WADA-PROJECT!
Architect Brinda Somaya does a walk-though the derelict Love Grove, in Worli, that is all set to transform into the city’s first arts and crafts centre …..SUDIPTA BASU
If you are in mid-town Worli you have all of two places for rest and relaxation Nehru Centre and Atria Mall. Most of us barely cast a glance at the two derelict chimneys, a stone and a brick, inside the Love Grove pumping station as we speed by on the flyover. But thanks to the partnership between a private body and the government, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Somaya and Kalappa Consultants, this 7,200 square meter space will adorn a wada-like look, at the cost of Rs 15 crore. It will be the citys arts and crafts centre.
Recently, Manu Kumar Srivastava, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC, had said that the plan was to offer an opportunity to craftsmen from across Maharashtra to showcase their work through the year and that the reward of this enterprise would be an annual arts and crafts fair.
Brinda Somaya, the architect of the project (which will take 15 months to complete), on a walk about the site points out that the focus of restoration here is in its adaptive reuse. “It is the middle path between radical heritage conservationists and modern messiahs of change. Both approaches are wrong, and the only way in which heritage can be conserved (and not fall prey to mall-makers) is by creating a resource for it to generate money in order to provide for its own upkeep,” says Somaya, pointing to a Peepul tree that has grown into one of the structures, thereby presenting “an almost Angkor Wat-like look”. The pump house and the power house originally housed here were shifted behind these structures, given the need for a larger capacity.
As you enter the gates, on the left are a withering store room, a power house and Castophine house built in the 1840s; which will eventually be turned into a kacheri (97 sq mt) the reception and administrative area, a peth (440 sq mt) where artisans will display their wares and diwankhana (335 sq mt), a dormitory for them to live in with an adjoining cafeteria, library and a recreation centre, respectively. The connecting spaces between the three structures will form the courtyard, baithak and nrityangan.
As the three structures are refurbished most of the old materials will be recycled, while the chimneys will be “reverentially restored”. Some of the trees here are more than a hundred years old, the Peepul and a Banyan tree to name two, and hence the landscaping will be done around them. After the work is complete, Somaya says with much pride that the chimneys will be lit up every night.
SOMAYA’S PICKS FROM GLOBAL ADAPTIVE REUSE
Old warehouses in Sydney and Boston near the docks have been made into market places, after their original purpose became irrelevant.
In Manhattan old churches have been converted into apartments and barns into restaurants.
In Yazd, a town in Iran, an old historic centre has given way to residential buildings, restaurants and a tourist hub.
SOMAYA’S PICKS FROM GLOBAL ADAPTIVE REUSE
Old mills in the English midlands, such as Manchester, which have been made into office spaces. It is to suggest that heritage has move with time by being brought to contemporary commercial use. Likewise, old hospitals have been turned into a series of apartments.
Old warehouses in Sydney and Boston near the docks have been made into market places, after their original purpose became irrelevant.
In Manhattan old churches have been converted into apartments and barns into restaurants.
In Yazd, a town in Iran, an old historic centre has given way to residential buildings, restaurants and a tourist hub.
(Left) The brick and stone chimneys that will be restored; (Top to bottom) the path that will be transformed into manicured gardens, the old pump station, Somaya by the Peepul tree along the walls of the old structure, Castophine house which will be transformed into a dormitory to house artisans