Professional work as a Research Associate with the Urban Design Research Institute | Supervised by Pankaj Joshi (Executive Director) | India, 2018 - 2019
Due to rapid urbanization, the resulting growth and transformation of Mumbai city, and misinterpretation of laws such as the Rent Control Act 1999, the heritage precinct of colonial Bombay, the Fort Area has fallen into a state of disrepair since the British Colonial times. Fort Area is a heritage precinct in Mumbai that houses many British Era Colonial Buildings and was the walled inner city of Mumbai till the mid 19th Century. Despite protection from heritage grading laws (fig 3), the area around these heritage sites are littered, vandalized, facades marred with insensitive signage and banners. The effort of the Fort Management Plan, therefore, was to intervene in the intersection of urban planning and heritage conservation by focusing on the following agendas: 1. Pedestrianization of certain trafficked zones and footpath re-engineering. 2. Introduction of uniform street furniture and signages 3. Solid waste management 4. Intervention in Heritage management practices. Within this spectrum, the FMP included public dissemination, conversations with relevant governing authorities in Mumbai, and proposals of a pilot project in DN Road in Fort. What the FMP initiated was a process involving phase wise progress over many years, involving smaller interventions, but also a larger picture of enforcement of laws regarding the standards of usage, and their maintenance thereafter. The objective of the preservation strategy was to bring about a change in the policydealing with these areas in order to ensure its long term success.
