Abstract
Bombay Then, Mumbai Now is a B.Arch design thesis proposing the redevelopment of the Richardson & Cruddas works in Byculla as a cultural centre celebrating Mumbai’s transformation through public memory, performance and exhibition. It brings the lives, struggles and collective actions of the city’s people into a former industrial setting. The thesis reads Mumbai through cinema, culture and art, infrastructure, science and technology, and politics and conflicts, tracing events and people from the early Koli settlements to the city’s renaming in 1995. This chronology becomes a starting point for architectural design: a way to bring public memory, industrial labour, cultural expression and the struggle for change into shared space. A performing arts centre, multipurpose hall and exhibition centre form the core programme, connected by public routes and spaces for everyday gathering. The proposal explores how the industrial site can retain a legible relationship to its past while accommodating contemporary cultural life. Plans, sections and circulation studies test the relationship between historical interpretation, live performance, informal encounter and the practical demands of events. The project asks how architecture can celebrate a changing city while making room for the different voices that continue to shape it.
Hypothesis
Redeveloping the Richardson & Cruddas works as a cultural centre, with performance and exhibition spaces connected by an accessible public route through the city’s histories, can turn industrial memory into an active civic setting. If historical interpretation and everyday cultural use share this route, the centre can support encounters between communities and generations while keeping the struggles and collective actions behind Mumbai’s transformation visible. The design will test this through route legibility, opportunities for informal gathering and the ability of public spaces to remain usable alongside scheduled events.
BOMBAY · THE SEVEN ISLANDS · MUMBAI
One city.
Many histories.
600 BC — 1995 / Key events & transformationsBombay, before it was Mumbai
Start with the grey city. The U-shaped timeline fills with colour as each event arrives, from the earliest settlements to the name Mumbai. Population sits in the innermost ring, growing inward from its outer edge; the map records the joining of the islands.
Read the source175 events
Schematic island reclamation · grey before playback
Sources and graphic credits
Event source links appear in the playback panel. Architectural periods use approximate study dates. The map is a schematic reading of reclamation, not a surveyed reconstruction.
Graphic reference: Julien Nolin · History of Brazil.
Portraits from Wikimedia Commons; public domain unless a licence is named. Jeejeebhoy, Aungier, Wittet, Begg and Samant are from the thesis poster.
- Sir J. N. Tata (cropped).jpg — CC BY 4.0
- Waldemar Haffkine 2.jpg — CC BY 4.0
- Ardeshir Irani.jpg — CC BY-SA 4.0
- Raj Kapoor 2001 stamp of India (cropped).jpg — GODL-India
- Charles Correa.jpg — CC BY-SA 3.0
Bombay / Built form
The city, built over time.
An architectural timeline of Mumbai: landmark buildings, changing styles and the urban spaces between them.
- c. 5th–6th c.01
Building
Elephanta Caves
Rock-cut architecture
Excavated shrines on Gharapuri bring sculpture, columns and sacred space into the living rock of Mumbai Harbour.
Source - 171802
Building
St Thomas Cathedral
Early colonial church
Inaugurated on Christmas Day. A place of worship within the fortified town, long before Bombay’s later monumental civic buildings.
Date marks inauguration.
Source - Late 19th c.03
Period
Victorian Gothic Revival
The civic city
Public buildings around the Oval Maidan combine Gothic forms with Indian craft and climatic adaptations such as verandas and balconies.
Source - 187804
Building
Bombay High Court
English Gothic
Completed in November after work began in 1871. J. A. Fuller’s basalt-faced building gives judicial administration a monumental civic presence.
Completion; court use followed in 1879.
Source - 187805
Building
Rajabai Tower + University Library
Victorian Gothic
The library and clock tower were completed in November. Premchand Roychand’s gifts helped turn higher education into a visible part of Bombay’s skyline.
Completion; library opened to readers in 1880.
Source - 188806
Building
Victoria Terminus / CSMT
Victorian Gothic Revival
F. W. Stevens’s railway terminus merges Gothic planning and stonework with Indian architectural traditions. Built over ten years from 1878.
Source - Early 20th c.07
Period
Indo-Saracenic public architecture
A hybrid architectural language
The museum’s domes and architectural composition introduce another language into Bombay’s public buildings. Its construction and public opening are separate milestones below.
Source - 190308
Building
The Taj Mahal Palace
Grand hotel on the harbour
Opened on 16 December. Jamsetji Tata’s hotel adds a major hospitality institution to the waterfront, before the later Gateway of India.
Date marks opening.
Source - 191409
Building
Prince of Wales Museum / CSMVS
Indo-Saracenic
The museum building was completed in 1914. Completion did not mean immediate public access: the institution opened eight years later.
Date marks building completion.
Source - 192210
Building
CSMVS opens to the public
Architecture becomes a civic institution
The museum opened on 10 January, bringing its galleries and collections into public use. This distinguishes the life of the institution from the date of its building.
Date marks public opening.
Source - 192411
Building
Gateway of India
Waterfront monument
Completed in 1924, the Gateway establishes a monumental threshold between the harbour and the city.
Source - 1930s–40s12
Period
Art Deco / Indo-Deco
Apartments, cinemas and modern living
Cinema halls and residential buildings combine Art Deco imagery with Indian design. The western side of the Oval Maidan offers a counterpart to its Gothic eastern edge.
Source - 193313
Building
Regal Cinema
Art Deco picture palace
Regal marks an early arrival of the Art Deco cinema in Bombay. The picture palace gives modern entertainment a distinct architectural presence.
Source - 1930s–40s14
Urban ensemble
Marine Drive + Backbay
The residential seafront
Reclamation enables a new sea-facing urban edge. Apartment buildings make Art Deco part of the city’s everyday domestic landscape.
Source - 193815
Building
Eros Cinema
Art Deco entertainment
Inaugurated in 1938, Eros brings cinema and recreation into a prominent urban building at Churchgate.
Source - 1970–8316
Period
A climate-responsive modernism
The bungalow translated vertically
Kanchanjunga develops verandas, interlocking dwellings and terrace gardens as a high-rise response to Bombay’s sun, monsoon and sea breezes.
Project period; the completed building appears below.
Source - 197717
Building
Nehru Planetarium
Scientific and cultural infrastructure
Inaugurated on 3 March. The planetarium makes public astronomy education a purpose-built urban destination at the Nehru Centre.
Date marks inauguration.
Source - 198018
Building
Tata Theatre, NCPA
Architecture for performance
Inaugurated on 11 October. The theatre adds a dedicated performance venue to the NCPA, distinct from the institution’s temporary home inaugurated in 1969.
Date marks theatre inauguration.
Source - 198319
Building
Kanchanjunga Apartments
Charles Correa / high-rise housing
Interlocking apartments and deep terrace gardens reinterpret the protective veranda of the bungalow within a residential tower.
End of the Foundation’s 1970–83 project period.
Source - 199520
Conservation
Heritage enters the planning framework
From building to precinct
Heritage regulations establish a framework for protecting listed buildings and precincts, including the Fort and Marine Drive ensembles.
Historical milestone at the thesis’s cutoff.
Source
Read left to right. Selected milestones through 1995; periods overlap. Dates distinguish construction, completion and opening where relevant. Equal spacing shows sequence, not elapsed time.