Mumbai's newest arts space at Ballard Estate merges the old with the contemporary

Architecture, art and design experiments have a new home in the city - inside a 142-year-old ice factory. Refashioned as IF.BE, it will host exhibitions, performances and workshops, and house a restaurant, café, gift shop and a library.

The Ice Factory will be a venue for architecture-led exhibitions, film screenings, performances, conferences, workshops and private events

A strip of road - tracing its name to traders from Kerala's coastal town of Calicut (today's Kozhikode) who settled there - divides the institutional heritage of the leafy, charming Ballard Estate, from its industrial counterpart. A few steps into Calicut Street, the Edwardian streetscape fades away, and scrappy aluminium sheets and tarpaulins usher us in. It's where, in 1880, Nanabhoy Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, along with JA Forbes, established the Bombay Ice Manufacturing Co, freezing the monopoly of a European firm. We learn this while wilting under the muggy Mumbai heat, standing in the 142-year-old ice factory, which once gave the city affordable ice. Come this weekend, the 10,000-sq ft space will open its doors, as an experimental art, architecture and design hub, called IF.BE (Ice Factory at Ballard Estate).

The Cathedral will function as an exhibition space. It overlooks (inset) The Banyan Tree Café, which will be an all-day space serving up farm-to-table healthy fare

An initiative by partners Kamal Malik, Abhijit Mehta and Amardeep Tony Singh, IF.BE will house exhibition spaces, a performance venue, a library, a gift shop, a restaurant and a café. Malik, an architect, shares that they stumbled upon the ice factory in 2018, when it was Ambico Ice Factory Pvt Ltd. "Over the years, they've had to lease out parts to different entities," Malik's son, Arjun, informs us. The Clearing House is their next door neighbour. An interplay of north light, a giant banyan tree and a chance to collaborate with like-minded creatives to conserve heritage lured them. "We fought decay and damage; it was consuming but beautiful - architects have an affinity to step into history and meaningfully dialogue with it," he adds.

Ambico Ice Factory

What emerged after three years and surviving a pandemic, is a sprawling, rustic space that bears testament to its past and opens its doors to chronicle new stories. Most of the original architecture has been retained, including an overhead crane. "The language stems from the old but moves into the contemporary," Malik notes. The acronym, thus, stands for ‘if' and ‘be' - suggestive of possibilities, dialogues and resolutions.

A freezing apparatus used in the factory preserved inside the premises

The factory comprises five sections - The Substation, a reading room for art, architecture and design material; The Cathedral, an exhibition area; The Banyan Tree Café, serving healthy fare; Native Bombay, a restaurant and bar that will whip up regional Indian cuisine; and The Ice Factory, a performance space.

A pre-IF.BE view of the Calicut Street entry

Malik, who grew up around Shimla's rolling hills, hopes IF.BE will be a live example of the fact that we don't need to demolish the old to make way for the new. As we stand awed by the hide and seek of the sunlight, Malik reminds us, "Architecture isn't about buildings; it's about responding to life and nature."

The Cochin Street side, where Native Bombay will come up

Opens April 17, 10 am to 7 pm
At 10-12, Calicut Street, Ballard Estate.
Log on to @ifbe.space on Instagram

Amardeep Tony Singh, Abhijit Mehta, Arjun and Kamal Malik

What to expect

. IF.BE will have a group of independent programmers.
. It will launch with the exhibit, Refraction: The (Re)Making of the Ice Factory, curated by Arjun, and Parul Thacker, that will showcase its past and present architecture (till April 30).
. The launch night will also feature dance performances by Ankh Dance Collective and two talks.
. Over two weeks, catch film screenings by Amit Dutta, a movement piece by Elise Ruth, a rudra veena performance by Bahauddin Dagar, and a photo exhibit by Sunhil Sippy, among other events.