Parametric Algorithms in Urban Interventions: Studio Emergence, Mumbai

To begin with, it’s not every day that you see a building developer in each-one-for-himself Mumbai take interest in developing the public infrastructure outside their own building project, beyond clearing up any trash lying there and creating a passable approach to their site. But, Mumbai is also a city of possibilities, and the architects of this Prabhadevi project, Studio Emergence exuded the required confidence that prompted the developers, Sugee Builders, to take up the development of the footpath looping around their narrow angled corner plot on behalf of the municipal corporation. 

Being at the heart of a busy commercial hub with every imaginable human prototype from hawkers/ shop keepers to office-goers, housewives, children and senior citizens traversing the pavement and using it to park vehicles, wait for buses or just rush past, it was as chaotic a scene as any. The five metre wide pavement skirts the junction between Gokhale Road that carries the maximum traffic towards Worli and Baburao Parulakar Marg. So, with no scope to reduce the usable width at any section of the footpath, the initial decision made was to maintain most of the width of the pavement in the design and intervene only around this space to guide its proper use. 

Studio Emergence, through its patented algorithmic projections of mundane parameters like use and movement patterns, has come up with a sculptural design solution that innocuously eases itself into the setting. The design does not disturb any of the previously occurring activities yet simultaneously guides those activities out of the previous chaos into organised occurrence with a touch of beauty and green. They have essentially created a buffer which is split in two parts for the two road faces which safely and neatly separates the pavement activities from the road movements.

The free form of this curvaceous buffer, which includes in itself seating for 4-5 persons and planters along with concealed and accent lighting, and even takes care of services and electrical points for the municipal corporation, is also guided by the location points of these elements. Though the design was granted all the permissions sought from the Municipal Corporation, getting it executed was a different challenge as its apparent complexity scared away some contractors initially till one could finally be convinced to do the job! About 180 sectional profiles were created at every 500 mm distance to enable the accurate construction of the curvilinear massing of the structure which is made of MS sheets (hinged at places where underlying drain lines need to be accessed for maintenance - img 7) mounted on a metal framework. All existing trees have been maintained and provided with Corten steel grating and old manhole covers replaced with new FRP ones.

The startlingly pleasing results of this voluntary urban intervention are there for all to appreciate and enjoy. When one sees bikes and cars spontaneously parking at allocated spaces without having any signboard screaming at them to do so, or when children waiting for school buses escorted by grandparents get to play with butterflies in mid traffic chaos, one experiences the beauty of design that works! And yes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation takes note and intends to repeat the endeavour at other locales....

In a nation-wide competition organised by WorldBuild India and sponsored by Nerolac Paints, entrants were asked to come up with design ideas for public spaces expressed through the colours of their city at a site of their choice. The entry by Studio Emergence, which was awarded the third place, was an urban intervention chosen to be placed at south Mumbai’s Girgaaum Chowpatty beach but easily applicable to any part of the entire city. In their signature style, the sculptural design was created by applying an algorithm to the relevant parameters of uses of the space and movements in and around it. 

The most wonderful aspect of this proposal is that, though it was just a hypothetical competition entry, the designers are completely capable and ready for its construction and, more importantly, apply it to any site in Mumbai or any other city. The algorithm which has been readied by them has to simply be fed with data about local parameters relevant to the site and applied to generate a site specific structure. Laser cut parts of MDF, ply board, cement board or any other suitable material can be created by digital fabrication technology that Studio Emergence adopts and the structure is easily installed on site within a span of 5 to 8 hours!