ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I take this opportunity to sincerely thank my mentors - Prof. V. J. Han Meyer and Prof. Bruno De Meulder for their wonderful guidance, interest, support, encouragement (and patience!) throughout the duration of this thesis. I also wish to express my appreciation to all the professionals across disciplines making remarkable, yet unseen efforts towards the betterment of Mumbai. A special thanks to the authors mentioned in the bibliography page. It is from this pool of collective knowledge that I could learn so much about this great city, and can believe in the purpose of this thesis. I dedicate this thesis first and foremost to my father, who is my greatest friend, philosopher and guide. But I could not have made it this far without the love and support of my incredible family, friends, teachers and colleagues who have always selflessly shared their awesomeness, knowledge and happiness to take care of me and my devious inner child. Each one of them is legendary, and I’m fortunate that the list of these people is a bit too long for this acknowlegement. And of course, I specially thank and dedicate this thesis to the person reading this right now. You made it worth the while. Commoners here by thousands float CONTENTS: SCALE 2: THANE CREEK: SCALE 5: FRAMES OF W.E.Z. CORRIDOR: And jostle one another down • INTRODUCTION AND MORPHOLOGY 1. LOCATION OF FRAMES Each paddling in his leaky boat INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE • CLASH OF THE CLAIMANTS FOR THE SALT • FRAME 1: interventions IN pratap nagar SLUM THESIS • EFFECTS OF EXCLUSION FROM 3 ADMINISTRATIVE PLANS • FRAME 2: interventions IN THE OPEN spaces OF And here they fish for gold; or drown.’ • THE CONTEXT OF MUMBAI CITY • CURRENT STATUS OF COASTAL REGULATION ZONING + naval COMPOUND - Jonathan Swift • ‘ReCentering MUMBAI’ - REASONING THE HYPOTHESIS COUNTER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IACM • FRAME 3: REQUALIFYING DEFUNCT INDUSTRIAL • MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM OF THANE CREEK COMPOUNDS TO NEW WETLAND ECONOMIC ZONE • THE CRITICAL URGENCY OF BRINGING THE ISSUE OF THE [W.E.Z.] ECONOMIES RECLAMATION OF THANE CREEK TO THE FOREFRONT • FISHERY IN THANE CREEK The thesis explores a strategic spatial proposal for a ‘Wetland • FRAME 4: hydroponic agriculture + SELF-built • ALTER EGOS: FIGURE AND COUNTERFIGURE HOUSING [A NEW vernacular?] - requalifying Economic Zone’ in Mumbai’s salt-pan/ mangrove/ wetland APPROACH, STRATEGY AND GOAL - SCALES OF • WHAT IF.... latent layers OF agriculture RESEARCH, ANALYSIS AND INTERVENTION area on Thane creek. The strategy questions the city’s blanket • FRAME 5 + 6: WETLAND ECONOMIC ZONE SCALE 3/4: PROPOSAL: [W.E.Z.] CENTER + requalifying salt-pans AS SCALE 1: MUMBAI CONURBATION: SPONGY URBANISM:- WETLAND ECONOMIC ZONE [W.E.Z.] and aquaculture farms zoning attitude, and integrates primary sector economies BRIDGING THANE CREEK: 1. A DIACHRONIC STUDY OF SELECTED FACTORS AFFECTING • FRAME 7: BRIDGING THANE CREEK: RECENTERING like food production in sustainable practices but using the THANE CREEK FROM THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONURBATION MUMBAI genius of the place, serving socio-economic classes which 2. STATE OF AFFAIRS AFFECTING THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT • THE W.E.Z. MANIFESTO: PROPOSAL FOR A “WETLAND 2. water transport network layer FUTURE OF THE CONURBATION: ECONOMIC ZONE”: ADDRESSING CITY SCALE ISSUES ON A DESIGN SCALE are excluded from the city’s economic sector development A. “VISION MUMBAI” • INCLUSIVE RESILIENT LIGHT urbanism REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS - STAKEHOLDERS/ OWNER OF THE NEW FUTURE models. The project goal focuses on on flood resilience; East- • productive LANDSCAPES - NEW CONNECTIVITY/ MOBILITY BIBLIOGRAPHY • TECHNOLOGIES FOR PRODUCTIVE SKIN LAYER AND West connectivity; small-scale economies with communities - ATTITUDE TO ECOLOGY MAINTAINING THE SPONGE CHARACTER along the estuarine wetlands of Thane Creek (“spongy - SOCIO-ECONOMIC EXCLUSION • LOCATING AND CONCEIVING W.E.Z. CORRIDORS - NEED FOR A HOLISTIC APPROACH AND STRATEGY • PROPOSING INTEGRATION OF “W.E.Z.” CORRIDORS: urbanism”) and concept corridors for water retention and B. WATER SUPPLY IN THE CONURBATION WATER COLLECTION, REUSE, DISCHARGE AND LANDSCAPE public spaces creating a new network layer within the city. C. FLOODING/ STORM WATER DRAINAGE PLAN AS FIXED INFRASTRUCTURE D. A RELATIONSHIP OF LAND TAKING OVER WATER • SPATIAL QUALITY OF W.E.Z. 3 The city’s lesser known secrets... Relearning relevant knowledge from the past: Image of water harvesting detail from the rock cut Kanheri caves in Salsette island, Mumbai Courtesy: http://paliakara.blogspot.com/2010/04/kanheri-caves-mumbai.html INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE THESIS • THE CONTEXT OF MUMBAI CITY • ‘ReCentering MUMBAI’ - REASONING THE HYPOTHESIS • THE CRITICAL URGENCY OF BRINGING THE ISSUE OF THE RECLAMATION OF THANE CREEK TO THE FOREFRONT 5 THE CONTEXT OF MUMBAI CITY: ‘ReCentering MUMBAI’ - REASONING THE HYPOTHESIS Within the frame of the city’s economic desires, governmental politics, The context of the city of Mumbai was summed up succinctly in an article social exclusions, and drastic environmental backlashes to chaotic called “Maximum City” in 2007 by Suketu Mehta. This extract is quoted urbanization - there is yet potential for participation, innovation and from the article, and sets the background tone of the thesis: possibly alternative futures in places lesser seen and lesser known in the discussions about Mumbai in urbanism. This thesis hopes to propose one “On 27 July 2005, Mumbai experienced the highest recorded rainfall in such spatial alternative that could jog the debates about the future of the its history – 939.8 mm of rain in one day. The flood showed the worst and city, by shifting focus from the island city to Thane creek. the best of the city. Hundreds of people drowned. But unlike the situation after Katrina hit New Orleans, there was no widespread breakdown of So why “ReCenter” Mumbai? civic order; even though the police were absent, the crime rate did not Think of slums, one thinks of Dharavi. Think of floods, you only see go up. That was because Mumbaikers were busy helping each other. unrealised proposals about Mithi river. Discussions about post-industrial- Slum-dwellers went to the motorway and took stranded motorists into sites kept focusing on the mill lands. Most Mumbai-based project studios their homes and made room for one more person in shacks, where the in Urban Design universities focus on the Eastern waterfront to replace the average occupancy is seven adults to a room. Volunteers waded through older port area. Historic descriptions only seem to begin with reclamations waist-deep water to bring food to the 150,000 people stranded in train of the 7 islands in 1600s. The study of urbanism about Mumbai has been stations. Human chains were formed to get people out of the floods. purely island city centric, as that is what has been documented. Most of the government machinery was absent, but nobody expected But slipping past the media radar, the areas surrounding Thane creek otherwise. Mumbaikers helped each other, because they had lost faith are undergoing tremendous changes of urbanization. All services are in the government helping them. On a planet of city dwellers, this is how being designed to primarily serve Greater Mumbai and the Western most human beings are going to live and cope in the twenty-first century. coast. Whereas the logical growth pattern and higher connectivity lies At 15 million people within its municipal limits, Mumbai is the biggest, between the island of Salsette and the mainland – between the Eastern fastest, richest city in India, a city simultaneously experiencing a boom coast of Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. And there is much history and a civic emergency; an island-state of hope in a very old country. to be unearthed and to be learnt from further pasts. For instance Because of the reach of Bollywood movies, Mumbai is also a mass dream from the vernacular of the Kanheri caves on Salsette which have more for the peoples of India. If you take a walk around Mumbai you’ll see that sustainable comtemporary validity, than reclamations. There are a lot of everything – sex, death, trade, religion – are lived out on the pavement. undocumented traditions that are still ongoing in the gaothans (villages) It is a maximum city, maximum in its exigencies, maximum in its heart. area surrounding the creek, that utilise the genius of the geography. India frustrates description because everything you can say about it is It is about time the city realises that it is no more just an island with some true and false simultaneously. Yes, it could soon have the world’s largest suburbs on railroads. The organism exists far beyond the limits of Greater middle class. But it now has the world’s largest underclass. Mumbai. The limitations of the land, mobility, access and possibilities of And so with Mumbai. Everything is expanding exponentially: the call the island city already took effect in the creation of the twin city of centres, the global reach of its film industry, its status as the financial Navi Mumbai and Thane is not just a suburb anymore. The new reality gateway to India; as well as the slums, the numbers of absolutely spans across 3 cities and 3 administrations geographically connected by destitute, the degradation of its infrastructure. The city’s planners have the waters of Thane creek. The developers and politicians are changing their eyes set firmly on Shanghai, as a model for Mumbai. The government the urban-scape of the conurbation at an unprecedented rate, and it is approved a McKinsey-drafted document titled ‘Vision Mumbai’, which going unnoticed. While the booming economy is appreciated, it ignores aims to turn Mumbai into ‘a world-class city by 2013’. As the architect the basic geophysical and social makeup of this hill-wetland construct, Charles Correa noted of the plan, ‘There’s very little vision. They’re more and the backlashes have already started to take effect.