Mumbai’s glorious Art Deco legacy at 100

It was at a historic architecture exhibition in Paris in 1925 that the Art Deco aesthetic first exploded onto the scene.

In the following hundred years, the glamorous architectural style – reminiscent of neon-lit jazz bars and the golden age of big films – quickly spread around the world.

It moved from the famous pastel hotel facades of Miami’s South Beach to the sprawling stretch of mansion apartments along the seafront of Mumbai’s Marine Drive.

Art Deco’s distinctive motifs – typified by geometric motifs ziggurats (stair towers), flowing curves, sunburst designs, nautical elements and rounded or turreted roofs – symbolized an unequivocal break with the past and celebrated the dawn of a new, unapologetic, post-war modernity of the 20th century.

In short order, the style transcends architecture to influence the design sensibility of interiors, furniture, typefaces, jewelry and some of the world’s most iconic cinema halls – from Radio City Music Hall in New York City to the Regal, Liberty and Eros cinemas in Mumbai.

“It represented hope, optimism and speed, which coincided with the rise of the car and also concrete as a building material, which, compared to stone, could be worked in a tenth of the time and a fifth of the cost,” Atul Kumar, founder of the Art Deco Mumbai Trust and curator of a new exhibition celebrating the centenary of Art Deco in the city, told the BBC.

“It was not as elaborate as the Victorian Gothic design that preceded it, and came with a classicism and simplicity that has survived the test of time,” he said.

And nowhere has that been more evident than in Mumbai, which, according to Mr. Kumar, has the largest documented collection of Art Deco buildings in the world. Other estimates put Mumbai in second place, behind Miami.

What made Mumbai’s encounter with Art Deco particularly interesting was how the city embraced its characteristics in a truly all-encompassing way.

Like Miami, the style emerged in the city at a time of economic flux and transformation, spurred by modern, mercantile port city energy.

But unlike Miami, where it “arrived as a projection of leisure or spectacle,” in Mumbai the style resonated “across a variety of building typologies, including schools, cinemas, bungalows, gas stations and banks,” Kumar said.

Art Deco buildings in Mumbai were and still are often hidden in plain sight, with even their residents often blissfully unaware of their cultural anchorages.

But their all-pervading architectural shadow over the city is perhaps the reason why Art Deco has “penetrated the larger public imagination and remains relevant in Mumbai’s emotional quotient,” Kumar added.

The style was brought to Mumbai at a time when it was under colonial rule.

They were India’s first group of homegrown architects – key figures such as Chimanlal Master, Laxman Vishnu Sathe and Gopalji Mulji Bhuta – who integrated it into their designs after returning home with degrees from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

“They were suddenly exposed to new European sensitivities and wanted to bring them back to their country, which had been deeply colonized by the imposition of Victorian buildings,” Kumar said.

But they adapted and vernacularized Art Deco, adding indigenous design patterns and drawing inspiration from disparate local elements, including ocean liners docking in Mumbai’s harbors and even latticework so typical of Mughal architecture.

The British were initially dismissive, calling Art Deco “lesser architecture,” but it was likely threatened, Mr. Kumar said, because it heralded the dawn of a new era and new identities shaping India’s public space.

It was only a matter of time before South Mumbai’s skyline became a rich confluence of Indo-Saracenic, Gothic and Art Deco buildings.

Today, Mumbai is once again a city in rapid change; building codes are determined by real estate magnates seeking to maximize the floor area index, giving way to utilitarian rather than stylistic considerations.

Dozens of Art Deco buildings have been swept away to make way for glass and steel facades, and hundreds more are threatened.

Over the past decade, Mr. Kumar has documented more than 1,500 buildings truly representative of this style, but only about 70 of them are protected.

The authorities are apathetic to its preservation, so his organization works directly with people, offering pro-bono repair and restoration consultancy services to prevent them from giving away their properties to builders for redevelopment.

“The response has been positive as people have seen the value of their properties increase after the renovations,” Mr Kumar said.

Then there are others, such as architect and designer Nidhi Tekwani, who reimagines Art Deco objects and hopes to adapt them to a contemporary context.

For example, Art Deco furniture was often bulky, the lighting fixtures were intended for high ceilings, and the dressing tables were too elaborate for today’s compact apartments. Ms. Tekwani strives to design and launch products that are sleeker while maintaining key Art Deco principles.

“The hope is to translate it into something modern and well suited to our current lifestyle requirements,” Ms Tekwani said of her efforts to keep Art Deco a living tradition in a city that is reshaping itself overnight.

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