2020_Aditya Panchal — SEA Archives

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Architecture in tourism

Community and Spatiality
Aditya Panchal, 2020

What is the spatiality that produces and holds tourism in precincts that have a cultural heritage and a religious importance? This question is situated in the backdrop of tendencies towards either deterioration or preservation of heritage precincts and even their gentrification, all of which affect tourism.

I explore this question in one such precinct of Mumbai, namely the Banganga Tank Precinct, which is the only remaining religious tank in Mumbai. Bangana has always been known to be a religious spot with over a hundred small and big temples, and housing within its boundary. Several activities associated with religious and pilgrimage tourism such as oblations, holy dip etc. occur side by side with residential activities, heritage walks and occasional festivals. The builtform of the precinct is largely managed by various charitable trusts, welfare organisations and temple trusts while the open space and the waterbody are managed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Due to its unique topographical conditions, big real-estate developments have been slow to invade the housing along the edge of the tank and much of the old fabric continues to coexist with skyscrapers of the surrounding Malabar Hill. My research included a study of seven nodes and spaces that cater or are being adapted for tourism. These nodes include various types of buildings such as a residential building with a temple, a dharamshala with a temple, temples with multipurpose spaces that caters to various ceremonies, the streets that attract heritage walkers and the illegal shanties and huts with shops that come up to cater to the tourists visiting the tank. The fieldwork for this study included a series of interviews of the local residents, heritage walk organisers and visual observation in the form of drawing and photographing nodes, temples and buildings.

My study has uncovered the following findings: (a) the old built fabric comprising of the stepped tank, temples and houses create a spatiality that draws tourists for cultural and religious reasons; (b) Houses and dharamshalas surrounding the tank show entrepreneurial practices of increasing livelihood opportunities by retrofitting and extensions to accommodate an increase in tourists, particularly during festival seasons; (b) Entrepreneurial practices by temple trusts to increase income by modifying spaces like terraces and temple courtyards to accommodate religious ceremonies during the monsoon season; (c) Change in the characteristics and the purpose of certain nodes such as temple gates and deepsthambs (pillars for lighting lamps), which have become selfie points for tourists; (d) Increase in the informal sectors of entrepreneurship that sets up shops and huts; and (e) Touristification, tourism gentrification: An increase in the number of tourists have led to proposals for the beautification of the tank as well as redevelopment of surrounding buildings exclusively for cultural and religious tourism resulting in fears of evacuating residents and leading to gentrification. I therefore ask: How can the spatiality of heritage buildings and precincts be designed to tap into the benefits of tourism without displacing the everyday life of local residents?

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