Redevelopment of bhaucha dhakka fish market, at Mumbai’s eastern waterfront as an urban food hub

Abstract

The project would be a small part of the larger urban redevelopment of the eastern waterfront of Mumbai. The i dea i s to propose a socio-cultural hub centred around food. The project would be a platform for social, commercial and gastronomic engagements. I t i s seen as a socio-cultural public space with a marketplace, boosting socio-cultural and economic activity in the place. Through the project, the derelict site will attain a new i dentity i n becoming a city l evel destination for food, i n an effort to i ncrease social and commercial engagements at a prime location within the city. The programme would contain a mix of food-related activities such as incubation kitchens, Culinary schools, restaurants, wet food markets, gastro gallery etc. The temporal programming for the i nformal vendors and fixed programming for other forms of SMEs will help i n giving a unique experience, alongside, facilitating both i nformal vendors and micro businesses. The high profile redevelopment of the place will result i n the gentrification of the area. The local communities have made clear that ‘ the planners must keep the communities i n focus and must have a say i n the redevelopment’. The area provided a l ivelihood for communities for decades. The food culture which i s one of the main focus i n development l ies i n the hands of the people seen as i nformal vendors and micro-businesses. Given the kind of development that i s proposed, i t would be harder for small l ocal businesses to compete i n the projected scenario. Digging deeper, one c an understand that there i s a need to give these small businesses a voice i n the bigger picture of the market, where big companies with access to greater assets have dominance i n the market. The i dea here i s to get them to the forefront of the market and hence promote the culture, i mproving their economic activity with a cultural output. This social cause is the driving force in the conception of this project. Through i ts programme, the project aims to address these i ssues i n the creation of a vibrant spot for socio-cultural and economic activities. The need for the right to public space + bringing food culture to the public realm - would be addressed by the kind of public space that i s being designed. Lack of access to finance + financial I nstability - would be addressed by sharing i nfrastructure, seen as a sensitive move towards ‘ sharing economy’ that i s penetrating the markets and changing the market dynamics i n positive ways. The design scope for the project l ies i n designing of the public i nfrastructure of such i mportance and also in design for sharing with temporal and fixed programming tailored to the function.