Urban Level Design at Marine Drive
Semester 5 | Allied Design
Ar. Juhi Prasad
Ar. Devyani Deshmukh
Studio Conductors
The Blue Revolution, one of the ‘four-coloured revolutions’ propounded by the Indian government (based on the 4 colours of the Indian flag) is oriented towards linking and cleaning of rivers as well as water conservation. This Project seeked to deliberate upon the ecological perspective on water with a focus on the future of waterfront projects in India, thus opening up various opportunities, challenges and scales of engagement. The project,inspired by the brief of NASA Landscape trophy 2017, aimed at relooking at Marine drive as it is one of the most significant waterfronts of Mumbai.
As long as water is around, people will desire to be near it. What will your vision be for a waterfront, which would help drive waterfront development for years to come? Should the waterfront redevelopment be based on tourism? Should the waterfront be a retail destination? Will retail alone be enough to attract people to spend their time, and money, on the redeveloped waterfront? Or, should the waterfront include housing, or only housing? Will people move to the water's edge? Should the waterfront instead be parkland and open space? Should the waterfront still be used as a commercial asset, as a shipping or fishing port? Or could it be an exploration of water as part of heritage? Or should the waterfront be a fusion of all the above? These were some questions that the students looked into before choosing the site.
Students selected any part of Marine drive based on the same parameters and exhibited their understanding of the congruence of issues, challenges and probable solutions for the same.