Indian architect Charles Correa’s dream and his Mills Development Plan have turned into a nightmare: all the ruins of the old factories in Mumbai, his hometown, are being transformed into blocks of flats and shopping centres. This project focuses on a different kind of verticality: a microclimate that will cool what remains of the factories through atmospheric architecture. A ‘vapour building’. A cloud hovering, forever, over the expectant ruins of Parel, a historic neighbourhood in the city centre.
Our proposal echoes the free spirit of the 1950s and 1960s. It was then that Thomas C. Howard and Buckminster Fuller proposed a new microclimate for an area south of Central Park in Manhattan. Under the protection of a dome three kilometres in diameter, New Yorkers would no longer suffer the inconvenience of extreme cold or heat.
Set within the voids left by former industrial sites, in Mumbai’s ‘Air Skyscrapers’ the climate will be modulated to create cooler and less polluted spaces. A landscape featuring majestic fig trees creates shade and defines the voids generated by the monumental scale of these trees. The other element consists of hundreds of high-pressure misters that emit mist and lower the ambient temperature. A sensor system reads the external temperature and relative humidity, adjusting them in line with the atmospheric variations detected. Artificial draughts, invisible thermal barriers and radiation will lower the temperature to 21°C; all of this creates a climate-controlled interior the size of a park.
Depending on the day or public holiday, the mist may take on different colour tones. On Independence Day, saffron-coloured. On Ganesh Chaturthi, orange and yellow. On Tree Day, green. On Holi, every colour.
Seen from a distance, our skyscraper will be discernible only by its mist. The edges of the invisible building will be as discreet as Buckminster’s dome. Light, tall, weightless. Instead of shopping centres, a cool, misty void. In place of walled housing estates, a parallelepiped of air and moisture. Like a manifesto for Parel’s last remaining voids, eternally protected by the edges and the currents of cold air. And full of anti-construction.
A reserve where everyone does as they please: open spaces for idleness, leisure, cricket, Sundays and Mondays. A maidan occupied exclusively by mist and majestically monumental fig trees. And, naturally, used by Mumbaikars thirsty for open spaces.
‘Ar’ Skyscraper in Mumbai was designed as the culmination of architect Carlos M Teixeira’s doctoral thesis, ‘Collateral Spaces: insights for imagining Mumbai’s new voids’. It was developed at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) under the supervision of Professors Jorge Figueira and Teresa Cálix.
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Skyscraper 1
Location: former India United Mills 2 and 3
Address: Tanaji Malusare Rd. / Tukaram Bhikaji Kadam Marg / GD Ambekar Marg
Skyscraper 2
Location: former Apollo Mills
Address: Minerva Rd. / Lodha Rd.
Skyscraper 3
Location: former India United Mills 1
Address: Palav Marg / Lalbaug Flyover