the project is to look at the existing list of heritage buildings in mumbai and examine its anomalies and contradictions (of which there are many) yesterday was the pre-final presentation which went off all right with a great amount of debate on whether we or abha or neera should list new buildings within precincts. everyone is trying to pass the buck to the other. neera- whom we all think should be doing the work is trying to pass it on to abha and us- saying that it is within our scope- while we obviously differ. after a long discussion i think we kind of succeeded in ridding us of the responsibility.
another discussion centered around whether completely transformed buildings would yet be considered worth listing. that was a strange debate where 20 storied buildings built over the past year were considered worthy of listing- merely because they once were important- but they don’t exist now! that did not seem to matter. weird.
above: Jhulelal House- on D N Road. a completely rebuilt building. not a single part of it is original. by using a pastiche of 'classical' elements it claims a slot in the existing heritage list. should it be deleted? the argument against its deletion is that once deleted the building will be rebuilt as a glass tower. but if there were precinctual guidelines for the development along D N Road this point would be moot. so i think... and what exactly is wrong with glass towers anyway?
meanwhile sukhtankar who has been part of every single important decision regarding the heritage movement in mumbai since its inception was eager to point out that we should not do anything that might challenge the validity of the earlier listing. but is not the entire basis for the re-examination of the original list as well as exploration for new buildings the apparent inadequacies of the old list?
other such strangeness- the grading mechanism. there are three main grades for heritage buildings: grade 1, grade 2 (which has two sub grades 'a' and 'b') and grade 3- in descending order of importance. with the regulations being as lax as they are on the protection of these buildings almost all of the grades allotted are pretty pointless because the offer the building no protection at all. changes are rampant everywhere as perhaps they need to be. an example is the high court building which was a 'grade ii a' building where no changes were allowed in the compound. with an amendment to the rule prodded by the judge now a new annex is being built in the compound of the building. so we are upgrading everything as the lower grades mean virtually nothing. the only really protected grade is the grade 1 category - because no changes are allowed at all. now do we want to live in a city of hollow monuments?
perhaps we need to look at the conservation and heritage movement a little more holistically to make it more relevant- like an urban renewal and design approach rather than an artifactual. what that exactly entails i dont know. but i do suspect that unless we are able to develop a strategy to dovetail it with development, as against 'against development'- the way it stands right now- it might become more and more irrelevant.
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