Cultural Identity through Architecture | Case of Revitalization of Sassoon Dockyard
Image source: Author. Figure highlighting local Koli women working at Sassoon Docks.
How would the cacophony of ethnic crowds, simultaneity and multiplicity in diverse activities with their associations as a cultural palette be represented through Architectural discipline in revitalizing the oldest heritage dockyard?
“There’s always hustle and bustle – but at Mumbai’s Sassoon Docks, it jumps up a notch. This is fast - paced fishy business, the local Koli fishermen delivering new catch from boats haggling hard with wholesale buyers. There was an absolute mass of people – women to-ing and fro-ing from the end of the dock. These ladies pile the fish into baskets and sell them on to individual buyers – there’s bargaining, crowds, wads of cash being flashed. We were propelled out of the way a dozen times. There’s a constant back and forth, no chance to stop.” by Laura Mannering.
Standing at the gate of historic Sassoon dock drew my attention gazing at the silhouettes of people and baskets in the first light of the morning. Sometimes, there is so much that one doesn't know about within one’s own city. I started to walk deeper watching my way cautiously as there is a huge hustle caused by vehicular movements. The environment changed rapidly - more people molecules and less space molecules. Yes it was the Sassoon dock as a beautifully painted canvas full of colours, smell, crowd, a sense of real ‘Mumbaikar’… At Sassoon docks, I learned a lot about the world of the fisherfolk community ‘Kolis’ in Bombay – what they do, how do they communicate in their local language to one another. The physical extent of the dock seems large, with no rigid boundaries. There seems to be a spatial organization that segregates one activity from other acknowledged by daily visitors. But, as one stays here long, they begin to notice the spatial expressions of informality and domesticity sprawling over structures making them a microcosm of fishing culture.
Image Source: Author. The figure highlighting the characteristics of Sassoon dock scaling to identify the issues.
This thesis intended to revitalize Sassoon Dock, a historic fishing dockyard as a place of 'Koli' community whose livelihood, social interaction and associations are inter woven as a socio-cultural system. The dock being as old dating 18th century exported cotton from the Mills . It is now functioning as a fishing dock with allied activity and is declared heritage under UNESCO. With time, Sassoon dock lost its cultural identity due to spatial and organizational issues. The existing activity pattern and architectural character of the structures is deteriorated leading to poor quality of circulation space creating vehicular and pedestrian congestion, loss in visual connectivity, dead and decaying quality of informal social spaces leading to loss in cultural identity of the place.
Revitalization of Dock used conservative as well as restructuring strategies by adaptively re-using some of the under-utilized and vacant sheds as fishing museum and photo gallery. The entire site is juxtaposed keeping the original site planning memories and restructuring traffic mobility. The active social relationship between the port and urban participants is marginalized. Hence regenerating everyday social spaces would ensure.
Image source: Author. Figure highlighting the idea behind preparing masterplan with major pause points as cultural platforms.
Image source: Author. Figure highlighting the analysis of proposed design to optimize the public interface, livelihoods, heritage strategies.
Strategies implemented:
Regenerate livelihoods by proposing market space spurring local economy for fisher community.
Restructure traffic mobility to segregate pedestrian and vehicular so that the Sassoon gate adorns a welcoming gestures appreciated by visitors.
Adaptive re-use of older sheds to accommodate art museums and photo galleries with fishing as a major theme run by local artist and community.
Reactivate neglected spaces for social interaction stimulating within the site between all the actors.
Image source: Author. The masterplan showing livelihood, landscape and adaptive-reuse strategies incorporated to revitalize the site.
DIY tactical urbanism - A ‘ST+ART’ initiative: The St+art India foundation is a not-for-profit organization that works on art projects in public spaces. As part of the St+art Urban Art Festival 2017 which is supported by Asian Paints, they hoped to reintroduce the lost spaces of Mumbai to its people, and began the project with the topmost point of Mumbai, Sassoon Dock. This was a true achievement as the 'ST+ART' initiative proved to be a boon for reviving the cultural identity which the thesis attempted to highlight.
Image source: Author. The image highlights tactical ways in reviving the spaces of oldest Sassoon dock to make it open for visitors in acknowledging the site as one of the cultural identity
For more information on ST+ART initiatives do visit the below mentioned links.
‘Sassoon Docks Gets an Arty Makeover with This Street Art Festival’ – Bhavika, 2020, Nov in https://lbb.in/mumbai/sassoon-docks-st-art/
‘How 30 Artists Breathed New Life into Mumbai’s 142-Year-Old Sassoon Docks!’ – Aranha, Jovita, 2017, Nov in https://www.thebetterindia.com/121732/sassoon-docks-art-project/
St+art India Launch the Sassoon Dock Art Project, Mumbai 2017 – Donna, 2017, Nov in https://www.graffitistreet.com/start-india-launch-the-sassoon-dock-art-project-mumbai-2017/
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