(de)Coding Mumbai

(de)Coding Mumbai is a study presented as an exhibition and documented as a book. Through 18 case studies, it documents and attempts to analyze the trajectories of Mumbai’s building codes and the development of Mumbai’s housing fabric. The exhibit traces the emergence of the first regulations as a panacea for the plague of 1896 to the ossified building codes of today that are structured to quantify real estate and not qualify living environments. Over the last 100 years, different regimes, actors, and their preoccupations have shaped the regulations for housing in the city of Mumbai which in turn have shaped the housing and urban form of the city, directly impacting the lives of its residents. Tracing its interrelationships with socio-political and economic currents both domestic and international, (de)Coding Mumbai attempts to make explicit the evolution of Mumbai’s physical form.

The book is available for order on Amazon.