By year-end your recreational goings-on in Mumbai might include a variety of local panorama — arts and crafts bazaars, local artisans as well as plazas to showcase their work — with the Love Grove Sewage Pumping Station at Worli in for a revamp, to accommodate the same.
Imagine a series of old buildings in a wada (complex), connected to each other by a courtyard corridor and green spaces, acting as the cultural catalyst to connect the city with its talented state craftsmen.
For architect Brinda Somaya (who is spearheading the project and an expert at re-architecture or ‘adaptive re-use’), the plan is an idea that has been waiting to happen. “It’s great to be able to creatively re-use existing spaces. I have done a few mills in Mumbai, converting them into educational and leisure spaces,” she says.
Somaya and MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) plan to invite craftsmen from different parts of the state, provide them with dormitory facilities, and create a little cultural village in itself, in the city. “You’ll be surprised at how much the demand is for local crafts but people don’t know where to buy them from. This project will encourage creative artists and improve their economic situation,” she adds.
What’s also interesting is that while the pumping station is set to get an aesthetic makeover, several characteristic elements of the place will stay. “The two chimneys of brick and stone will be restored architecturally,” ends Somaya.
