William Board
C O M M O N I N G I N M U M B A I :
W A T E R A S A N I N F R A S T R U C T U R A L T O O L
The design project looks at the use of water as an infrastructural tool to navigate through Colaba the Southern tip of Mumbai. It explores a new route of water flowing and connecting between the East and West coasts. This is achieved by the proposal of a new canal system and tram route. The route is proposed to connect the Kolis (fishermen) population places of work and live, through the congested streets and gated unused parks and gardens. This is proposed due to the archaic existing infrastructure that has not seen much alteration since the colonial period, and the cities authorities emphasis on the use of car and providing infrastructure for the use of cars further exasperating the problem when more people walk or use public transport to work than own cars. The city is struggling to exist with the pressures of an ever expanding population.
Axonometric exploring current conditions in Colaba
Sassoon Dock
Sassoon Dock is the major fishing port in the south of Mumbai. Here large trawlers come in, to unload their catches, of fish, prawns, squid and crustaceans, lots of which is sorted on the quay side, under long open sheds. The quay side is predominately the Kilos women’s domain, where they barter for the fish catches from the men who are solely the fishermen.
Leading towards Colaba Koliwada, the streets are used for drying clothes and fishing nets.
The Houses spill out onto the streets and the walkway is congested with people objects and animals.
Some Kolis have diversified out of fishing and started selling fruit and veg in the market alongside fish.
AN abandoned mill stands between the Koliwada and Sassoon Dock.
The mill is used for stage sets and filming of Bollywood movies.
Surrounding the Docks and the Mills high rise development has spread.
Mukesh Mill
The textile mill now lays abandoned expect for the kinetic city occupying it.
Houses are raised up from road level but expand daily over the side of the road to occupy more space.
The informal dock at Machimar Nagar is were the smaller boats land their catches. The sea is tidal so the boats are stranded for most of the day.
The men working on the boats wait until the tide returns and go out on floating rafts to their boats.
Large trawler boats arrive at Sassoon Dock daily, laden with freshly caught fish, pawns, squid and crustaceans.
Many of these boats use diesel engines that are heavily polluting the seas around Mumbai, leading to lower fish stocks.
In the middle of the quay is the area where the main wholesale items are sorted out this is mainly done for the Kolis women.
After the morning influx of produce, the quay quietens down and people set up places to de-shell prawns.
Colaba Koliwada
Street markets surround one of the places that the Kolis live. The households spill out onto the street for all to see.
Machhimar Nagar
Along the western coastline the Back Bay Development never got finished due to political pressure. The Kolis population ended up occupying a strip of land between the road and the water. Smaller fishing boats use back bay here to moor and their fish is landed here. There is a constant stream of people and fish to and from the Kolis villages to Sassoon dock.
K I N E T I C C I T Y
Mumbai is described as a Kinetic city. The kinetic city is one that expands the cities margins daily for the needs of the populace, it is ‘the temporal articulation and occupation of space.’ This is not just the city of the poor but how everyone alters spaces in the city beyond its designed programme. Space opened up by the canal and tram infrastructure in Colaba, creates new commons as it re-distributes the often neglected land for the kinetic city to inhabit.
The video explores what the Kinetic city actually means in reality. Showing a sereis of found footage that docuents the city through a series of observations.
K O L I S
The Kolis were the original inhabitants of Mumbai (Bombay) when it was 7 distinct islands. Each island had a Koliwada, the Kolis community. These villages made their livelihoods from fish, either by fishing the creeks or the Arabian sea that surrounded them.
Land reclamation projects were under taken by the East India Company joining the islands in the 19th century. Though Mumbai is now one large island the Kolis still exist throughout the city in small pockets, often pushed to the boundary of the reclaimed land and the sea. The Kolis in Colaba are still located where their fishing village stood next to the sea and their main livelihood is still fishing, which is evident throughout the streets in the area particularly daily at Sassoon docks.
The Storey Board follows the daily life of a Kolis family in the Colaba area of Mumbai. It highlights issues that they face each day and highlights initial design interventions.
The film easy explorers the narrative set up in the previous storyboard. Exploring the relationship that the Kolis population has with Colaba, fishing and distribution of fish in Mumbai.
It uses the narrative of following the lives of one Kolis family and the differing roles that they have in the Kolis Society.
The film uses found footage from the internet as a way of investigating conditions and the way they are portrayed to the outside world.
This can then be critiqued during the excursion to Mumbai takes place.
Storyboard examining the daily routine of a Kolis family.
R O U T E O F K O L I S
The main route used by the Kolis from Machhimar Nagar and Sassoon Dock is shown on the montaged axonometric. The Images are from the film that follows this same route, following a couple of Kolis women and the daily obstacles and views that they see along this route.
The film uses footage that was taken on the study trip to Mumbai in November 2014. It follows two Kolis women making their way from Sassoon Dock to Machhimar Nagar on the other side of Colaba.
Diagram exploring the route that the fishing community take.
W A T E R I N M U M B A I
W A T E R T A N K S O F M U M B A I
The city of Mumbai used to be fed by a number of different water tanks that provide the inhabitants with fresh drinking water. Although many of these tanks have now been built over due to the need for more land to build upon. The tanks can all still be traced to the area they were as the area of roads in the vicinity are still present.
The decline of the tanks took place due to new sources of water being pumped into the city. This started with reservoirs being created in the national park with water pumped from there into the Victorian small city.
Map highlighting position of water tanks in Mumbai, during start of 20th Century
Map of Banganga Tank.
Banganga Tank
Banganga Tank is an ancient water tank, now part of the Walkeshwar Temple Complex, located in the affluent suburb of Malabar Hill, South Mumbai.
The tank is has been in its location since 1127 AD for the minister of a local King. Having been in disrepair it was rebuilt in 1715 with funding from the Temple complex which has subsequently been re-built.
Dhobi Ghat
Below the Tank there is a small informal settlement, within which a Dhobi Ghat is placed, contrasting with the way water is used in Banganga Tank. Workers use bathtubs to clean the fabric. Some of the laundry is left out to dry on the rocks next to the sea, or hung using the wind from the Arabian Sea, to help speed up the drying process.
S T R E E T A N A L Y S I S
Section taken through Banganga Tank
The project looks at the streets that the Kolis use daily to navigate. It examins the current conditions of the crowded streets, people walking on pavements, the use of the car that is parked taking up space, and disused gardens and ground floors of buildings. It then goes on to sugest if these spaces were cleared and a canal was in place instead of the road what impact this would have.
F I N A L F I L M E S S A Y
The final film essay uses the set models produced throughout the year to look at the new proposed route that the Kolis would use to go too and fro from Sassoon Dock to their main community Machhimar Nagar following the implementation of a canal and tram route flowing through the streets of Colaba.
The route starts in Sassoon Dock where the implementation of a series of interventions between the existing buildings has allowed new imaginations for using space to be achieved. Smaller water courses run along the top of the wall to large reseviors above ice production plants.
The film explores how these large industrial typologies adjust to a domestic level when leaving Sassoon Dock.