EXTREME URBANISM: Reimagining Mumbai’s Back Bay

The Studio will explore the condition of extreme urbanism in the form of social, cultural and economic disparities and how these manifest themselves in the urban form. Social interactions, public space and the broader issue of how architecture and urban design can facilitate the dissipation of polarities that exist in the urban landscape will be the central theme of the studio. Situated in Mumbai, the studio will offers students the potential to engage with questions of housing, notions of public space and its correlation with specific local cultures, landscapes and ecology as well as urban design questions at the city scale. Questions of real estate dynamics, climate change and environmentalism in general will be driving concerns through the studio. In addition, the studio will emphasize models and processes of implementation, forms of social engagement and the challenges for advocacy at large will be critical questions in the formulations for proposition for the site. This studio will be an advanced introduction to urbanism in Indian cities. Drawing on Mumbai\’s specific urban development experience from the past two decades, we will consider how large-scale planning intervention could promote a plurality of visions for the city and how architects, planners, urban designers and landscape architects can reconcile sharp dualities in city form. Furthermore, the studio will explore how ecologically sensitive design can play a role in shifting the paradigms of urbanism for cities.