Catching slips by Dan Pyzer-Knapp

CATCHING SLIPS

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

University of Edinburgh MArch Design Report 2013-2015 [Dan Pyzer-Knapp]

[Dan Pyzer-Knapp]

University of Edinburgh MArch Design Report 2013-2015

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

CATCHING SLIPS

Contents 01 Preface Glossary of Terms 02 Situation 03 Reading Flux 04 Testing Edges 05 Catching Slips 06 Enabling the Maidan 07 Appendix

Catching Slips

01 Preface

The Temporal City

Mumbai is a city that is constantly growing and evolving. The current city developments chose to disregard this landscape of constant adaptation in favour of boundaries and a tabula rasa approach to urbanism. This thesis, by understanding the importance of reacting to the ever-changing nature of the city, seeks to generate an approach to urbanism focused on a deep sensitivity to the temporal landscapes of Mumbai, empowering the Maidan condition in the city, and allowing the city to flux.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai 5

Catching Slips

Preface

Details of Agency

Thesis Title:

Catching Slips

Agency:

Maidan [SAND]

Author:

Dan Pyzer-Knapp

PARA-Situation:

(SET)

Corporeal Species :

(Programme)

Incorporeal Species:

Between Maidans and Monsoon

Productive Maidan (Glass Recycling and Workshops, Labs) Social Maidan (Housing, Pavilions) Bureaucratic Maidan (law courts, Customs house) Economic Maidan (market place) Ecological Maidan (slow-sand filters) Temporality, Traces, & Rhythms and Cycles of the City

(Situation)

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai 7

Preface

Glossary of Terms

Cricket

noun. a game normally played on a large grass field between two groups of eleven players, each trying to score the more runs. National Sport of India. Holds inherent measures

Cycles

noun. a series of repeated events

Edges (Engineered) Dock/Jetty

noun. Man-made Coastal edge condition, used for landing items from boats

Edges (Engineered) Tetrapod

noun. Man-made Coastal condition to reduce impact of erosion

Edges (Hard)

noun. a condition that defines the spaces around it. Hard edges are not easily eroded.

Enzymatic Territory

noun. the area of land that is associated to the Agency buildings, that becomes activated through their ability to catalyse people, the landscape and the city around them

Flux

verb/noun. the action or process of flowing in or flowing out, or pulsing. This applies over different periods of time [e.g. coastal reclamation can be desribed as one of the city’s fluxes] - see also “slip”

Gestues

verb/noun. a movement that is used to describe an activity or object. Gestures can also be politically charged.

Gradient

noun. the degree of incline/decline of a slope. Regarding edges, a gradient is the counter to a defined edge

Catching Slips

noun. a specifically Indian description of an Open Space. A level playing field, literally and socially. They are used for almost any activity, from playing cricket to politcal rallies. The beach is a Primordial Maidan condition. Mumbai has three historic Maidans - the Oval Maidan, the Cross Maidan and the Azad Maidan.

Mandala

noun. a circular Buddhist drawing, often in Sand

Parasite

noun. 1- to one side of the location/event (PARA-Site). 2- The uninvited Guest (Michel Serresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Parasiteâ&#x20AC;?) 3- living organism takes without giving

Parasitic

adjective. used to described something that lives/ feeds off or relies on another entity to exist, to the detriment of the host.

Re-appropriate

verb. to reclaim something for another use. This is prevalent in Mumbai, especially in terms of unclaimed land

Sand

noun. the ground material of the Maidan

Slips

noun. 1- see flux 2 - a catching fielding position in cricket

Temporal

adjective. relating to passing of time, and fleeting existances

Terrain Vague

noun. unplanned and undefined marginalised space within the urban context [eg under railway bridges]

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Maidan

Tabula Rasa

the static Mumbai Development Plan

Catching Slips

The Beach Re-appropriated Cricket wickets

Slips and Fluxes

Productive Maidan

Social Maidan The Permeable Edge AS1 AS2

BP1

Workers Accommodation Cricket Pavilion

Sand and Water Testing Laboratories Education Centre

BE1 Slow-sand Filter

Catching Slips Open Space measured through Cricket

Productive Maidan BP1 BP2

Glass Recycling Centre Glass-making Workshops

understanding the temporal city, catching slips, allowing slippage The Fluxing Maidan 1-500

reading the daily activity of the Maidan, through proposed Agency Architecture

1-200

North

Mod el Ta Exhib ble ition

Drawing Key: Hard Edge Coast Line Historic Coastal Build-up Territories in the City Territory of Maidan as Agency Existing Maidan Condition (Beach) Trees (as Maidan boundary markers) Activity of the Maidan Gestures of Maidan relationships

Programme [SAND] (level 1) 50 Hectare Grid (imposing limits of Sand bureaucracy over the city)

The Hard Edge Sassoon Dock and Fish Market Gateway

Mandala - Drawing the Temporal Activity of the Maidan a growing enzymatic territory in constant flux 1

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Architectural Gestures (registers of temporal activity)

Catching Slips

02 Situation

the edge of the city, and the fluxing Maidan The [Loving] Metropolitan Landscape looks at the discourse between the city and the environment. In the case of Mumbai, this is a very pertinent relationship. Mumbai itself is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and by 2020, it may be the second largest city in the world. A large amount of that growth is due to the surging economy of Mumbai which has progressed from local industry to the global scale of commerce - dealing in a multinational online world. Since 1970, the built up area of the city was at 195sqkm. By 1990, that figure was 338sqkm, and in 2011 it rose again to 385sqkm. This rapid growth comes at a somewhat unprecedented loss of landscape with around 50% of beaches, inter-tidal zones and mangroves being re-assigned by the municipal governemnt as buildable areas.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai 13

The Fluxing City

Understanding Slips in Mumbai

Mumbai is infact a city in flux, a city of temporal landscapes. The cycles of this range from the metropolitan development, to the Monsoon seasons, and also down to the building and body scale of registering daily activity and rhythms of the city. It is through the Maidan that we experience this most. The temporal landscapes of Mumbai are the enzymatic territories of the city, with architecture and activity feeding off them. As such, it is important to understand the Maidan as part of this greater understanding of the city, and that the city is not static and defined by lines drawn around land-ownership plans.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Hard Edges

The Hard edges of the city - from engineered land reclamation to the historic Forts - control city development and define constraints.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

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Catching Slips

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Measuring and re-drawing edge conditions at Banganga Tank, Mumbai

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

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Catching Slips

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Engineered Edges

measuring edge conditions on Marine Drive These drawings looked at the Engineered edge of Mumbai, part of the coastal land reclaimations that were studied in Semester One. These Tetrapod barriers are not only an ecological edge, but have become a dwelling for the poorest in Mumbai - something that was written about by Salman Rushdie in his book Midnights Children. “I tell you my friend, you and I and our tetrapods: from the very oceans we shall

bring forth soil!”

- Salman Rushdie “Midnights Children” (1981) p243

Catching Slips

Temporal Landscapes 1

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The historic growth of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coastline is the first example we see of a long term cycle of temporality. From the original seven islands to the current coastline, the fluxing edge of the city continues to grow

Historic Overlays

understanding the loss of specificity

Areas of perpetual change are illustrated through an inconsistency of lines, where they do not match up. In our opinion, these areas have become vague. When compared to the major docks, where the lines match to a much higher degree of accuracy these areas of blurred edge stand out. It is these vague areas that we are particularly interested in. They define the edge of the coast, but not with the same impact as the docks, whose specificity of purpose and definition are much clearer to see.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Temporal Landscapes 2

The Monsoon in the ultimate temporal landscape. It comes seasonally for two months, and refreshes the ecology of the city, but can cause damage and destruction if not catered for in the urban settlements.

Catching Slips

[photos taken by Michael Bawtree on a recent visit to the city]

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Photos of Flooded Roads from the Monsoons of 2014 in Mumbai a landscape of Monsoon

The Fishing activity is seasonal - on this scale, it is too dangerous to take boats out to sea during the Monsoon so they are hauled up the coastline A Mumbai approach to Drainage - here the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maidanâ&#x20AC;? space soaks up the overflow water when the spouts dont align with the drainage system Most importantly, the Monsoon rains allow for the Maidan to refresh both itself and the city. What was red dust dueto hard acitivity six months prior is now knee depth grass again, ready to be cut.

[photos taken by Michael Bawtree on a recent visit to the city]

Catching Slips

Infrastructure

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The railway is part of the historic development of the port city. The long thin nature of Mumbai requires a system to transport people and goods up the peninsula, and the railway provides this. As such, the seam is host to a constant hourly fluxing of people and objects.

The Parasitic Edge

The fishing network of Mumbai - historically the Kohlis, but now more akin to World Economies from the engineered docks - create a parastic edge to the city. The boats feed off the docks, jetties and beaches - which in turn feed off them and their produce.

Catching Slips

Temporal Landscapes 3

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Open space in Mumbai comes at a premium, especially open space which can be called Maidan - the ultimate temporal landscape. These spaces flux with activity, and contrary to the Mumbai Development Plan, cannot be contained by a line on a map describing land use.

Catching Slips

Maidan

the temporal ground of Mumbai Maidans are a specifically India entity; an open space within the City that allows for the breakdown of all social barriers, a space to be appropriated that has elastic potential to flux outwith its constraints, and importantly, a space that can be “soaked” - both literally during the Monsoon, allowing the environment of the city to refresh, or metaphorically in a socio-political sense with its activity and temporal occupation.

As such, the Beach is one of the few remaining conditions in the city that truely represents the Maidan, primarily due to its social connatations. The beach, with its constant fluctuating edge, improvisational qualties, and its elastic space refers back to our understanding of Maidan as somewhere that allows for social activity, exchange, and the removal of social barriers, as well as the dynamism of activity and event.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The Maidan condition in Mumbai is no longer found regularly in the city. What is called “Maidan” no longer holds the qualities which make it such an important aspect of the city. Those found in the city are historicised, fenced and highly regulated. Such formalisation is opposite to the conditions that the Maidan seeks.

Maidan

cricket as measure The historic Maidans are full of cricket. Cricket has an inherent measure. 22yards between the stumps Playing area width of 3.66m Width of the Stumps as 228.6mm

It is through these measures that the Maidan can be scaled, and order can be made from the chaos of multiple games occuring simultaneously.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Maidan

the Beach as a Maidan The beach, with its improvisational qualties, and its elastic space, refers back to our understanding of Maidan as somewhere that allows for social activity, exchange, and the removal of social barriers, as well as the dynamism of activity and event.

This improvisational quality is the ability to play cricket on a beach, using driftwood as a bat, or flying kites in a festival, or selling fish caught earlier in the day. It is these activities that allow the Maidan to be an elastic space at the beach, spreading out further into streets and alleys around the temporal edges. It is the beachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to accomodate these improvisations and social exchanges, absorbing both traces of activity but also the monsoon rain, that show it as Mumbaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promordial Maidans, and the ground of Mumbai itself. The activities of the beach as a Maidan, a place for unregulated exchange and social interactions, can be broken down into a process. At Machhimar Nagar, this can be broken down into six parts

Catching Slips

Sand Mining

abusing the material of Maidan Sand is the material of the Maidan. The Beach is the Primordial Maidan of Mumbai, and the Beach is currently the only real occurance of the Maidan in its full etent oin Mumbai. But more than this, sand is an important commodity in Mumbai.

The legislaton controlling sand mining is quite relaxed. For instance, an area less than 5ha can be mined for sand without needing an enviromenal permit and report. This means that businesses could purchase a plot of land under 5ha, and dig/mine up to the depth of a basement (which is not defined), without even having to declare what they are doing. All of this leads to sand needing to be preserved as Maidan. And when sand is used, it needs to become callibrated.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The building industry is growing at such a rapid rate, due to the extents of the developing city, that sand is in short supply. Recent legislation has meant that sand cannot be imported into Mumbai from outside the district of Maharashtra. This has led to a shortfall in supply, which has led to the development of illegal mining for sand all around Mumbai - mainly Thane and Navi Mumbai - where sand is dredged causing massive environmental issues, leading to flooding and exaggerated and accelerated errosion of land. As the price of sand rose, a black market emerged. There have even been occurances of government officials being threatened at gun-point by members of Mumbaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Sand Mafia.

Catching Slips

03 Reading Flux

Drawing Activity in the City

It is important to work a way to enable the passage of time to be drawn out. Overlaying activity and gesture can be one way of catching such slips. Understanding the process of drawing and modelling these fluxes enables an understanding of how agency and architecture might catch these slips as well.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai 41

The activities of the beach as a Maidan, a place for unregulated exchange and social interactions, can be broken down into a process. At Machhimar Nagar, this can be broken down into six parts: 1. Landing the catch 2. Sorting the catch 3. Preparing the catch 4. Selling the catch 5. Repairing the [net] edge 6. Re-appropriating the [net] edge When considered in isolation, each of these processes have gesteral qualities on both the body scale and also at the building scale. The movements between locations where the activities take place leave traces on the ground surface, but also on the buildings in the village where the process moves between. There is a fluidity to this temporal activity, something which is captured in the delicate traces that the tide wipes away twice a day. These process all have associated territories. Whilst the exact locations are always in flux, along with the movement of the process, the tend to congregate in certain areas - using specific locations to anchor the revelant activity.

Whilst in Mumbai, I took videos of the activites in an attempt to capture some of these gestural qualities of the movements and activites on the beach - stills of these videos are found on the following pages, along with some photography. I have drawn out these movements, and territories, attempting to catch the trace of these flickering fluxes and use this as a basis for further development and understanding of the how the beach as a Maidan condition can be calibrated and applied to other aspects of Mumbai.

3. Preparing the Catch

Female involvement in process

4. Selling the Catch

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

6. Re-appropriating the [net] Edge

1. Landing the Catch

Male involvement in process

5. Reparing the [net] Edge

2. Sorting the Catch

Catching Slips

Landing the Catch After sailing out for 10kn, the fish are caught by dragging a 100ft x 6ft net between two boats for 30 minutes. The nets are then dragged onto the boats, and the Koli return to Machhimar Nagar. The bright colours of the boats catches the eye, as they bob and nudge and move in the waves, harboured in the Back Bay. These larger boats are too big to land the catch directly from, so the nets are transferred, fish still intack, to smaller boats, often made of polystyrene, to bring the catch to shore. The landing of these small boats is achieved with paddles made from recycled materials, pulling the landing crafts towards the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge, through the rubbish that has collected on the shore.

The nets are finally lifted from the boat by tying them a strong pole, which is carried by two men across the stones and rubbish on the shoreline to higher ground, where men and women are waiting to sort the catch. The process up to here has been completed solely by the men of the village.

Catching Slips

Sorting the Catch A blue sheet of tarpaulin is arranged on the ground, offering a small amount of protection for both the catch and the net from the rough and dirty ground on the shoreline. The space here is used by everyone, including boat repairers and children for playing, and the tarpaulin is definitely required.

The fish are then washed in the dirty sea water, cleaning any immediate debris from the product, but doing little else in improving the quality of the fish. We have seen people defacating here, the water is most definitely not clean or safe.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The sorting of the catch is somewhat mesmeric. The 100ft net is passed along a line of men and women, each removing fish as it passes them. Today, it was sardines they had caught. Each person stoops to pick up the net, then skillfully and carefully they remove the individual fish from the net, breaking neither the skin of the fish or the net itself [both have inherent value]. The blurring of hands, and the small movements each person makes, gives the space both activity and a defined loci of working - the Koli never move far from the edge of the nets

Preparing the Catch Once landed and sorted, the catch is ready to be prepared for sale. This happens all across the village - the territory it catches is more often than not the territory of the step outside the home of the woman preparing the fish. This is the first female only part of the process in Machhimar Nagar, and it is women of all ages. Children are seen shelling shrimp in the street, young adult women are seen both at the market and in the front of their homes, and the elder women who seem to have the better location and priviledges - chop and gut the fish around the village.

The gatherings of girls to shell shrimp is perhaps the most social of these preparations. Small groups sit crossed legged, oblivious to the smell, creating a mountain of fresh shelled shellfish. The gutting and chopping of the fish has no finery. The fish arent boned, purely hacked with a large sharp knife on a wooden block into small chunks - minimising waste. Occasionally, the fish are cleaned in some water from a hose/tap in the village this time - but the water is frequently reused. For these activities, territory is simply claimed, or re-appropriated from communal spaces. It is a temporal activity, which last for only a few hours a day, dependant on the catch itself.

Catching Slips

Selling the Catch After landing, sorting, and preparing the catch, the fish reaches the market within the village of Machhimar Nagar. The space is simply reclaimed surfaces, the steps of the streetside buildings provide a surface to build a stand from. The fish themselves are piled high, with little regard for hygiene, only a wooden board on a box from the dirt of the street.

One woman cleans the step - a faded cream tiled area - infront of her house where she has sold her days fish with a tied bundle of sticks, sweeping the water and blood from the catch onto the dirt street. People shove and move to avoid the spray.

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The noise is overwhelming. The women shouting, trying to grab attention, pointing and gesticulating. A cramped street already, the stalls forcing us and the other trying to navigate the space together. Catfish, shrimp, bombil/Bombay Duck all on show. The smell of fish guts, and the drying Bombil fill the air.

Repairing the Edge The Net is the most important piece of equipment for the Koli. If it breaks, it cannot be used for catching fish. It has a unique and important inherent value, a value which is not the same for anyone else bar the fisherman himself. Within the village, there are three of these areas: an old tiled room [, a shed-like building on the shoreline where the boats traverse the edge, and a small covered area within the village itself. The process of the repair is captiviating to watch. Incrediable skill is required to repair the nets at the speed that the Koli works. Wrapping some new rope around a square of wood, the man tied knots and weaves with great speed catching rope and the old net, making precise cuts with a knife [tied around his neck], and then suddenly, a whole new section of net appears, filling the void where the old net had been broken.

Some fishermen recently bought new nets, but even these, before being used, have their edges repaired. Thick rope is applied to hold the thinner net in place and give it additional strength. The contrast of the thick and thin, the traditional material and the synthetic modern material, shows how the community is attempting to adapt the process in line with the modern Mumbai it now finds itself in.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Re-appropriating the Edge Even though the village is one of the original fishing villages of Mumbai, the main open space is used purely for cricket. The Edge of the village has been re-appropriated as two cricket pitches, the Edges themselves re-defined by the use of old fishing nets. This is the major communal space within the village, and offers spatial relief from the dense housing, and is used by everyone in the village in some way. The net provides a temporal yet definite edge, with the major artery of the city in Cuffe Parade on one side, and the housing and coast to the other.

Edge is also created by fishing nets in the housing itself. One man has made a screen door from old fishing net between his house and the major street of the village. The upper storeys of housing also often use net to define the Edge of their property as they overhang the street. Space is of a premium in Machhimar Nagar, and the reappropriation of the Edge shows the villagers making the most of what they have.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The process of creating the drawings has, like the fishing process, 6 parts. Using the titles of the parts of the fishing process, these can be attribute to the stages of creating the final piece. 1. Landing - the process of filling the sandbox with sand, creating the land and the surface on which the drawing takes place. 2. Sorting - the taxonomy of objects used to create the drawing 3. Preparing - the first refresh, water is poured onto the sand to enable it to take the lines and compressions to create clean and sharp edges in the sand 4. Transaction - the movement of pieces into the Maidan as a transaction across the edge of the box. 5. Repair - The running of rakes across the surface to mark out the original grid that the drawing relates to 6. Reappropriation - casting of the surface. This creates another PARA-situation as the final cast is an inverted form of the Maidan, creating inverted forms of the built situation and gradients, but still highlighting the critical analysis of the relationships.

As part of the process of understanding the relationships between different depositions into the urban fabric of the city, the process of drawing into a maidan/sand helps to take the activity into a three dimensional realm. The process looks to record traces in the surface of the Maidan parasituation that I have created, using the drawing of the social-spatial relationships of the beach as a starting point indentifying territories and depths of gradient to be created in three dimensions in

Catching Slips

TRANSACTION Tools used to establish transaction

Territories

Processes

Processes Territories Processes

Territories

Processes

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TRANSACTION Tools used to establish transaction

Processes Processes

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REPAIR Rakes used to re-

REPAIRestablish the territories and processes Rakes used to re- into the Maidan establish the territories and processes into the Maidan

Territories

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during the transaction of territory to Maidan

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TRANSACTION Edges used to identify points of achoring TRANSACTION within the Edgesprocess used to identify of achoring during points the transaction withinto theMaidan process of territory

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TRANSACTION Pieces used to identify territory of process within the transaction of piece to Maidan

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TRANSACTION Pieces used to identify TAXONOMY territory of process OF THE PROCESS within the transaction of piece to Maidan

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TAXONOMY OF THE PROCESS

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2. Sorting - the taxonomy of objects used to create the drawing

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

In order to achieve this, a PARA-sitauation was created. A sandbox which represented an abstracted form of the Maidan as a beach. The sandbox would be part of a process of creating the drawing in three dimensions, recording activity and gestures, and capturing the traces left behind, before the whole system is refreshed and a new drawing can be produced.

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The sandbox allows for physical attributes of a Maidan - it is an elastic space and can be extended, its surface allows for the recording of traces of activity, and it can be utilised as a gradient to measure activity and movement across. Regarding the social aspect, this is created through the drawing process which shows relationships between territories and locations.

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4. Transaction - the movement of pieces into the Maidan as a transaction across the edge of the box. The following pages document the process of transaction transferring the pieces into the surface of the sand, leaving traces of these actions themselves as well as the traces of the activity which is being drawn into the sand.

This process is not totally accurate representation of the physical built environment of Mumbai. However, it shows the relationships between the different elements and territories in a three dimensional form. The inaccuracies allow for the blurring of some edges, the overlapping of certain elements and the shifting terrain of the beach to be taken into account.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The Beach Condition at Machhimar Nagar Drawing the relationships found at Machhimar Nagar in Colaba as part of the understanding beach as Maidan.

The gradients and territories of the activity are mapped out into the new Maidan box to register these traces.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The beach and the Hard Edge Exploring the different conditions of the section from manmade edge through to beach.

Sassoon dock was one of the first engineered edges on the East coast. It also serves as the major internally trading opposition to the small scale local activity of the fishing village on the other side of the penisula.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The social condition of the Maidan Locating key aspects and social relationships of the Maidan in relation to Cricket, a key aspect of the social interactions of the Maidan

As cricket is the measure of the Maidan, through its inherent distances, this drawing is about understanding how these measures scale the to larger city zone.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The Maidan Condition in Mumbai

Locating the Maidan condition in Mumbai, as historical conditions, and the beaches.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The gestures of drawing the Maidan are an integral part of the understanding of how to react to the temporal landscapes. The process of creating the gradients of Maidan becomes key to creating an new approach to urbanism that enables the Maidan condition to flourish, and the slips and fluxes of the city to be registered within the architecture.

Through this understanding, locating architecture is possible. And also identifying points of interest within the city where the fluxes can be drawn out through gradients.

Catching Slips

North

Drawing Key:

Hard Edges and Edge Pieces Territory Activity on the Maidan (fluxing on the Body Scale) Gestures of Drawing the Maidan Gradients of the Maidan Beaches (as Maidan)

CITY

SET2

City

South Mumbai Locating the Maidan Condition

SET1

The Historic Maidans Measuring the Maidan through Cricket activity

Gestures Gradients and Edges 1-3,000

drawing relationships across the Maidan condition within the city at different scales, through the gestures and gradients found on the ground, and the edges that define the spaces of transaction.

SET2

Colaba to Sassoon Dock Between Hard Edge and Gradient of the Beach

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

SET1

Body

Macchimar Nagar Fishing Village Activity of the Body across the Beach Maidan gradient

6. Reappropriation - casting of the surface. This creates another PARA-situation as the final cast is an inverted form of the Maidan, creating inverted forms of the built situation and gradients, but still highlighting the critical analysis of the relationships.

After mixing the plaster, it was poured directly into the sand. An artificial edge was created in order to allow the sandbox to be reused. This also enables all the casts to be the same size and thus comparable directly to each other, even though they might be at different scales. A small mound was created as a result of the pouring of the plaster onto the sand surface, as it is not a totally solid element - the give in the surface is an essential aspect of Maidan and as such, to cast into a solid element would be to create an improper PARA-situation.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The unveiling of the cast, followed by the cleaning of the sand is similar to an archeological device, discovering a secret aspect of the Maidan through an understanding of its traces.

Catching Slips

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Catching Slips

04 Testing Edges

Holding Flux, releasing the Terrain Vague

Considering the idea that the Maidan is the ideal condition for proposing a new sensitive ecological urbanism, we must test how architecture as Edge can impact the surrounding territories. As such, the engineered dock edges of the East coast of Mumbai provide the testing ground. Here is found a large amount of Terrain Vague, and through exploring the impact of creating new architectural and programmatic edges, it is possible to view different ways in which the Agency Maidan can deal with the fluxing edge of the coast, as well as the Parasitic relationship of the fishing boats.

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Firstly, a move to take possession of that edge is proposed: to install a specificity where we find terrain vague and to reaffirm specificity where it has been lost. This taking possession of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the edgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a statement: a means of bringing attention to the current situation, whilst suggesting methods that could ameliorate it: industrially, ecologically and socially. The methods only intend to demonstrate the potential fecundity of the mud and sea, and to position ourselves politically.

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Mumbai has developed as the result of trade. By focusing on the docks of Mumbai, this testing aims to first identify and understand the by-products of this trade. The trade has been enabled by, and is exemplified through, the devices across which parasitic activities take place. These devices have brought specificity to the edge of Mumbai, which has allowed for the growth and development of the city. Therefore these tests proposes a set of architectures that will take possession of, and install a specificity to, that edge. In doing so, the network of agencies will draw attention to the current situation and suggest methods to ameliorate it, industrially, ecologically and socially.

Testing Architecture Amenity

The Amenity is two-part: a testing laboratory for the fishing industry and also a fish market. As part of the new social and industrial practices, the lab tests that the locally fished produce is safe to consume. The market seeks to enable a greater interaction between Mumbai and its fishing trade. By defining the edge of the public realm, the Amenity looks to activate this ‘in-between’ space through interactions of the architectural edge condition and the Mumbaikers within that space, whilst helping to connect the networks of the agency to the preexisting networks of the fishing industry/restaurants of Mumbai. As such, the amenity becomes a device within the urban fabric of Mumbai.

“an ‘in-between’ space is activated by the motion of bodies in that space”

- Bernard Tschumi

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Clusters of buildings generating spatial function and interacting with the landscape/city to create opportunities for adjacent networks to interact

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The boats interact with the coastline of Mumbai in a similar fashion to the way people interact with architecture and markets. In feeding off the agency, the people will interact with the architecture and space, but also with each other - crossing paths and financially trading in the market.

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Testing Edges

modelling interventions in the temporal ground

The heights and depths of the edge pieces reflect the amount of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;strainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at that edge. For example, the thicker and taller the edge piece the greater the resistance of the mess at that edge. Where the agencies have reclaimed land or cut into the coastline the edges are dealing with high resistance levels.

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Model in black and orange acrylic depicting the edges of the FAB agencies and their positions in the temporal ground of Mumbai. The edges bring a control to this ground to create territories for the activities of the agencies. Different concentrations of holes in the black express the centres of the agency territories.

Between the Agency the terrain vague of Mumbai

Between the agencies is ground that could potentially be Maidan, but currently can only be described as terrain vague. These blurred and undefined grounds hold the potential to be activated as something more than un-assigned land on a development plan by the activity of the In-between (Tschumi).

The agencies can, through the activity of the Maidan, release this terrain vague and reconnect the ground of Mumbai to its Primordial condition of Maidan.

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Amenity

Plans and Sections The architecture looks to explore the Edge condition and how the programme and circulation spaces have become the “in-between” space, activated by the process and the movement of people through the building - and as such, through the new network imposed by the FAB Agencies to ensure clean and safe fish being distributed back into the local Mumbai situation.

The plan looks to use the processing of the fish brought to the laboratory for testing to activate the space between the edges, enhancing the interaction, and creating new surfaces to be inhabited along with the edge itself.

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Between the Edges Amenity - Lab

The edge containing space within the mess, helping to activate the â&#x20AC;&#x153;in-betweenâ&#x20AC;? space by the movement of the process inherent in the programme through the edge condition. Anchoring the architecture into the site, sinking sections of programme underground - thus creating new courtyards and openings along surfaces, focusing around the creation of a new Reservoir tank.

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Layering the Edge Amenity - Lab Exploded axonometric

Exploring the relationship between Edge, territory, programme and surface to activate the â&#x20AC;&#x153;in-betweenâ&#x20AC;?

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Anchoring Edge

inhabiting through Agency The model pictured here and drawings opposite look to see how the architecture interacts with the existing site condition.

The Amenity looks to prise open a section of this, embedded and anchored into Mumbaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geological build up, to reveal and engage with the temporal ground. The courtyard as well as the stepping out of the landscape, show how the architecture is taking control of this ever changing coastal area.

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The Edge does not just contain programme and define the edge of the Public realm, it also interacts with the fluxing city.

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architectural propositions of Agency Maidan

Having tested the Edge conditions of an architectural insertion into the Urban fabric of the Mumbai, the architecture of Agency Maidan is placed into the city to re-engage and catalyse the Maidan condition. Through a programme related to Sand - the material of the Maidan - a thickened yet permeable architectural edge in applied to the city, activating the In-between spaces, and reacting with Terrain Vague. Programmatic considerations also look to address the misuse of sand in the building industry in Mumbai by preserving and elevating its importance in a visual manner and as an architectural tectonic.

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Artificial Excavations overlaying Maidan relationships

As part of my understanding of Maidan, the casts and drawings created describing the relationships of the Maidan remain very pertenant. As such, the relationships and interactions these explore can be drawn out further and applied to new sites and an Architecture of Maidan. After reading Peter Eisenmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work on The City Artificial Excavations - intially part of a competition bid for Berlin, but developed into an important design approach on more than one project - this approach could be utilised to overlay different aspects of Maidan onto one site.

By overlaying these drawings and positioning them to exaggerate the relationships between them, new relationshipsand understandings of Maidan can be worked upon. These new gestures therefore become part of the understanding of Maidan as well. Much as Eisenman overlaid things that were no longer there, or never built as Le Corbusierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hospital for Veniceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case, these conditions are not seen together, and is part of the conceit of emphasising the Maidan.

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Ecological Territory of Maidan Permeable Edges and Temporal Landscapes SET drawing 1-1000

Exploring the relationship between the Monsoon landscape, trees as three dimensional permeable edges to the Maidan, and an architectural proposition within the city

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Permeable Programmed Edge Piece Ground Floor Plan 0 Sample Store 1 Thickened Edge Threshold 2 Administration Offices 3 Water Testing Lab 4 Water Store 5 Slow Sand Fliter 6 Monsoon Research Laboratory 7 Inhabited Edge Threshold 8 Toilets 9 Changing Room 1 10 Changing Room 2 11 Cricket Viewing Platform

12 Lecture Theatre 13 Teaching Workshop 14 Staff Room 15 Sand Testing Laboratory 16 Sand Store

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Store room Store room

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Permeable Programmed Edge Piece First Floor Plan 0 Sample Store 1 Thickened Edge Threshold 2 Administration Offices 3 Water Testing Lab 4 Water Store 5 Slow Sand Fliter 6 Monsoon Research Laboratory 7 Inhabited Edge Threshold 8 Toilets 9 Changing Room 1 10 Changing Room 2 11 Cricket Viewing Platform

12 Lecture Theatre 13 Teaching Workshop 14 Staff Room 15 Sand Testing Laboratory 16 Sand Store

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Thickening the Permeable Maidan Edge Section a-a 1-200

Emphasising Architecture of Maidan Edge and e Preciousness of Sand g Architecture of Maidan Edge Programmatic arrangements Section B-B Programme) Slips (Allowing Movement through) Long Section 1-500 n 1-200

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The Architecture of Maidan Building Scale

Using architecture to define and thicken the edges of the Maidan, and creating a programme of Maidan through Agency [SAND]

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Relationships across the Maidan from the Labs Short Section 1-500

Emphasising Architecture of Maidan Front Facade treatments - elevating theEdge Sand Catching (Sand Programme) Slips (Allowing Movement through) Elevation 1-500

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Front Elevation ng Architecture of 1-200 Maidan Edge and e Preciousness of Sand

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Tectonic of A Exploded Isome 1-200

Anchoring the Tem 1 Wooden Platform 2 Anchor Piece Wall

Responding to the M 3 Slow Sand Filter

Monsoon Laboratory 4 Brass Cladding Skin 5 Steel Frame

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b Edge Inhabited 7 Inhabited Edge Wa a 8 Glazing System

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Sand Laboratory 9 Brass Cladding Bui 10 Glazing System 11 Sand Store

Educating about the Ma 12 Brass Cladding Bu 13 Metal Cladding Sh

Temporal Pieces 14 Wooden Walkway

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1:200 Model Photographs

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Identifying how the architecture of the agency helps to define Open space, and how it relates to the other buildings on the site as part of the wider Set of Enzymatic Territories.

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Anchoring the Temporal Ground 1 Wooden Platform 2 Anchor Piece Wall Build-up

Utilising the Material of the Maidan

Responding to the Monsoon Cycle 3 Slow Sand Filter

Sand Laboratory 9 Brass Cladding Build-up 10 Glazing System 11 Sand Store

Monsoon Laboratory 4 Brass Cladding Skin 5 Steel Frame

Educating about the Maidan 12 Brass Cladding Build-up 13 Metal Cladding Shadow Gap

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Temporal Pieces 14 Wooden Walkway Build-up

Inhabited Edge 7 Inhabited Edge Wall Build-up 8 Glazing System

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Wall Construction Pre-cast Panels

Plan and Section drawings (originally at 1-10) showing the build up for the inhabited edge pieces. The Pre-cast concrete panel construction allows for thinner walls, and also thinner concrete. This in turn reduces the amount of sand required in construction, replacing it with recycled glass off site.

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The hanging arrangement allows for overlaps to mean that rain cannot get behind the panels when it is running off the facade. A damp proof membrane is applied to the outer side of the steel structure, with infil insulation panels.

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Pre-cast concrete Facade treatments Detail Section (originally 1-10)

Pre-cast concrete Facade treatments Detail Plan (originally 1-10)

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Holding Lightly Temporary Structures

The Timber walkways around the building are temporary structures. They are the measure of the space, like the stumps are the measure of the cricket pitch. They are held together using a series of steel brackets and slings which allow for the timbers to be placed together, and easily replaced as they wear over time with the traces of the re-appropriation and activity that surrounds them.

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1 Concrete Plinth Base 2 Steel Cap and shaft 3 Timber to Timber Sling joint 4 Concrete wall 5 Timber to Concrete Sling joint 6 Timber beam

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Catching Slips Brass door details

This detail acts as a register of trace of daily activity. As such, these doors are placed at the key programmatic areas, especailly those related to Maidan or Sand. Over laying stills from the animation identifies this detail as a gestural equivalent to the fisherman fixing his net at Macchimar Nagar in Colaba.

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The doors are on runner, which, over time polish up the brass floor plate.

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Sand Laboratory Uplift Detail - structure

The Sand Laboratory is elevated up from the inhabited edge that sits on the ground floor below it.In order to do this, a series of steel detail uplift columns are required.

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They are design to reflect the thesis, and are catching the material of the Maidan and raising it up about the ordinary ground of Mumbai.

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1 Existing wall 2 Pressure Pad 3 Steel Clip 4 Screws 5 I-beam 6 Holding Panel 7 Pressure Pad 8 Primary Steels

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Construction Sequences Building on temporal grounds

The Construction sequence is outlined over the next few pages.

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Primary Structure uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The Sand Laboratory is a self supporting steel structure. The steel formwork includes cross-bracing on the X,Y, and Z axis. The primary structure is connected back to the main building via the lift shaft concrete construction, and the raised uplift details.

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Secondary Structure The secondary structure is joined horizontally onto the primary steels. This is going to be used to hang the metal cladding from.

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It is smaller is diameter than the Primaries.

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Internal Structure uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Internal steels are now added. This includes doorways and importantly the framework for the large glazing panels.

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Floor and Glazing At this point, the in-situ cast concrete floor can be added. It adds thermal mass and helps control the temperature of the lab. Ontop of this the underfloor heating/cooling is laid, and a screed is the poured ontop.

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The Glazing is added in.

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Metal Skin

Once the Building is water tight, and internal fit out can be done. This includes infil insulation panels.

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Finally metal cladding panels are applied. They are hung vertically off the horizontal secondary steels.

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Anchors The first part of the construction process is thebuilding of the in-situ concrete anchor pieces.

Platforms Next, the platforms are constructed, also as in-situ concrete, but with a set back to allow for timber decking to be applied.

Inhabited Edge Once the levels have been completed, framework for the the pre-cast concrete panels are built, and the roofing behind the parapets is applied. At this point, the building is usable.

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Frames The additive architecture is now constructed, starting with the wooden walkway to the rear entrance. Then the steel frames are built for the Monsoon research laboratory, and the uplifts for the sand laboratory

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Undercladding Undercladding is applied to the frameworks to create exaggerated shadow gaps for the metal skins.

Metal Cladding Skin Finally regarding the building construction, the metal skin cladding panels are applied.

Glazing Glazing, and its framework are added, making the laboratories controlled and water tight. At this point, the building is fully functional and can be handed over the the users.

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Timber Walkway Timber walkways between the other buildings on the site are the last aspect to be constructed. The timber sizing is related directly to the width of a set of cricket stumps, allowing for reappropriation of the walkways in many different manners.

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KEY: Universal Access Route Sealable Lab Room Controlled Air-Vents

Universal Access The Site for the Laboratory building is very accessable, being located in the centre of an urban development. Access to the site is directly off the road/pavement. The building itself is raised up on a series of different platforms. Universal access is provided as an ingress in the centre of the site which is also the route between the social housing and the lab. The internal arrangement of the ground floor is navigated via a series of shallow ramps, thus allowing for the whole level to be accessible. A lift is provided to the first floor. The lecture theatre has spaces reserved for wheelchairs. However, the Sand Testing Laboratory is raised up by a few steps.

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The entrance ramp, and all other ramps in the building correspond to the general guidelines set out in Building regulations (Construction (Design and Management) Regulatoins 2007 M.5.5.3) regarding the maximum gradients for internal ramps at 1:20.

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Health and Safety For the Laboratory building, there are a few use H&S concerns that are addressed through the environmental design of the building. The main concern is the control of fumes from the lab.

Another concern is the nature of the platformed build up of the building. This is addressed by integrated handrails on platforms that are more than two steps up.

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The management of this uses a separate mechanical ventilation system for the labs, and removes natural ventilation from these environments. By controlling the air supply and movement, the risk is reduced of contaminated airflow. The doors to the laboratories are also much thicker than other doors, enabling the rooms to be sealed off if required - as part of the controlled environment required for Laboratory work.

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KEY: Fire Escape Route Fire Assembly Points Safe Route Safe Fire Assembly Point Emergency Services Access

Fire Safety In the event of fire, occupants utilise the two main entrances to leave the building. Due to the use of the building, the upper floor exits directly from the stairs, whilst the ground floor exits, always going down ramps, to either the Maidan space, or the road. From the safe meeting points, a route away from the building to the safe assembly point can be used. The emergency services access the building through the main entrances as well, but using the other split of the threshold.

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The structure of the building is primarily concrete, which performs reasonably well during fire. The steel frames would require a fireretardant paint to be applied, to increase the time they would withold deformation.

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Costing and Procurement An important aspect of the design is the reduction in the use of sand in the construction process. This is achieved by using cheaper recycled glass in the place of sand. In order to do this, the panels would have to be pre-cast off site to ensure required strengths. This off-site production helps to reduce the cost and waste within the building process. The nature of the construction process and the way the architecture takes its measure from fluxes in the Maidan (such as heights of grass, and monsoon floodying), it is advisable that this project utilise the Traditional procurement path - as it enables design continuity and flexibility, whilst holding original concepts. With elements such as the groundworks on the edges, and the timber walkways, specialist building knowledge would be required, with continued collaborations between architect constructor and client essential to the successful delivery of the building.

Planning Implications The site sits within Ward A of the Mumbai Development Plan. However, my urban proposal looks to not conform to this plan, as it suggests a tabula rasa approach to Urbanism which is not a suitable attitude to the metropolitan landscape in Mumbai. Rather than draw a line around a plot of land and decree it â&#x20AC;&#x153;Open space,â&#x20AC;? my proposal suggests that all land is actually Open space, and that Agencies look to engage and act as a catalyst to these enzymatic territories. The diagram on the right overlays my proposals onto the Mumbai Development Plan.

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Despite opposing the MDP, the project looks to address the distinct lack of publicly accessable open space in Mumbai, and also provide Social housing, as well as productive buildings, and as such presents a strong case for its approval.

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Productive Maidan

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Natural Ventilation Ideally, most of the building would be naturally ventilated. However, in India, with the outside temperature and inside temperature very similar this is not always possible. To maximise the potential for the building to naturally ventilate, threshold conditions are kept entirely open. As these are on the extremes of the building, this will enable a good cross ventilation through the communal spaces of the programme, enhancing the connection to the Maidan visual and physically. In addition to this, two void ducts are created along one of the exposed concrete anchor walls. As one of the larger walls this areas also acts as a thermal sink, generating a cooler breeze throughout the building during the night. These ducts allow the hot air at the base of the building to rise up and out, enhancing the airflow through the design.

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The Building also allows for openable high level windows under the lecture theatre. This movement of air around one of the hottest pieces of the programme (due to the number of bodies in a smaller space) allows for some heat to be taken away from the source.

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permeable mesh allows hot air to flow through the staircore and out, keeping that area of the building cool, and allowing the concrete walls to act as thermal massing

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Used Air Pulled Out

Clean Air Draw In

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Mechanical Ventilation Mechanical Ventilation is required for the Laboratories. To enable the air to not be short circuited, air is pulling into the building through three ducts (about the Sand Lab) and is then dispersed to the opposite sides of each of the labs, away from the in-take8 ducts. The ductwork is hidden either behind a suspended Ceiling internally, or utilises some of the more awkward corners of the plans to move veritcally. Here the duct work and service area can be seen in plan, spread apart to minimise short circuiting the airflows. 9

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Mechnical heating and cooling is also required for the controlling of the temperature of the lab rooms. This is achieved via unfloor heating/cooling, which utilises the natural ground source 10 which runs temperatures to either heat or cool water in the pipes through the system.

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Programme of the Maidan dispersing the Agency across the City

The programme of Maidan relates to the activites that were found at the beach, and other Maidan conditions. The addition of the Bureaucratic programme reflects the need to protect the material of Sand in light of the illegal sand mining. Production FP1 - Glass Workshop (Factory) FP2 - Glass Recycling (Factory) BP1 - Laboratories (Butt) Bureaucratic BB1 - Customs House (Butt) AB1 - Law Courts (Amenity) Economic AE1 - Market place (Amenity) Social AS1 - Workers Housing (Amenity) AS2 - Cricket Academy (Amenity)

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Ecological BE1 - Slow-Sand Filters (Butt)

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Glass Recycling Centre and Workshop Roof Plan drawing 1-1000

Sand is the material of the Maidan. By recycling glass, sand equivalents can be produced to replace sand in the building industry. The recycling centre embeds the machinary into the anchor walls. The process is linear, and as such, there are a series of trolleys, that, like the doors in the laboratory, are on brass runners, polishing the brass as they are used. These gestures of movement along the process are part of the gestures of Maidan - in creating more sand, and preserving the material of the Maidan

idan between the Trees

The glass production requires a 50:50 ratio of sand to water. As such, the glass produced is a measure of the Monsoon in production - the water filtered by the slow sand filters on the Maidan are used only for glass production, creating annual fluctuations in relation to the Monsoon temporal landscape.

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ogical Maidan territory within the city, understanding vegetation as sional Permeable Edge, and its interaction/registration of the Monsoon cycle

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The edge ground works connect the lab back to the main Maidan, in a similar way that the housing does. The Cold-shop for the glass workshop sits on the groud floor, along with admin offices, staff common room, and the plant for the furnance.

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Glass Recycling Centre and Workshop Ground Plan 1-500

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Social Housing First floor and Roof Plan 1-500

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The first floor houses the Hot Shop Glass workshop. Here the furnance is used to melt the premixed sand to turn it into molten glass, before it is shaped and formed into the final product. The workshop is a self-supporting steel shell, lifted up about the ground floor roof in a similar fashion to the sand laboratory. It is naturally ventilated through the folded opening in the roof.

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Social Housing Roof Plan drawing 1-1000

idan between the Trees

The social housing relates to the Social condition of the Maidan. It is designed to be read as an urban block, directly in juxtaposition to the surrounding towerblocks. The housing breaks away from the grain of the city, pulling into the open space to create a relationship with the Laboratory and Glass workshop thus defining the new Maidan. Its connection to the edge of the site exists as ground works, and small edge pieces. These are designed to be open for re-approriation, creating new flexible spaces. They are also disgned to catch and store some monsoon rainfall, due to subtle and gentle sloping to two pools (one fron and one rear).

ogical Maidan territory within the city, understanding vegetation as sional Permeable Edge, and its interaction/registration of the Monsoon cycle

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The ground floor and first floor have an inserted piece. This is a communal space with direct connection to the Maidan, and is intended to be used for the drawing of the Mandala - hence the viewing platform on the first floor.

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Social Housing and Cricket Pavilion Ground Plan 1-500

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Social Housing First, Second Third and Fourth Floor Plans 1-500 The repeated flat module is design for off-site construction. This minimises theamount of sand required - substituting it for recycled glass - and also speeds up the construction process.

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The Stair coresand Lift shaft provide the anchor elements, with steel frames and metal meshes allowing for a natural cross ventilation through the flats to occur.

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Emphasising Architecture of Maidan Edge Catching (Sand Programme) Slips (Allowing Movement through) Front Elevation 1-200

Thickening the Permeable Maidan Edge Section a-a 1-200

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Emphasising Architecture of Maidan Edge and e Preciousness of Sand Section B-B 1-200

Social Housing Section (originally 1-200)

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Social Housing Roof Plan 1-500

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Social Housing Front and Rear Elevations 1-200

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Working at the Urban scale, the housing block uses solid massing and visably permeable meshes to create the â&#x20AC;&#x153;thickened edgeâ&#x20AC;? to the Maidan

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Mantralaya

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Sand Law Courts Roof Plan drawing 1-1000

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The main Bureaucratic building within Agency Maidan. The Sand court is located next to the Mantralaya - the main government building in Mumbai. This juxtaposition of open space and flux next to the very static public building shows to main difference between the Mumbai urban paradigm and how Agency Maidan would improve the relationship between city and landscape

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Customs House Roof Plan drawing 1-1000

There is also a house for the customs officer, which is a simple AS1 of the social housing on the main site - showing the displacement equality of the social condition of the Maidan.

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A small building located next to the beach at Colaba, acts as a regulating point within the Set of Enzymatic Territories of the Agency.

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Glass Recycling Centre Glass-making Workshops

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06 Enabling the Maidan

Fluxing space and cycles of activity

To enable the Maidan condition in the city, the Agency architecture looks to create permeable edges that allow activity to permeate throughout the city. This undefined and uncontrolled flux, slipping through buildings, brings the relationships of the Maidan to the fore in the city, in direct opposition to the Mumbai Development Planâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s static tabula rasa urbanism. Gestures and activity can be traces across the city from the Agencies, and it is this gradual daily fluxing that shows the Maidan condition working to restore the Natural contract between the City and the Environment.

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1-200 Model

Describing Buildings and Set of Enzymatic Territories The model starts by exploring the ground of the city. Using the lazer cutter - a digital equivalent of sand blasting - the grain of the city is revealed. The existing territories and the grain of the city relate the the static Mumbai Development Plan and the tabula rasa approach to Urbanism the city employs. The the temporal ground potential of the Maidan is also revelaed in the same fashion. Within the model this ground is a different material - opalescent perspex. This is back lit to create a special glowing condition.

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The three Agencies - Glass workshop and recycling centre, social housing, and testing labs - are built in the same fashion as previous models. The anchor pieces are built up in layers, akin to its construction as insitu concrete. The brass shows the metal cladding pieces identifying the Sand related programmes.

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Mandala

drawing temporality The Sand Mandala is a Buddhist tradition which involves the creating and destructing of mandalas, or intricate religious based diagrams, made from coloured sand. The ritualistic destruction of a completed mandala symbolises the transitory nature of material life. The mandala is drawn using a special metal device called a chak-pur. The ritualistic scraping along the serated edge of the pipe creates a metallic grinding sound, rather like the monotous chanting that normally accompanies the Mandala drawing.

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The destruction of the Mandala is an important aspect is showing the temporality of both the drawing and the life that it symbolises. The sand is brushed into the middle in a specific order, and then collected into a jar. The jar is then tipped into running water, where it is released back to nature. This action symbolises the ephemerality of life and the world.

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The drawing of the Mandala for the Maidan is about mapping the activity of the Maidan.

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The majority of the activty centre around cricket, and the open spaces between the building. The movement of people between the Agencies is also an important aspect, as well as the movement between the sites and the beaches.

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Mandala

destroying the Mandala

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Catching Slips uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

The gestures from drawing the relationships of the Maidan are an integral part of this understanding of this temporal fluxing ground.As such rather than using deities to order the destruction of the Mandala, it is these gestures that are used to push the sand across Mumbai, allowing for traces of the activity to be caught and registered through the architecture across the SET.

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07 Appendix

The Temporal City

Exhibition Details Studies in Contemporary Architectural Theory Essay Selected Bibliography Acknowledgements

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Exhibition

Edinburgh Collage of Arts, Sculpture Court Caught between Edges The project is exhibited so the viewer is positioned between solid edge pieces, creating an individual Maidan in the exhibition space, viewing the Maidan condition modelled within. Crosses are placed on the floor at the same scale as the model (1-200), to align with the grid that goes across all scales of the project - 50 ha - to show the bureaucratic legislation regarding sand mining. Calibrating Maidan

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By considering the Sculpture Court as Maidan, the space is understood and ordered through the measure of cricket.

D7 - Film and Animation Book 1 - Archives Book 2 - Building Book Book 3 - Design Report M1 - Drawing Maidan Cast

North

M2 - 1-200 SET Model BP1 Sand and Water Laboratory AS1 Workers Accommodation AS2 Cricket Pavilion FP1 - Glass Workshop FP2 - Glass Recycling

Calibrating Maidan

Crosses mark 50ha Grid at 1:200 in relation to the bureaucratic regulation of Sand in Mumbai

1-100

By considering the Sculpture Court as Maidan, the space is understood and ordered through the measure of cricket.

Book3

Book2

Catching Slips

D3 - Drawing Maidan Situation Relationships D4 - Agency MAIDAN Territories D5 - BLG Drawing Sheet (BP1 Sand and Water Laboratory) D6 - Exhibition Drawing

CATCHING SLIPS

Drawing Key: D1 - TLML Banner Drawing (Temporal Landscapes of Mumbai) D2 - SET Banner Drawing (Gestures and Activity of the Maidan)

M2 D1

Book1

Caught between Edges 1-20

The project is exhibited so the viewer is positioned between solid edge pieces, creating an individual Maidan in the exhibition space, viewing the Maidan condition modelled within

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Selected Bibliography for MArch Design Agamben, G. 2009. What is an Apparatus? in What is an Apparatus and other essays. trans. Kishik, D., Pedatella, S. (Stanford University Press, California) defining the concept of a ‘device’ through the description of the apparatus. Da Cuhna, D (2009) “Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary” pub Trapeze indepth analysis of Mumbai via the 2005 Monsoon flooding - research by design Eisenman, P 1994 Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988 (New York, Rizzoli International) overlaying relationships in the city, from different times and different locations, and then excavating this artificial situation to reveal new relationships to build upon Foucault, M. 2007. The Meshes of Power in Space, Knowledge Power: Foucault and Geography. ed. Crampton, J.W., Elden, S. (Ashgate Publishing Limited, England) p153-162 The concept of positive power relations. Guattari, D. 2008. The Three Ecologies. trans. (Continuum, London) Ideas of evolving, developing and experimental practices in institutions on social and industrial scales. Holl, S. 1989. Anchoring. (Princeton Architectural Press, New York) Looking at the way that architecture is bound to situation, and how architecture can both conceptual and experiential “rootings.” Mehotra, R (2003) “Learning from Mumbai” http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/530/530%20rahul%20mehrotra.htm [accessed April 2014] Rushdie, S (1995) “Midnight’s Children” Vintage, London beautiful fictional description of Mumbai in various different guises Serres, M 1982 “The Parasite” (John Hopkins University, Baltimore/London) defining relationships and situational juxtapositions, through the idea of the unwanted guest Tschumi, B. 1997 Architecture In/Of Motion, trans Bosman, J. (MAi Publishers, Rotterdam) Discusses engaging the inbetween spaces: helps develop ideas of traversing the edge conditions.

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Wiszneiski, D. 2013. The [Loving] Metropolitan Landscape and The Public-Private Borderland: Refiguring the Field of Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design, in City Project and Public Space, (Springer, London) p65-82 The ideas of different scales of urbanity and of operation along with the idea of the borderland being the place of political discourse.

Essay

Studies in Contemporary Architectural Theory Abstract:

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In order to understand the contemporary architectural application of public and private space, it is important to consider some readings and built form from the last 50 years - such as Colin Rowe’s seminal ‘Collage City’ and Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s Pompidou Centre. After understanding how architecture can react to, and deal with, public and private space, a critical application of this to the contemporary urban fabric of cities - London, New York, Copenhagen and Mumbai - as well as specific pieces of architecture - Snohetto’s Opera House in Oslo - will identify the role architecture currently plays in the division and use of public and private space, the urban form, and its effect on society.

Catching Slips

Does architecture mediate, frame or distinguish public and private space any longer? Discuss with reference to examples, including your own studio work. Architecture plays a key role in the city; it holds an inherent importance in how the city is used on a daily basis. The Urban fabric is created through the amalgamation of architecture and the city combining through a series of different methods including framing, mediating, and distinguishing between public and private space. The role architecture plays in forming these spaces within the city is key, especially with growing interest in the influence of public realm. However, we find examples in many cities across the globe where architecture does not achieve the connection between the two spaces. Within the last decade, influential architectural commentators have noted the declining significance of public realm in the city, citing the “reduced significance attached to public space and public life” where activities traditionally associated with these areas of the city can now be “undertaken at home through television and the internet.”1 The future of the city - to avoid it becoming a “fairground for the rich”2 depends on architecture looking to re-establish its connection with the city, describing public and private space through framing, mediating or distinguishing devices.

Our understanding of the contemporary city stems from the creation of the theory of Urban Design, which can be traced to 1950s North America with writers such as Lewis Mumford and Kevin Lynch3. The application of Urban design starts to take the impact of architecture beyond the realm of the building itself, to the city and wider domain where the building influences and impacts upon the very fabric of the city. The work of Mumford and Lynch are still very pivotal in architecture, with leading world architects such as Richard Rogers identifying their influence on his approach to design.4 The primary concern of Urban Design deals with the relationship between architecture and public realm, and the affect that architecture has on the spaces they generate, frame and mediate.

1 Carmona, M. Heath,T. Oc, T. Tiesdell, S (2007) “Public Places Urban Spaces” pub. Architectural Press, Oxford p110 2 Withers, I (2013) “London Towers ‘Must include Public Realm’” pub. Building.co.uk http://www.building.co.uk/london-towers-must-include-public-realm/5056235.article 3 Cuthbert, A (2006) “The form of cities” pub Blackwell Publishing p1 4 Richard Rogers Inside Out p96 (Legacies of an Archaic Modernist; Embracing Cities, Shaping London by Ricky Burdett) 5 Lynch, K (1960) “The Image of the City” pub. The Joint Centre for Urban Studies, USA p47

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Kevin Lynch’s ‘The Image of the City’ focused on the fact that urban space is not just composed of physical characteristics, but also through the understanding of associated mental images. The “legibility” of a city is therefore of great importance. Legibility relates to the ability to “read” the city and the formation of spaces within. Lynch identifies five elements that create physical form in the city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks (fig 2). In regard to how architecture deals with public and private spaces, his understanding of Edge condition is important, as edges act as boundaries and “linear breaks in continuity.”5 As such, architecture in the condition of public space acts as an edge between public and private spaces, becoming an important seam in the city.

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However, there are limitations to Lynch’s reading of the city. Written in 1960 it cannot comment on the fast developments of modern society, especially the movement into what Manuel Castells the “Information age” and the growing power of the internet and social media. The implication of Lynch’s writing does however raise questions about the potential role of these technologies in the urban context, but he is not able to foresee the true impact that they have had. His work is also regarded as a precursor to Henri Lefebvre “The Production of Space” which identifies the social production of space within the urban fabric of the city. Colin Rowe, in his seminal work ‘Collage City’ describes the relationship between architecture and space in the city. ‘Collage City’ is a response to contemporary urban design, postulating the role of the architect within the urban context. Rowe also proposes that buildings should be a device that can define space, whilst simultaneously occupying it, thus “maintaining an individual presence whilst providing continuity to the urban texture.”6 Rowe postulates that public realm has “shrunk to an apologetic ghost.”7 Rowe believes seeing the city in this light identifies the dialogue between public spaces and private objects, and the issues related to a city of autonomous objects in a continuous void, where the inhabitants are separated from the city itself. For Rowe, the city is in crisis. We find an atomised society, dealing in a collapsed local communication and impoverished exchanges. He goes on to argue that instead of dealing with individual objects of architecture, buildings should become part of a richer urban fabric, defining and distinguishing the space around it opposed to merely sitting within it. Rowe describes this relationship through the diagram of the figure-ground plan, exploring the solid matrix of built form and the resultant negative space that show street and squares as “some kind of public relief valve and providing some condition of legible structure.” 8 Rowe utilised figure-ground diagrams to identify different patterns within the urban fabric. The plan for Parma identifies how buildings combine to form urban blocks which in turn define street and squares – in this case the Italian Piazza (fig 3). The Piazza is key in understanding the movement away from the Modernist ideals of architecture as isolated object. 9 Ian Bentley identified how this understanding of buildings as free standing objects “ignores the socially constructed distinction between front and back, which is vital in … the relationship of public and private.”10 This is also something that Henri Lefebvre comments upon in “The Production of Space” where he talks of the impact of the isolated architecture and interference of the car on the urban form, describing the outcome as a “fracturing of space…a disordering of elements wrenched from each other in such a way that the urban fabric itself is also torn apart.”11 As such, the city is left in chaos. The Piazza highlights the urban designers’ interest in the relationship between built space and urban/public space, which the Modernist city destroyed. The notion of the Piazza is something that Richard Rogers has brought into his contemporary architecture and urban proposals. Having grown up in Florence, Italy, Rogers has openly admitted the influence of the urban form of Florence has had on his architectural ethos, and the role public realm has not only in good architecture but also good urban design – a constant thread for Rogers being creating a “place of people.” 12 It is the role of the architect to endeavor to understand the impact of architecture, to see it as a spatial and ethical art, and then recognise its “profound social and environmental consequences.”13

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6 Rowe, C (1983) “Collage City” pub.MIT Press p65 7 Rowe, C (1983) “Collage City” pub.MIT Press p63 8 Rowe, C (1983) “Collage City” pub.MIT Press p65 9 Carmona, M. Heath,T. Oc, T. Tiesdell, S (2007) p68 10 Bentley, I (1999) “Urban Transformations: Power, People, and Urban Design” pub. Routledge, London p125 11 Lefebvre, H (1991) “The Production of Space” pub. Basil Blackwell, London p303 12 Melvin J (2013) “Introduction” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” p12 13 Burdett.R (2013) “Legacies of an Archaic Modernist; Embracing Cities, Shaping London” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” p96

Catching Slips Nicolai Ouroussoff, in his essay “Translating Spaces: Exploring Rogers’s Architecture language,” talks of the influence of Italian Plazas, specifically the Piazza del Campo in Sienna (fig 4 + 5) – a specific influence for the Pompidou Centre in Paris.14 The shape, scale and texture of architecture combine to define the spaces between the buildings, and importantly, the formation of public spaces in the historic Italian city. It is the way that the architecture seeks to mediate, frame and distinguish private and public space in Sienna that Rogers looks to recreate in his architectural interventions into the cities across the globe.

The Pompidou stands as a marker to Rogers’ commitment to the prominence of public realm, noted most clearly by his reference to the architecture not as a building but as a place.15 Rogers and his collaborator Renzo Piano noted that in an initial study of the dense urban fabric of old Paris, there was very little public space within the city block. As a result, Rogers and Piano gave over half the site to public realm, something which was unique in a competition of over 681 entries and critical to the concept - which Renzo Piano describes as a “radical design move.” 16+17 The building sits on one side of the Plaza, distinguishing the public space from the rest of the urban fabric in a fairly dense area of Paris. Here the public space runs to the dynamic façade of the Pompidou Centre, where the architecture begins to mediate interactions of public and private spaces, where “people come to see people as well as to see art; people come to meet people.”18 As such, the Pompidou is an exemplar architectural intervention which highlights how architecture can deal with public and private space within a city, interacting with not just the urban fabric but the people that use the spaces and building. Today, the Plaza is one of the most visited public spaces in Paris.19 Nicolai Ouroussoff notes that the Pompidou’s main Plaza “spills over with youthful energy”20 as it still remains a key part of the Parisian public realm. In order to achieve this feat, part of the design process of the project involved regenerating the street that formed one side of the public space to allow cafés and restaurants to fuse the life surrounding the square with the new architectural intervention which mediates that gap between public and private space.21 The success of the architecture in doing this can be seen by the way the French, once skeptical of Rogers and Piano’s radical design moves, have now taken over the Pompidou, acknowledging the aim of the Pompidou to “become a place for the meeting of all people,” and making it the most visited building in Europe. 22

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

14 Ouroussoff, N (2013) “Translating Spaces” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” p66 15 Melvin J (2013) “Introduction” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” p26 16 Dezeen (2013) “The Pompidou captured the revolutionary spirit of 1968” http://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/26/richard-rogers-centre-pompidou-revolution-1968/ VIDEO [accessed April 2014] 17 RSH+P (2011) Centre Georges Pompidou http://www.rpbw.com/project/3/centre-georges-pompidou/ [accessed April 2014] 18 Dezeen (2013) “The Pompidou captured the revolutionary spirit of 1968” [accessed April 2014] 19 RSH+P (2011) Centre Georges Pompidou [accessed April 2014] 20 Ouroussoff, N (2013) “Translating Spaces” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” p73 21 RSH+P (2011) Centre Georges Pompidou [accessed April 2014] 22 Dezeen (2013) “The Pompidou captured the revolutionary spirit of 1968” [accessed April 2014]

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The Norwegian Opera House, Oslo, designed by Snøhetta, is more contemporary example of architecture reacting directly to public space surrounding it. Completed in 2008, the landmark building is the first part of the on-going redevelopment of the harbour, part of an attempt to return the city’s waterfront space to the public.23 The Opera house seeks to create a new “traversable piazza” across the marble roof, mediating the spaces with hahas across its external structure as well as opening up large internal spaces to bring the public space to the private internal offices and auditoriums. 24 Importantly, Snøhetta created the building as a keyless architecture – with the lobby being a large internal public space which is open to the public twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. 25 By creating a recognisable landmark, the architecture begins to frame the public space that is captured on the now iconic roof slopes, linking the historic castle, fjord and hills that are an intrinsic part of Oslo. 26 The public and private elements of the building become increasingly important not just for the building but also for the flourishing urban context around the architecture. The result of this is an architecture that produces a new public landscape within the city that allows public engagement with the building, the city, and the arts. It is the way that the architecture interacts with public realm that creates such a vibrant and successful space in the city, achieving what Rogers sought with the Pompidou – a place of people, where architecture mediates between the city and its inhabitants. When we consider public and private space in relation to architecture, we must also consider the impact on the city as a whole. In recent years, Jan Gehl has become a leading voice in Urban Design, being employed by local governments and councils in major cities across Europe, America and Australia. They have recently completed a study of Oslo, as part of the harbour redevelopments following on from the success of the Opera House. Jan Gehl’s comprehension of the city stems from his seminal writing “Life Between Buildings.” First published in 1971, this study looks at public life which occurs in spaces between architecture. As such, this leads Gehl to emphasise the every growing importance in carefully treating this condition within the urban fabric of the city. It is in this space that “social interaction…urban recreation and sensory experience of city life” occurs.27 Life occurs between buildings, covering a vast spectrum of human activity through the use of public space. These spaces within a city are, therefore, vital. Understanding the importance of these spaces has led to Gehl taking a different approach to designing within the urban context: “first life, then spaces, then buildings.”28 To create a city that enables healthy and full life, Gehl believes that “Public life in good quality public spaces is an important part of a democratic life and a full life.”29 However, there is a gap between small and large scales, slow and quick architecture. Gehl identifies that the façade of the architecture is the important link between these “scales and between buildings and people.”30 Where the public and architecture encounter each other, public space and buildings can be treated as a whole designed entity. This “close encounter architecture” is important to the design of “good cities.”31

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23 Snohetta “Norwegian National Opera and Ballet” pub. http://snohetta.com/project/42-norwegian-national-opera-and-ballet [accessed April 2014] 24 Wilkinson, T (2013) “Typology Quarterly: Opera Houses” pub. http://www.architectural-review.com/essays/typology-quarterly-opera-houses/8653735.article [accessed April 2014] 25 Snohetta “Norwegian National Opera and Ballet” pub. http://snohetta.com/project/42-norwegian-national-opera-and-ballet [accessed April 2014] 26 ArchDaily “Oslo Opera House” pub. http://www.archdaily.com/440/oslo-opera-house-snohetta/ [accessed April 2014] 27 Projects for Public Space “Jan Gehl Biography” [http://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/ [accessed April 2014] 28 Projects for Public Space “Jan Gehl Biography” [http://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/ [accessed April 2014] 29 Glaser, M. Van ‘t Hoff, M. & Karssenberg, H (2014) “The City at Eye Level: Lessons for Street Plinths” pub. Eburon Uitgeverig p38 30 Gehl, J et al. (2006) “Close Encounters with Buildings” pub. Urban Design International no.11 p29 31 Gehl, J et al. (2006) “Close Encounters with Buildings” pub. Urban Design International no.11 p29

Catching Slips Gehl Architects have worked most notably in New York and Copenhagen on the public spaces. In New York they seeked to re-interpret the public realm, connecting it more directly to the inhabitants of the office blocks that frame them, and reducing the impact and restrictions of the car. The Public Plaza programme and the Broadway Boulevard Project both attempted to bring people into the public space of the city by making it a more desirable place to be. They brought the architecture down to the human scale in order to allow people to connect to the public spaces. In doing this, Gehl sought to bring the public space to the façade of the architecture, allowing it to interact with it. Recent surveys have noted the success of this scheme both financially for the local businesses, but also for those who use the space – approval ratings for the Madison Square schemes hitting highs of 84%.32

In Copenhagen, they have been involved in a number of schemes looking to empower the public and return spaces in the cities to the inhabitants. Their work at the Vesterbrogade looked at generate public spaces at ground level between existing buildings, whilst Frederiks Brygge scheme identified design principles that would allow architecture and public spaces to interact according to Gehl’s reading of the city. The Nordatlantens Brygge is one of the last potential public spaces in Copenhagen. Gehl looked to restrict the private nature of the site, using architecture as an edge and opening up public spaces as pedestrian and bike links to the public Opera House and also as a space for “daily life and events of the embassies” that reside there.33

However, not all cities are quite as successful as New York and Copenhagen in dealing with public and private spaces. Mumbai is one of the most rapidly growing cities in the world, with projected growth up to 2020 ranking it second behind only Tokyo with a population of 25.97 million, much larger than that of New York and Copenhagen.34

32 Gehl Architects “New York” pub. http://www.gehlarchitects.dk/files/projects/100125_NYC_4page_CVD_ENG.pdf [accessed April 2014] 33 Gehl Architects “Copenhagen” pub. http://www.gehlarchitects.com/#/168412/ [accessed April 2014] 34 City Mayor’s Office (2013) “Worlds Largest Cities and Urban Areas in 2020” http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/urban_2020_1.html [accessed April 2014] 35 Thirani, N (2012) “In Mumbai Open Spaces are rare and rarely open” pub. Times of India http://india.blogs.nytimes. com/2012/09/03/in-mumbai-open-spaces-are-rare-and-rarely-open/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 [accessed April 2014] 36 “PLAY ! Tactics & strategies for public spaces in Mumbai’s informal city” http://orfonline.org/cms/export/orfonline/modules/issuebrief/attachments/final_1377242921176.pdf 37 Da Cuhna, D (2009) “Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary” pub Trapeze p87 38 Mehotra, R (2003) “Learning from Mumbai” http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/530/530%20rahul%20mehrotra.htm [accessed April 2014]

uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

For a city that is growing so rapidly, the amount of open space in Mumbai is not reacting accordingly. Currently, there is less than 0.9sqm of available open public space in the City per person – compared to 2.5spm in New York, 6sqm in Tokyo and 17.6sqm in Chicago.35+36 When discussing public spaces in the city, Mumbai is known for its Maidans. These are historic open spaces, notably the Oval, Azad, Cross and Cooperage Maidan. However, it is these very spaces – so vital for Mumbai to breathe – that are being fenced in, formalised and historicised.37 The Oval Maidan recently became part of a listed heritage site within the city as a result of the architecture which surrounds it. The architecture was never designed to react to, or interact with, the public realm of the Oval Maidan. Until recently, the space was in disrepair, until it was taken over by a community collective.38 As such, the Maidan has been fenced in, and has restrictions on what activities can use the public space.

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Presently, architecture doesn’t interact between public and private space in Mumbai. The city is inward looking. Private space is often prioritized over public domain. High rise apartment buildings have walls outlining the site boundaries, many having security guards and doorman in addition to this. As the city sprawls out to the North, there is a growing tendency for high rise office blocks. Even arts buildings such as the Prince of Wales Museum and the Philip Johnson designed National Centre for the Performing Arts are shut away from the public by high security fences, in stark contrast to the Oslo Opera House which is constantly open to the public. Architecture in Mumbai appears to not be given the opportunity to deal with the interaction between public and private spaces. The remnants of public space in Mumbai seem to derive from the city’s colonial past – the Maidans were part of the Victorian Esplanade utilised by the British.39

The future of public realm in the city is at risk, not just in Mumbai but also across the globe. When we consider the ever growing interest in public realm in cities, one cannot ignore the economic climate we find ourselves in. Many contemporary interventions seek to maximise rentable floor areas in favour of unprofitable public spaces. Graham Stirk, co-founder of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, has recently spoken about the need for tall buildings to include “free public space.”40 His comments identify how currently, tall building architecture occupies the ground level, with none of central London’s existing towers providing the non-paying members of the public with public realm. Sir Terry Farrell also lends his voice to this opinion, calling for more developers as well as architects to consider the impact of tall buildings in the city, and concentrate on how they integrate and potentially improve a city’s public realm.41 As such, the way architecture mediates public and private space could become increasingly important.

RSH+P’s latest building in London, currently under construction, the Leadenhall Building dubbed the Cheesegrater, has created substantial public realm at the ground-level by cutting into the lowest seven storeys of the building – “conjuring large public plaza at its base.”42 This Piazza builds on the work Rogers did for the Pompidou Centre, creating a large open space which interacts with the building’s occupants and the city around it. As such, the Cheesegrater seeks to mediate between public and private office space contained within the building. Aesthetically, the Leadenhall building is very different to the Pompidou. Its façades are slicker with extensive glazing, utilising the ever changing nature of architectural technology. External elevators are still utilised on the rear of the building. The major change is the nature of construction, with most of the components now made off-site.43 However, the ethos of the architecture remains the same, seeking to create a place rather than just an object building.

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39 Da Cuhna, D (2009) p80 40 Withers, I (2013) “London Towers ‘Must include Public Realm’” pub. Building.co.uk http://www.building.co.uk/london-towers-must-include-public-realm/5056235.article 41 Withers, I (2013) “London Towers ‘Must include Public Realm’” pub. Building.co.uk http://www.building.co.uk/london-towers-must-include-public-realm/5056235.article 42 Rogers Inside Outside Intro p33 43 Dezeen (2013) “Office BUIldings Tend to be very boring” VIDEO pub. http://www.dezeen.com/2013/08/05/movie-richard-rogers-the-cheesegrater-the-leadenhall-building/ [accessed Paril 2014]

Catching Slips Architecture still has an important role to play in the urban fabric of the city. When architecture fully engages with the city, it starts to interact across the public and private spaces. Christopher Alexander identifies the importance of the architectural edge in successful public spaces – “if the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively… the spaces becomes a place to walk through, not a place to stop.”44 Successful public spaces, such as those seen at the Pompidou Centre or the Oslo Opera House, are created by successful architecture. By framing, mediating or distinguishing between public and private space, the architecture identifies and activates the void space in the figure-ground plan diagram of the city that Colin Rowe utilised. With the city currently suffering from a lack of public space, now is the time for architecture to return to these ideas of interactions between the public and private realm. Jan Gehl identifies that public spaces are intrinsically linked to the city, that there are also added business and environmental advantages in investment. He notes that “Streets that help create and strengthen communities and businesses, in addition to connecting neighbourhoods to one another, are an essential component of the City’s overall sustainability strategy.”45 It is architecture that defines these spaces. In cities, such as Paris, Oslo, New York and Copenhagen with successful public realm, architecture does still attempt to frame, mediate or distinguish between public and private spaces. And it is this that cities like Mumbai need to address to create an improved environment for its inhabitants, moving away from the gated private communities to a situation where architecture can interact and define public space as well. 44 45

Alexander C (1977) “Pattern Language: towns, buildings, construction” Pub. Oxford University Press p600 Gehl, J (2008) “World Class Streets” pp2

Selected Bibliography uncovering and holding the temporal landscapes of Mumbai

Carmona, M. Heath,T. Oc, T. Tiesdell, S (2007) “Public Places Urban Spaces” pub. Architectural Press, Oxford Cuthbert, A (2006) “The form of cities” pub Blackwell Publishing Lynch, K (1960) “The Image of the City” pub. The Joint Centre for Urban Studies, USA Rowe, C (1983) “Collage City” pub.MIT Press Lefebvre, H (1991) “The Production of Space” pub. Basil Blackwell, London Ouroussoff, N (2013) “Translating Spaces” pub. in Royal Academy (2013) “Richard Rogers Inside Out” Projects for Public Space “Jan Gehl Biography” [http://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/ [accessed April 2014] Thirani, N (2012) “In Mumbai Open Spaces are rare and rarely open” pub. Times of India http://india.blogs.nytimes. com/2012/09/03/in-mumbai-open-spaces-are-rare-and-rarely-open/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 [accessed April 2014] “PLAY ! Tactics & strategies for public spaces in Mumbai’s informal city” http://orfonline.org/cms/export/orfonline/ modules/issuebrief/attachments/final_1377242921176.pdf Da Cuhna, D (2009) “Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary” pub Trapeze Mehotra, R (2003) “Learning from Mumbai” http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/530/530%20rahul%20mehrotra.htm [accessed April 2014] Alexander C (1977) “Pattern Language: towns, buildings, construction” Pub. Oxford University Press

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Acknowledgements During the two years of MArch that constituted the Integrated Design Pathway this Design Report relates to, many people have assisted my study and research. Firstly, my thanks extend to Dr Dorian Wiszneiski, for leading the Studio as tutor. And also to Kevin Adams, Chris French and Paul Pattinson as tutors too. Personal thanks also extend to Ryan Hodge, and Ruta Turčinavičiūtė for their assistance, advice and general help throughout the two years. As usual, thanks to family and friends through the MArch Postgraduate studies. And Finally, I also would like to thank Michael Bawtree for, during a busy trip to India, venturing out in the Monsoon to get photos in Mumbai for me.