Architecture is synonymous to Rachna Sansad in Mumbai. The founders of one of the biggest architectural institutes in the city discuss the changing face of Mumbai and how it feels to turn 50

Charles Correa, Hafeez Contractor, Abha Narain Lambah, Naushir Talati, Vikas Dilawari u2014 some of Mumbai's most famous architects are on Rachna Sansad's alumni list. When we reach the institute, the seven-storey facade is getting a facelift. Had Aishwarya Rai Bachchan chosen to stick to architecture, this is where she would have graduated from, and there's a photo of her smiling out of a collage for proof, displayed in the main corridor. The campus is getting wired for the golden jubilee celebrations next week u2014 a bunch of students are sketching on walls, some are creating a massive bamboo installation and there's a buzz on every floor.

Makeshift classrooms
The founders Sumanth H Wandrekar, 77, and CK Gumaste, 80, who retired from the academy just a month ago, take time off to tell us about the beginnings. Rachna Sansad remarkably ran on makeshift classrooms from the '50s right through the '90s. "We began with 13 students at a girls school in Dadar," recalls Gumaste, referring to the GE High School, "Our motto was earn while you learn, and ours was the first part-time architecture course in the country."

The institute hit upon the formula early on u2014 students who couldn't get a degree at a college were offered a government diploma by the three-member founder group of young architecture graduates Wandrekar, Gumaste and the late VG Mhatre. Their students would attend classes in the morning and assist at architecture firms in the afternoon.

Space crunch
Right in the second year, the institute had a space crunch. "We approached Ruparel College. The principal was so impressed that we had set out to do something like this when we were that young and allowed us to use their premises," says Gumaste, "We could pay teachers only Rs 4, but they didn't even want that so we used to insist that it was conveyance money. My teachers didn't have a car. Everybody took the tram. People used to get down at Dadar and walk."

Next came the move to the New Bharda High School opposite Capitol Cinema in Fort. "We were given one building and we conducted all classes from ground floor to third floor. The students managed with school benches. I still remember Pilu Modi used to walk up to the second floor. Charles Correa was there too."

Finally, in 1971, the municipal corporation leased out a plot of land where the institute now stands. "There was a tin shed on the plot where we held classes for a while," says Wandrekar. It was in the shed that the interior design course was introduced. When construction commenced on the plot, the classroom shifted again to two empty municipal schools on Delaisle Road. Today, the institute has a strength of 13,000 students and offers 18 courses. "We run from 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Sunday and utilise available space to the maximum. This is what you need in a city like Mumbai," says Wandrekar.

Designing solutions
Space or rather the lack of it in Mumbai is a hot topic of discussion on campus. The design cell at Rachna Sansad provides various housing and infrastructural solutions with the MMRDA, CIDCO and BMC. "The MMRDA gives us grants to conduct courses for government officials on conservation. Our students regularly attend the Kala Ghoda festival and help the society conserve its structures," says Wandrekar.

Adds professor Arvind Adarkar, who has taken over as director from Gumaste, "We're also working on a Dharavi redevelopment plan which is under wraps." The institute also made environmental architecture accessible to public through its association with city NGOs such as Yuva and Spark.

We're keen to know the 50-year-old institute's senior faculty's take on how Mumbai has transformed over five decades and learn that they aren't impressed. "When we came here, there were just a few dilapidated buildings and lots of trees around. We could see the entire stretch of sea," recalls Wandrekar, "But we've found happiness in the congested jungle today.u00a0 I can tell you proudly that most of the buildings around, including that mandir, was built by our students." The mandir that Wandrekar's points out to is one of Mumbai's biggest landmarks u2014 the Siddhivinayak temple.
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Adarkar says, "All these towers that have come up and the attempt to create Shanghai are utterly stupid.

What we need is affordable housing. The mill lands could have been a great housing opportunity, but we've lost that now. We have a backlog of about 13 lakh houses. There is dock land but I don't know if they will be made available." Adarkar voices a growing concern and predicts a bleak future for Mumbai if the densitisation doesn't stop. "Mumbai will turn into a necropolis at this rate."