Building Green: Environmental Architects and the Struggle for Sustainability in Mumbai Read online

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  Preface and Acknowledgments xiii

  Ticktin, Loraine Kennedy, Blandine Ripert, and members of the Center for South

  Asian Studies at EHESS.

  As has long been the case, the inspiring and highly original scholars who

  contribute to the Ecologies of Urbanism in Asia Network provided continuous

  support for this work through their fascinating case studies, theoretical interventions, and warm collegiality. My partner in this enterprise, K. Sivaramakrishnan,

  continues to model the best possible combination of impeccable scholar, inspir-

  ing col aborator, and generous friend. Together we are grateful to the Hong Kong

  Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, whose unwavering support of

  our quest to better understand the diverse ecologies of urbanism across Asia has

  enabled multiple fruitful projects and fostered generative connections between

  scholars across Asia, Europe, and North America.

  In New York, my colleagues at the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge, par-

  ticularly Caitlin Zaloom, Eric Klinenberg, and Gordon Douglas, provided much

  of the support necessary to turn fieldwork and analysis into a finished book. Many versions of many chapters in Building Green trace their origins to the IPK Library; the entire book was sharpened through an early peer review made possible by

  generous support from IPK. Parts of this book were further enriched by metic-

  ulous comments from colleagues who took part in the Urban Beyond Measure

  Symposium at Stanford University, the Rutgers University Human Ecology group,

  the Urban Landscape Studies Group at Dumbarton Oaks, the Critical Perspectives

  on Urban Infrastructure Workshop at University College London, and my col-

  leagues in NYU’s Departments of Environmental Studies, Anthropology, and

  Social and Cultural Analysis. The support of departmental chairs in those

  units—Terry Harrison, Susan Anton, Dale Jamieson, Peder Anker, and Carolyn

  Dinshaw—was essential throughout many phases of field research and writing.

  In specific places and moments, colleagues and friends offered support, critical

  input, or simply care that helped to bring this project from research to analysis to a finished book. I wish to thank in particular Peder Anker, Gustavo Azhena, Manu

  Bhagavan, Neil Brenner, Mary Cadenasso, Vanesa Castán Broto, Kizzy Charles-

  Guzman, Sienna Craig, Arlene Dávila, Nina Edwards, Julie Elman, Henrik

  Ernston, Tejaswini Ganti, Asher Ghertner, Gokce Gunel, Jeanne Haffner, Erik

  Harms, Karen Holmberg, Maria Ivanova, Natasha Iskander, Sophia Kalantzakos,

  Richard J. Karty, Mary Killilea, Liz Koslov, Andrew Mathews, Cindy McNulty, Pam

  McElwee, Mariana Mogilevich, Harvey Molotch, Laura Murray, Laura Ogden,

  Sara Pesek, Salman Quereshi, Christina Schwenkel, Tamara Sears, Maria Uriarte,

  Tyler Volk, and Austin Zeiderman. I am equal y indebted to dear friends, whose

  unwavering personal support kept me centered and sustained. Barbara and Roger

  Adams, Steve Curtis, David Elman, Sasha Gritsinin, David Heiser, Christopher

  Hoadley, Ko Kuwabara, Momo Holmberg Tang, Tamara Rademacher, Rana Rosen,

  Kai Schafft, Stephanie Steiker, and Kenny Tang offered warm fellowship at critical

  xiv Preface and Acknowledgments

  moments in the long journey from fieldwork to book. I also grateful y acknowl-

  edge the assistance of Evelyn Baert in the final stages of editing this manuscript, and Ayaka Habu in developing all aspects of the NYUrban Greening Lab Initiative

  that was born alongside this work.

  My longstanding academic mentors remain my greatest source of intellectual

  inspiration. James Fisher, Michael Dove, Helen Siu, and the community of schol-

  ars in Yale’s Dovelab and Agrarian Studies Seminar continue to nourish my work

  with their critical guidance, continued encouragement, and precious gifts of time.

  As I was writing Building Green, we mourned the passing of Eleanor Zelliot, my most cherished academic mentor, who in the formative role of my undergraduate

  advisor became a source of lifelong inspiration. Her vibrant presence is missed

  every day.

  My parents, Ronald and Nancy Rademacher, are the loving beginning of all I do

  and am. This book reaches back to them with gratitude and with reverence.

  In the middle of this project, I experienced a life-changing health crisis.

  Surviving, and healing in its aftermath, depended on the unconditional, and in

  many ways miraculous, generosity of friends and family. I am forever grateful to

  Leah Mayor, Gil Mayor, Jacque Haloubka, and Jordan Mayor for creating a healing

  space in their home, and a nurturing place in their family, as I inched my way back to the life and health I am so lucky to have regained. This book is dedicated, with love and incalculable gratitude, to them.

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  Vasai

  Vasai Cre Navghar

  ek

  Bhiwandi

  Dongri

  Mira

  Bhayandar

  Gorai

  reek

  Borivali

  Sanjay Gandhi

  National Park

  anori C

  Thane

  Dombivli

  M

  Kandiwali

  West

  Kalwa

  Malad

  West

  Mulund

  Mumbra

  West

  Malad

  Creek

  Mulund

  Goregaon

  East

  East

  Andheri

  East

  Juhu

  Kopar

  Khairane

  N

  Mumbai

  Bandra

  Taloja

  0

  4 miles

  West

  Kharghar

  Chembur

  East

  Navi

  Mumbai

  Dadar

  Mandala

  Arabian Sea

  Prabha

  Kamothe

  Hill

  Devi

  Worli

  Doongerwadi

  Forest

  Malabar

  Hill

  Nariman

  Point

  Karnala

  Colaba

  Bori

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  1

  City Ascending, City Imploding

  I.

  One by one, we filed back into a rickety van. Days of travel over smooth highways

  and potholed lanes, narrated in hours of conversation, song, laughter, and silence, had fostered the distinctive familiarity that sometimes develops with time shared

  in transit. A few days into the journey, we’d fallen into territorial patterns: by will or by default, we’d claimed and repeatedly reoccupied a specific seat in the van.

  Sliding into my place, I joined in a collective, exhausted exhale. Our energy was

  spent; our senses were ful .

  From the early morning hours, our group of thirteen architects and profes-

  sors had been touring the headquarters, and then several building sites, of the

  Bangalore property development firm called Biodiversity Conservation India

  (Ltd.). We’d covered the firm’s philosophical basis for environmental design,

  learned a set of technical strategies for achieving building efficiency and maximizing environmental performance, and, then, final y, we walked several construction

  sites to experience some BCIL projects in the making.

  The van revved its engine, filling the air with the sour sweetness of e
xhaust.

  Tired but still curious, I thumbed through the day’s collection of brochures, pam-

  phlets, and fliers. Settling on a BCIL brochure for potential clients, I skimmed the introductory pages. “DON’T JUST BUY A HOME, BUY INTO A CAUSE,” urged

  its opening page, the text laid out in capital letters over a large green exclamation point. “This is the future of urban living,” it continued, “Welcome aboard.”

  My eyes raced over descriptions of the many residential projects that were

  planned or underway at BCIL. We’d walked several of those project sites over the

  course of the day, and I’d found each more impressive, innovative, and surprising

  1

  2 City Ascending, City Imploding

  Figure 1. Construction in Mumbai, 2012. Photo by the author.

  than the last. The architects I traveled among—all practicing professionals who

  had returned to graduate school to enroll in a master’s degree program in envi-

  ronmental architecture—were noticeably inspired; each site seemed to present

  something new to marvel at. The residential developments bridged the ideas we’d

  spoken of at our orientation at BCIL headquarters and the things, the buildings, the ideas rendered in material form—or, at least, the things in the midst of becoming material form.

  My attention switched from the brochures to an announcement delivered from

  the front of the van, where the Head of Rachana Sansad Institute of Environmental

  Architecture, Roshni Udyavar Yehuda, stood balanced precariously against the

  sway and bounce of an uneven dirt road. “There is one more stop,” she declared,

  “and it will include lunch!” Exhaustion gave way to excitement and relief; we were ready to eat.

  Closing the brochure in my lap, I paused for a moment over its concluding text:

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  City Ascending, City Imploding 3

  BCIL. If you haven’t heard of us before, that’s alright. We like it that way. Because we believe that some of the most revolutionary ideas in the world have quiet, unknown beginnings. BCIL is all about tomorrow’s thinking today. The very fact that you’re reading this page is important; it tel s us you’re thinking on the same lines. It tel s us you are exactly the kind of person we’re looking for: the kind that looks ahead, sees all the angles, and sees holistic understanding. Our emphasis on community and

  conservation is not an alternative. It is an imperative for the future.

  With that, the van pulled to a dust-choked stop. Renewed by the thought of lunch,

  we filed out into the searing sun, following Yehuda as she guided us to a small

  building that appeared to be a private residence. A small sign read, “Alternative

  Technology Foundation”; the group’s founder greeted us warmly at the door.

  Our plates soon heavy with dal and rice, we settled on scattered cushions to eat

  and chat. After a few minutes, our host offered a more formal greeting, followed

  by a short lecture about the work of the ATF. As his talk came to a close, its tone grew urgent. He said:

  People like us—architects and designers committed to green design—see the future.

  Common people do not; my neighbor does not. The future is our responsibility. We

  are like soldiers of sustainability. You are all like soldiers of sustainability.

  This was a day like many others in the Rachana Sansad Institute of Environmental

  Architecture, a day spent seeking to learn about environmental, or “green,” design from encounters with specific examples. In the classroom and on field trips such

  as this one, we sought the philosophical basis for what we studied, a kind of

  architecture that was very new, and yet distinctly ancient, all at once. We sought demonstrations of its material possibility and the technical strategies that made it plausible. Most importantly, however, it was a day of reinforcing the idea that, left on their present trajectory, India’s cities would suffer severe social and environmental crises. Eventual y, conditions would become so extreme that a new van-

  guard of urban professionals who could navigate the terrain of sustainability—let

  us call them green experts—would be needed to lead those cities to remedy, and

  to a salvaged future.

  The “soldiers of sustainability” I studied among were but one part of this essen-

  tial vanguard, yet they regarded their work as central to its mission. In the near future, their capacity to think in an integrated way, and to imagine and design

  future built forms that would embody BCIL’s “holistic understanding,” would be

  nothing short of essential; the same propensity to “look ahead” and “see all the

  angles” could eventual y form the very basis for human urban survival.

  Perhaps most importantly, tomorrow’s environmental architects were cultivat-

  ing a shared sense of belonging to and being among this vanguard. Our sense of

  good and right design was cultivated together in the context of our training; it left us with a shared moral ecology foundational to the salvaging of the future city—

  indeed, to the salvaging of the very future itself. 1

  4 City Ascending, City Imploding

  The long day behind us, and our appetites now quiet, we returned to the van

  for the last segment of the day’s journey. We rode in near-silence, soon crossing

  onto smooth pavement that seemed to lull each head to sleep. I clutched again my

  stack of BCIL brochures, mindful of the day’s crossings of past, present, and future.

  Recalling the words spoken at ATF, my mind echoed with phrases, “people like us”

  and “seeing the future.” In the span of a day and a daylong journey, the architects I traveled and studied among were a step closer to joining the vanguard of a multi-valent, global social movement called urban sustainability.

  II.

  As if to satirize twentieth century categories that located Mumbai in the “devel-

  oping” world, a highly visible, citywide advertising campaign for the real estate

  development firm India Bul s proclaimed India Bul s: Consider it Developed. I first encountered this slogan in 2007, a time when Mumbai was alive with construction.

  Across the city, large, flimsy wal s marked the temporary boundaries between the

  city standing and the city under construction. Behind the barriers rose the hidden components of the future city, sunk in vast pits that secured their foundations. From the roadside, one could only rehearse the omnipresent slogan: Consider it Developed.

  A layered, massive mosaic of urban material and social life, Mumbai in that

  period was palpably transforming in real time. Optimism reigned in amplified

  public spheres alive with celebratory spectacles, media coverage, and forecasts of seemingly endless economic growth. The city was emboldened in large measure by

  India’s relative insulation from an otherwise debilitating global financial recession; it seemed positioned to pronounce its place at the nerve center of an undeniably

  ascendant Asia. Such a place meant little on the global economic landscape if not

  that India, and its financial hub, Mumbai, were unquestionably “developed.”

  Yet the Mumbai of that particular present was also mired in almost iconic

  poverty; the city’s buildingscape was famously dominated by slum housing, and

  transected by notoriously substandard transportation, electricity, and water delivery infrastructure. 2 In that moment, Mumbai was a complex historical product of colonial spatial production, often-opaque and brutal politics, and sometimes

  spectacular scandal, each driven as much by bureaucratic authority and corporate

  power as by India’s oft-referenced status as the world’
s largest democracy.3,4

  Global y prevalent mappings of urbanization, in which Mumbai regularly

  figured as a major location on a “planet of slums,” circulated as they did, but the city nevertheless rode a wave of growth, however asymmetrical, through which

  developers and government officials promised a Mumbai yet to come.5,6 “Consider it developed” conveyed more than the enormous capacity for growth and change

  that the building industry celebrated in its everyday construction spectacles; it

  also captured a defiant postcolonial confidence. Mumbai was a city whose time

  had come, emblematic of a euphoric Indian century. At least, perhaps, the slogan

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  City Ascending, City Imploding 5

  allowed one to revel in that possibility. Consider it developed, because in the twenty-first century this is not only reasonable, it is also wise. It would be difficult to dispute that the city was a good investment.7

  International reports and government ministries outlined an Indian future ani-

  mated by dizzying rates of change. As the National Planning Commission called

  for an almost seven percent increase in energy production to keep up with pro-

  jections of nine percent growth, the consulting firm McKinsey Global Institute predicted an astonishing expansion of Mumbai’s built landscape. 8 The city’s commercial built-up area alone, it claimed, would grow from 2.9 billion square feet in 2005 to 20 billion square feet by 2030. 9 Just a few years later, in 2014, the global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield reported that net office space across eight major Indian cities had increased by sixteen percent in the first half of the year, compared to the same period the previous year. 10 This was to say nothing of the residential and housing sectors, in which growth and transformation drove countless policy

  studies and notoriously lucrative speculative markets.11

  Beyond the vexing socioeconomic challenge of the present, then, stood the

  shining promise of growth. Those who could participate in that growth enjoyed

  tremendous power and watched their personal wealth multiply. In this context,

  developers, builders, and financiers enjoyed a special status. But equal y impor-

  tant, if not always as powerful, were certain urban planners, architects, and urban policy professionals, who, in visible if not always overtly powerful ways, voiced

  reminders that the city faced environmental challenges as wel . They sometimes