration by redevelopment. The irony, however, lies in the fact that Mumbai’s approach to redevelopment often prioritizes meeting urban demands at the cost of erasing the very identity that shaped the city.
On the contrary ‘Design with Nature’ by Ian McHarg states, “When cities are built upon beautiful, dramatic or rich sites, their excellence often results from the preservation, exploitation and enhancement rather than obliteration of this genius of the site. When a city contains such excellent creations, then these enter the inventory of values, the genius locus. The total city can then be seen as an exploitation of the intrinsic site – the creations of men seen as conscious adaptations to it that preserve, heighten and enhance its basic qualities.”
Taking cues from ‘Design with Nature’, this category discerns the genius of Mumbai’s portlands and proposes a comprehensive framework for their adaptive re-use such that it can adapt to its unique environmental setting, adapt to the needs of the larger region, adapt to the cultural and landscape identity of the port while adapting to the needs of the city. Rather than viewing redevelopment as a means of erasure, this approach seeks to recognize and preserve the portlands’ historical and ecological significance while seamlessly integrating them into the evolving urban fabric.
Terrain Tapestry 