cutting edge bombay_the statement

Learnig from cities workshop, 10th Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2006
SPECIAL AWARD FOR SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE
I Facoltà di Architettura Politecnico di Torino

coordinator: Pierre-Alain Croset
tutors: Michele Bonino, Subhash Mukerjee
consultant: Rahul Mehrotra, Bombay
special thanks to: Massimo Fantini
students: Tomà Berlanda, Marco Boella, Rita D’Attorre, Valeriano Foti, Manuela Martorelli, Rachele Michinelli, Marianna Nigra, Caterina Pagliara, Federica Patti, Paolo Remogna, Francesco Stassi

Bombay has always had a problematic relationship with water. Since the 18th century the city’s growth has gone through several land reclamations, that finally joined the original seven islands together.
As land was added, Bombay’s form was defined as a single compact body, thus losing the characteristic fragmentation of its coastline. Islands dissolved, the coastline moved West, homogeneous and compact. Backbay is the only area where the filling in has not completely happened. Around the big water void diverse social groups are near and divided, struggling every day to conquer square metres of free space.
The project states the need of maintaining this water void, redefining it in its geometry to give it a form: cutting its edges to reveal its potential as a public space. Respecting local differences, as an alternative to the banalizing process of the land reclamations. Water becomes the public space, the space for the negotiation of the needs and the interests of every part of society, place for communication, for social activities and of intermodal exchange.