This term we want to leave the ground and take a closer look at the rooftops from this metropolis. We think that they have a lot more to offer than what we find today. The Mumbai rooftops are looking for your great ideas to redesign them.
Almost all buildings in Mumbai have flat roofs that are usable as roof terraces. Sometimes watchmen use a niche within the terrace as their place to stay during the night. Sometimes people use a corner of the roof terrace to dry the laundry. But normally these roofs are kept blank and clean. The best places of Mumbai are unused and free! Free for your ideas.
Not rarely during the year the air in Mumbai is heavily polluted. Especially close to the main transit axis the air is bad plus the constant noise of horning cars, taxis and Rickshaws and its running motors are threatening the people. Height helps to escape from all this. Living far above the ground is clean and quiet. Mumbais rooftops offer convenient and comfortable places to stay.
Why not adding more green and plants to the roof terraces? They help to cool the whole urban context and offer its inhabitants a cool and comfortable private place in the outside. What happens to all the water during the monsoon season that hits the roof terraces? It should be easy to simply add a system of rainwater collecting in the roof terraces. When we redesign the rooftops in a modern and sustainable way, we can change the climate of the whole city and improve its abilities to sustain heavy monsoon rainfalls and long dry periods.
Almost anything is possible high above the ground. Only make sure that your design is lightweight, adaptable, easy to assemble at the place and sustainable. Will you design a garden café, a pool for the housing society situated in a jungle roof garden, or is it a small living pod for an artist who is using the roof terrace as his atelier garden? Will you connect several roofterraces with each other in a team of with your colleague students? Or maybe you like more the idea of having a yoga garden, a Bollywood dancing school or an internet café with a waterfall…?
This, and so much more is possible and it is all up to you. Have fun, and enjoy the wide panoramic view: Mumbai Buena Vista.
Idea and Concept: Georg Jahnsen and Dominik Raskin
Grafic: Georg Jahnsen
