mumbai competitions

Either for sites of significance or a situation to request multiple proposals before an ideal solution is selected are standard operating conditions mooting architectural design competitions. It’s predominantly for built solutions as in that is its principle appeal to compete for practicing architects and students. A bit more expensive than hiring a singular practice to produce multiple alternatives, the competition is generally a platform for the uninitiated to find footing and a space of engagement among the more established firms. This is the main draw which makes the stage appealing across sections of a profession. This compilation is a review of the state of popular design competitions held in the recent past. After about a lull the last few years have seen a competition organised every other year. List here try’s to capture the shifting nature of institutions and their patronage of ideas on the city’s built environment. These six projects essentially of three types are the free open call, qualifying entry and paid collaborative ideas. What this amounts to is a generalisation on the nature of conducting agencies but the type of competitions conducted reflects more on agency aspirations instead of a status of the design profession. That said in agency and aspiration sets we have the grand institutions who’s interest are in pure architectural design, therefore, are willing to spend to accommodate anyone and everybody from a professional pool. Then there are insecure clients where an association with a certain category of architects supposedly build or for that matter add value to the said institution. Popular of late are interesting design event organisers. They particularly are not interested in conducting architectural competitions but have to do so because they are predominately an architecture-centric institution and think an idea of collaboration is kind of cool in addition to the fact they are not spending any substantial monies in staging the project. All three have their disadvantages which could be overridden only if the submitted entry has qualified for an award which in the case of insecure clients and interesting event organisers being able to participate is a hurdle in itself. For an early stage architectural practice owing to increasing number of agendas backing design competitions to collaborate either with fellow practitioners or with other professional idea systems are increasingly stated as necessary. Charles Correa was the first architect locally to lead a multidisciplinary team in a design project. Here interesting event organisers as inspired by the master try in essence be seen as promoters of a certain form of practice. Insecure clients are aspiring patrons of star teams, who’s composition may or may not be multidisciplinary. A key advantage of being an only architect in a mixed professional ideas stage the only profession which comes out on top is in principle the architect. Other professional streams somehow don’t have the kind of recognition system architecture sustains. The act at one hand forces an architect out of his/ her comfort zone but its effectiveness is still to be adequately measured especially when there are costs linked to external associations. Growing designer team practices ethos of idea’s trump egos is more of a trend emerging out of market dynamics, somehow this seems to spill out onto local contests as fads. That said what is evident from Mumbai Architecture Design Competitions is that they are no longer of a specific and consistent model. Institutions tend to use them as a tool which in most instances doesn’t guarantee a built solution but a discussion platform of ideas they are testing publicly. In this context the overriding question posed thus _ Is the self-initiated semi-public institutional concerns via competitions necessary to be part of or can it be ignored?

REFFERENCES #

• Architectural Design Competition Guidelines, COA
• RIBA Competitions
• AIA, The Handbook of Architectural Design Competitions
• What Makes a Good Project? A Guide to Successful Competition Entries
• Mainland Shift, Charles Correa and the Making of Navi Mumbai
• HUGE/ Careers

BMW GUGGENHEIM LAB MUMBAI, November 2012 #

Enrique Peñalosa (Politician), PRK Murthy (Transportation Planner), Vivek Phansalkat (Joint Police Commissioner), Tasneem Mehta (Museologist), Geetam Tiwari (Professor for Transport Planning), Ashok Datar (Activist), David van der Leer (Curator), Neville Mars (Architect), Trupti Amritwar Vaitla (Transportation Planner) #

We are seeking proposals for a viable, mixed-used intersection that caters to both individuals and communities and represents a more progressive view of Mumbai’s city infrastructure. In Mumbai, traffic congestion, noise, pollution, poor traffic discipline, and inadequate pedestrian facilities have many negative effects on everyday life. These factors add to stress, create an unsafe environment, and increase already considerable travel time. As these tensions are charted across the city’s private, public, and transient spaces, the limits of both individual comfort and urban efficiency are tried. The urban challenge remains to develop a shared public space for successful multifunctional usage and mutual responsibility. If Mumbai’s balance of public and personal space can work as a guide to redefine notions of the spatial divide between the individual and community, innovative design proposals for severely trafficked transportation nodes such as Kala Nagar could become examples of how urban design can effectively engage with and steer the relationship between the “me” and the “we.” SRGF, MESN, and Lord Cultural Resources invite you to show us how you would explore Kala Nagar junction’s challenges and propose a viable, mixed-used intersection that caters to both individuals and communities and represents a more progressive view of Mumbai’s infrastructure. This competition is an opportunity to express your vision for extraordinary and
inventive solutions that inspire change, reshape a sense of comfort and lead to improved urban interactions. Would you weave traffic flows to make way for public spaces? Would you set up time-sharing modules for automotive traffic? Do you imagine revitalizing the unused spots in the middle of all the hustle and bustle? We encourage you to share your forward-thinking ideas to turn this traffic junction into a transportation hub for the future.

DR BHAU DAJI LAD MUSEUM, December 2013 #

Mr Sitaram Kunte (Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai/ Trustee), Mrs Tasneem Mehta (Museum Director), Mrs Minal Bajaj (Businesswoman/ Trustee), Mr Shyam Benegal (Filmmaker/ Trustee), Dr Homi Bhabha (Humanities Professor), Dr Vishakha Desai (Global Affairs and Professor of Professional Practice), Mr Rajiv Jalota (Additional Municipal Commissioner, Projects/ Trustee), Mr Sen Kapadia (Architect), Mr Anand Mahindra (Entrepreneur), Dr Martin Roth (Museologist), Dr Aroon Tikekar (Journalist) #

We are looking for multi-disciplinary creative teams with expertise in contemporary design and landscaping: the museum stands in one of the few green spaces in south Mumbai. The teams should be structured under a lead consultant identified within the submission. Collaborations with local practices are encouraged. This is a key moment for the museum as it reaches out towards new audiences inside India and internationally. The new facilities will allow a greater diversity of activity and enable events like travelling international exhibitions to be held which are impossible in the original heritage building. The new building is expected to be 8,000 to 10,000 m2 (85,000 - 110,000 square feet), providing new galleries and facilities including an interpretation centre, a library, an archive, conservation facilities and a new museum shop and café. At the heart of the new wing will be a permanent gallery to showcase contemporary Mumbai, focusing on important milestones in the city’s development and highlighting its cultural achievements, as well as temporary exhibition space to international standards capable of taking large-scale touring exhibitions.

Project themes:

• Using the landscape for events to enhance the work of the Museum Exemplary, original and contemporary design
• Sustainability - to have a Green building conserving energy and water
• Reflecting the craft tradition of the Museum

Wider Museum themes:

• to serve the community as an institution dedicated to excellence in cultural education through exhibitions and different visual and intellectual media
• to engage the community, especially children
• to promote a greater appreciation of Mumbai’s artistic, cultural and economic history and development
• to promote crosscultural understanding and cultural awareness at all levels

URBAN DESIGN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, March 2014 #

Abhay Pethe (Economist), Amita Bhide (Social Scientist), Anu Aga (Businesswoman), Cyrus Guzder (Entrepreneur), DM Sukthankar (Former Civil Servant), Jaithirth Rao (Entrepreneur), Romila Thapar (Historian) #

Reinvention incorporates all possibilities including conservation, alteration, replacement, retrofitting, reconstruction and redevelopment of the living environment. ‘Reinventing Dharavi: An Ideas Competition’ is about generating essentially new ideas, concepts and interventions for integration of urban uses – affordable housing, livelihoods, health and sanitation, recreation, education, urban design and urban planning, social and cultural activities, environment, governance, economics, amongst others in a sustainable manner. Dharavi is well-established as one of the world’s most significant communities requiring a critical re-imagination for a better future. We seek to revisit Dharavi through adaptable and multidisciplinary approaches. Furthermore, the competition aims at exploring strategies for achieving affordability through innovative approaches for governance, management, and maintenance. This competition encourages an exchange of approaches (national and international) as well as novel and creative project ideas to enhance the existing qualities and enhanced future potentials of this site. The competition outcomes are to suggest, and express, an array of strategies considered through a range of time structures – from short term to long term, transitory to permanent or staged development cycles.

Open Ideas Competition:
The objective is to initiate an on-going dialogue on the critical issues and spread the ideas contributed by the participants, worldwide among the concerned authorities, organisations, and peoples. With open access, it will be possible to influence the future directions towards our cherished aims. The competition being an open ideas competition there is no guarantee of any project or programme work in Dharavi.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, November 2015 #

Municipal Commissioner, Deputy Chief Engineer (Slum Sanitation Program) #

AVISHKAAR - Community Toilet Blocks _ Competition for architectural planning, design and colour scheme of 20 seated G + 1 community toilet blocks constructed under Slum Sanitation Programme of M.C.G.M. and logo design for the toilet blocks.

OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION, December 2015 #

UPS Madan (Metropolitan Commissioner MMRDA), Pheroza Godrej (Businesswoman), Sudheendra Kulkarni (Activist), Ton Venhoeven (Urban Designer), Bimal Patel (Architect), Rakesh Kumar (Scientist), Ethan Kent (Activist), Pravin Darade (Additional Metropolitan Commissioner MMRDA), Gautam Kirtane (Competition Convener) #

The Maharashtra Nature Park Makeover on the south bank of the Mithi River has an ambitious objective of inspiring an entire generation of Mumbaikars to respect and embrace nature and move towards greater sustainability through education, awareness and lifestyle choices. The MNP Makeover has several interconnected and interdependent challenges that will require a multidisciplinary approach to strike the perfect balance between afforestation and complementary infrastructure. The forest-like environment is clearly the single most important asset of the park that has been nurtured over two decades. Its preservation and significant enlargement must be integral to any makeover. The supporting facilities today, however, are suboptimal and the city has lost a great opportunity to spread environmental awareness, as a result. The makeover must consider the spatial arrangements of existing functions and arrive at an ideal-case scenario for the proposed makeover with an objective to significantly enhance the nature education and nature tourism potential of the park. An intelligent spatial arrangement will play a key role in the success of any design. The key demands for Stage 1 of the competition are

• The 17-acre forest-like core should be preserved and significantly enlarged.
• Plans must take into account that the after the makeover, the park will cater to much larger number of visitors which must not disturb the ecological balance and carrying capacity of the MNP.
• Nature-inspired designs for the proposed knowledge centre and other built infrastructure.
• Development of a low-impact waterfront promenade over the natural walkway between the MNP boundary and the Mithi River in keeping with the larger vision for an unbroken pedestrian corridor along the entire river front.
• Minimise impact on the river, estuary, mangroves, the Maharashtra Nature Park itself, and other environmental assets in the vicinity.
• Factor in equal and balanced measure, the needs and aspirations of those living and working across both banks of the river.
• Seamlessly connecting the bridge to the Sion-Dharavi Link Road, taking pedestrians and cyclists towards Sion and Chunnabhatti Stations on the Suburban Railway Network.
• An iconic and unique design with a low environmental footprint.
• An appropriate design for an estuarine environment where the mudflats get exposed and covered twice a day with changing tides.
• Intelligent segregation of park users and bridge users and while serving as a feeder for MNP.
• It should embody the famed spirit of Mumbai, while creating an inspirational link between two very unique parts of the city that are economically, socially and environmentally very different from each other.
• The bridge must ensure a safe and stimulating experience for pedestrians and cyclists crossing the river.
• It must take into consideration the climate of Mumbai throughout the year.
• Its designs must actively encourage movement between the two banks of the river and be a torchbearer for walkable urbanity and disabled-friendly public infrastructure. It must encourage a shift from motorised modes of transport to walking and cycling.
• It must leverage the existing pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure across the BKC, where it lands.
• It must have minimum impact on the river, estuary, mangroves, Maharashtra Nature Park and other environmental assets in the vicinity.
• Factor in equal and balanced manner, the needs and aspirations of those living and working across both banks of the river.
• Low cost and practical solutions for operations, maintenance and support.

KAMLA RAHEJA VIDYANIDHI INSTITUTE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, September 2016 #

B. V. Doshi (Architect), S. Vishwanath (Founder Rainwater Club/ Consultant), Sandeep Virmani (Director Hunnarshala Foundation/ Businessman) #

Cities have had a very strong relationship with bodies of water. Many were built on the banks of rivers, some were at the seaside, others were adjacent to lakes and of course in many cases cities created their own lakes and reservoirs. No city could afford to disregard the collection, storage, use-pattern and disposal of water. Water-bodies served as modes of transportation or defense; they supported livelihoods and crafts; they created open spaces that served as a release from the confines of urban congestion. In many ways water was intimately connected with the very idea of being alive. Though cities were man-made artifacts, humans felt a sense of being grateful beneficiaries, and sometimes unwitting victims, of this capricious natural element. Water, in its presence as well as absence, was both a blessing and a threat. Thus water was not just a physical fact, it was a deep psychological presence. While water is essential to life, its proximity to human habitation needs systems of maintenance and upkeep. Away from human settlements, bodies of water can find ways of self-regeneration, involving a multiplicity of organisms that constantly balance the state of the fluid medium. Human populations however, use water, create wastes, and are vulnerable to the organisms that water may support. Thus human societies need to create rules, laws, customs and regulatory mechanisms to maintain this vital resource. Symbolism, religion and ethics are connected to every society’s conception of water, as are law, economics and politics. The articulation of the edge of water in human settlements was the clearest expression of all these concepts. It afforded particular and peculiar modes of use and control, different in each society and even in each case. Sometimes hardened and built, sometimes covered with vegetation, sometimes showing the exposed soil or sand, each edge was made to answer to particular conditions, concepts and needs. With the huge and rapid growth of population, as well as with increased and more dense urbanisation, the traditional modes of dealing with water are seriously challenged. We will have to find new ways of dealing with water in cities, and the edge where water and human settlements meet is critical. Thinking of the “edge” means of course reimagining the relationship of humans and water, reimagining the mechanisms of participation and control, reimagining the environmental and technological issues and suggesting new arrangements. In short thinking about the edge of the water means no less than reimagining city and community.

Participants are required to study the context and propose measures to integrate the selected edge into the life of the city. The Design Proposal should exhibit an understanding of ecological, social and cultural characteristics of the place. The edge should become part of the “commons”, inclusive of all and available for public uses. Proposals can suggest uses or prohibit them, and would accordingly need architectural articulation to support this.