Avid Learning presents a day-long workshop that decodes building styles in colonial Bombay with a specific focus on the design and elements of Victorian Gothic Revival and Indo-Saracenic architecture. An introductory overview will establish the context that birthed both styles after dismantling the Fort in 1862 thus seeding a new architectural imagination and urban possibility. Architect and Urban Conservationist Kamalika Bose will elucidate the intricate architectural design, flair and whimsy of Victorian Gothic structures. Architect and Professor at Sir J.J. College of Architecture Mustansir Dalvi will discuss the emergence of Indo-Saracenic design at the turn of the 20th century alluding to iconic as well as little known examples. This workshop is part of our Multipolis Mumbai series, which decodes the past while looking to the future and finding novel ways of engaging, interacting with and re-energizing the city we love! It comes close on the heels of the exciting announcement in June 2018 that Mumbai’s precinct that houses The ‘Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai’ has been awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO. Whether you are an urbanist, historian, student of architecture or simply a city-lover come celebrate this special honour for Mumbai and learn more about the architectural styles that populate this unique and historic precinct.
Kamalika Bose is an urban conservationist, researcher and educator based in Mumbai, and the founder of Heritage Synergies India. She is a Fulbright Scholar, a SAH-Getty International Fellow and was Assistant Professor at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She obtained a Master in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University. Kamalika has gained international work experience in areas of neighbourhood preservation and cultural heritage through positions at Historic Districts Council, New York and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. She has authored three books and her work attempts to bridge academia and practice in the domain of heritage conservation, through active community engagement while advocating for preservation as a social campaign. Kamalika is a consulting expert to the ICOMOS World Heritage Unit, is on the advisory of Kolkata Architecture Foundation and is a Visiting Faculty at KRVIA, Mumbai.
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Mustansir Dalvi is an architect, editor and urban critic. He is Professor of Architecture at Sir J. J. College of Architecture. Mustansir has lectured, read and published several papers on architectural education, architectural history and heritage, urban transformation and architectural semiotics. His research has been widely published and he is the author of ‘The Romance of Red Stone: An Appreciation of Ornament on Islamic Architecture in India’. He is the editor of '20th Century Compulsions’ a collection of writings about early Indian modernist architecture. His latest book is 'The Past As Present: pedagogical practices in architecture at the Bombay School of Art'. He has also been published in a number of architectural journals, newspapers and lifestyle publications and has written columns for Time Out Mumbai, firstpost.com and currently, the Hindu,scroll.in and thewire.in, where he critically observes Mumbai's urbanity and charts the semiotics of its contradictions.
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