Alternative approach to redevelopment in inner city areas of Mumbai

Abstract

Heritage Conservation in India for a long time is confined to protecting the monuments and their settings; the value of other type of heritage specifically historic housing/historic neighborhoods has been generally undervalued as they are not identified under Archaeological Survey of India or state Archaeological Department. These areas are located in core of a city and in India since 1980’s are experiencing the pressure of development. Cities where rents are frozen as a result of rent control act (as in Mumbai) are more vulnerable to the concept of redevelopment as lack of maintenance and poor condition has led to dilapidation in some areas, but that standard building forms that are replacing the structures which recite the story of the past is so placeless it could be anywhere. If we want to incorporate local distinctiveness it has to be designed as if the site really matters, so that the features and location of the site have influence on the layout of the site and the character of the built form. The research will therefore focus on an alternative approach to Redevelopment in inner city areas of Mumbai taking case of a heritage precinct Khotachiwadi, the focus is concentrated on mainly four aspects first will be a critical analysis of the legislation and its role in transforming the built form, second focus is to analyses the precinct on physical and social parameters, interestingly since Mumbai is considered to be a builder’s lobby a brief economic analysis of the current situation is done followed by identification of issues. To understand the distinctive character of different areas within this neighborhood the level of physical transformation was documented, but these areas are a combination of physical and social complexities therefore a rapid appraisal tool was also used to assess the health of the neighborhood and its propensity towards transformation. This toolkit gave us the different zones ranging from zone to be conserved to zone which can go under demolition and hence in the proposal stage various alternatives (like adaptive reuse, infill development guidelines, mix use development) are proposed to these distinct zones based on their character and financial feasibility of these alternatives for the stakeholders