Mukesh mills, century mills, shakti mills

Death of program- Mumbai mills

Mumbai mills were integral part of Mumbai’s economy but with industrialization the mills ceased to be profitable. The dilapidated mills in Mumbai has now become a residual space

at various parts in the city. Other than creating a nostalgia the dead infrastructure evokes

a sense of horror of what future of buildings looks like. The redevelopment process has

started and now they are adaptively reused to make malls pubs or restaurants or they are

completely redeveloped to make commercial residential infrastructure.

Illustration 11. Dilapidated mills in Mumbai, clockwise from right- Indian united mill, Mukesh mills, century mills, shakti mills

12.2. Manifestations to rethink our dystopian entities

What does a city of tomorrow looks like? The science fiction has fed us with scenarios of extreme utopian/dystopian state of the city we live in. The changes that are happening

around are drastic but gradual to be conceived under one subhead of development. There

are variety of things that played a role in redefining our cities. These manifestations

reimagine for us the buildings of future, and therefore the cities of future.

Flexibility

If the building is not able to adapt with the changes around it may face death of function

and livelihood. “Flexibility” in architecture, refers to the ability of a building to continuously adapt its space layout and even its structure to evolving needs. The relation

between entities is preferred to be temporal to keep up with the dynamics of the life. To

serve to such a dynamic living, a flexible approach best fits the requirements of today. For

example, with increasing crunch of space the concept of tiny house has become

increasingly popular. The entire design revolves around the flexibility that the spaces

offer, a built-in cabinet in the day time becomes a bed and provision of sliding screen can

create a division between living and sleeping space. Add wheels to the house and the tiny

house is now a mobile house. There are rising concerns that built-in technology will be

out of date by the time it is constructed or, at least, by the time that a ten-year lease

expires. To combat this, designing with flexibility in mind is key. In future, we may see

Buildings of the Future being mass-designed with flexibility in mind. Buildings of the

Future will no longer be rigid structures that can’t change: by design, they will adapt and their spaces will be adaptable without significant building modifications. This could give

rise to a greater degree of modular or off-site construction.

Multifunctionality

Very similar to the concept of flexibility, multifunctionality allows different functions to

exist in cohesion with each other. The pandemic of 2020 has left people stuck at home,

but that didn’t stop the dynamics of life. Our own house became our school, gym, office

and leisure space etc. The future of cities is somewhat imagined on the similar lines.

Where on one click you would find everything you need. The physical motion from one

place to another will be reduced.

Work in urban areas

Working in the cubicle for several hours of the day is considered toxic for humans. Our

working environment is being vastly redefined today. Companies’ hierarchical structures

are being flattened everybody prefers to be called by their first name and work is purely

based on the expertise basis. Jobs are morphing into project-based activities, with shorter

time frames and not permanent jobs. Online platforms for job search enable seamless

turnover and reemployment. The community of workers is also now both a physical and

virtual reality: online communities play a greater role in the work culture. The work spaces

are now less compartmentalized and you can work right from the comfort of your sofa.

Traditional functions are being aggregated into: Open spaces for work, transparent and

continuous communal spaces, enclosed meeting rooms. There is a sense of plasticity to

every space that can be remodelled according to the employees’ comfort and office requirements. Offices don’t need a physical infrastructure anymore a virtual network is

created to coordinate. The concept of WeWork is therefore trending in urban areas as it

provides just the right amount of space for everyone right from a freelancer to a start-up

or a smaller branch of a big company. As the millennials are now the part of the major

working class, their culture and needs are reflected in the kind of spaces they want to

work in. Leisure is one important criterion, interactions co working and collaborations has

brought more efficiency in the work.

Automation in design

The same way the Metabolists34 believed in technology as a catalyser for the Metabolic

city, technology is today at a turning point, and could enable a profound shift in the way

we build and live. Through the advent of urban analytics and semi-automation, our cities

have today more insights and ability to react to the cities’ pulse in a near-to-real time

fashion. As we see the trending concept of “smart cities”, the world wide web is making is easier to create an urban utopian city that can structure itself with all the data available

at all times. With technological advancements the construction time has also been

reduced compared to traditional methods. The entire building is modelled through high

34 Metabolist architects and designers believed that cities and buildings are not static entities, but are everchanging—organic with a "metabolism."

end software’s and it provides the building experience in real time before even the

construction has begun. The energy efficiency the climatology, temperatures all are now

compatible with these software’s. With prefabrication and automation, it is now possible

to construct almost all parts of the building away from the site and then the process of

assembling takes place within hours on site.

Technology driven design

We humans are programmed to be attracted by everything that is smart. Right from smart

phone to smart homes and even smart cities. The technology is a tool to thrive today. It is

possible to equip buildings with the state-of-the-art smart devices that makes the human life easier. It is possible by the very trending concept of the Internet of Things (IoT)35 .

Energy usage patterns, temperature trends or people movement throughout a building,

all these can be measured through latest technology. Humans as consumers, every

product that reaches to them is through this vast network of things that are designed to

assist them.

Rethinking urban heat islands.

The metropolitans have a bad reputation of being highly toxic in terms of air quality and

environmental impact. The increasing urban heat effect has brough about a revolution in

the construction industry of using more sustainable products that has least carbon

footprint. Environmental factors have now become an important criterion of material

selection. Paolo Soleri through his design of Acrosanti reimagines living in a city. His

hypothesis revolves around the term ‘arcology’ that strives to create ‘ecologically lowimpact human habitats’. Acrosanti in its nature is not only very utopian but also acts as an urban laboratory for various functions to take place, which is open to all communities.

The popular concept of ecomodernism argues that human should strive to protect nature

and improve human wellbeing by developing and deploying technologies that decouple

human development from environmental impacts. At a building scale the demand for low

carbon footprint materials have increased and they are adorned with greenery as much

35 The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a paradigm in which objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors communicate with each other to serve a meaningful purpose.

as possible. The current technology has enabled to grow plants away from the subsoil at

the high-rise construction too. Hydroponics and aeroponics is the future of farming.

Conclusion

Our perception of things is largely based on binaries of good and bad, the developing cities

are striving for becoming the ideals- the good place to live in. The changes that entities

attain with time and is proportional to the development it has gone through. If the city is

not able to attain these changes in the given amount of time it becomes primitive, and

soon may become dystopian. Technology becomes the aid in the development process.

But the design shouldn’t be technology centric but rather people centric. Everybody wants

to move to the city because of the better lifestyle and better opportunities it has to offer,

and so the developing areas want to provide that lifestyle and comfort. It is therefore

important to equip cities with design interventions compatible with the future. These

interventions are manifestations based on human behaviours, technology, and the

changing climatic conditions. These should be used as blueprints, but based on parts to

whole approach with proper considerations given to the impact on community and

neighbourhood around.