Revamping community space in Versova Koliwada

Updated On: 31 July, 2021 03:21 PM IST | Mumbai | Sukanya Datta

A place-making project at a well in Versova koliwada aims to highlight the role of the public resource, and revive the community’s relationship with it

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(From left) A before and after look of how the place-making activity at Bhandari well in Versova panned out

The Versova koliwada has around 16 fresh water wells dating back 200 to 300 years that were once thriving community centres. However, most of them are now defunct, thanks to the advent of tap water, coupled with poor maintenance and a degraded quality of water, point out architects and urban designers Jai and Ketaki Bhadgaonkar, co-founders of Bombay61, an urban think-tank. To help the community, especially the youth, reclaim and reconnect with these once-glorious public assets, the husband-wife duo, along with the Ministry of Mumbai’s Magic (MMM), has taken on a place-making project at a nearly-200-year-old well in Versova koliwada.

Changing the narrative

The duo, who’ve been working on community-oriented projects at the koliwada since 2013, shares that their collaborative effort with MMM aims to amplify the voice of the kolis. “They’re the indigenous people of Mumbai. Lately, we find that a slum narrative is being attached to the community. But koliwadas are not slums, they’re villages,” maintains Ketaki. She adds that this outlook is gradually impacting the youth, too, whose association with their koliwadas and the community is phasing out. “So, we thought that place-making can be a great tool to bring out the relationship of the community with their social spaces that are getting degraded over time. Place-making refers to enhancing or developing public spaces that are assets to the community, with their participation,” explains the architect.

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