Exhibition on Bandra's house signage mapped by architecture students

Architect Minaz Ansarirsquos relationship with Bandra has been a complex one The awareness that it is home has fed into her curiosity to know more while also making her conscious that she has barely scratched the surfaceldquoIrsquove been mapping Bandra for the last few yearsmdashinitially for my Masterrsquos thesis and later while I was working on a guidebook for MMRDArdquo says Ansari professor Rizvi College of Architecture who realised that the neighbourhoodrsquos built fabric was changing at a devastating pace ldquoIn the last two to three years especially some structures have vanished overnight One day you see blue patras put up and the next day the building behind them gonerdquo shares Ansari ldquoWith that the elements of the particular building are gone toomdashthe architectural details signage or iconographyrdquoThe team of third year students from Rizvi College of Architecture who were mentored by Minaz Ansari and Gauri Kanchan The students mapped nearly 200odd homes PicsShadab KhanSensing the urgency to document the last remaining vestiges of the suburbrsquos heritage Ansari decided to begin a research initiative with the third year students of architecture at Rizvi ldquoOur principal Professor Rekha Desai had mooted the idea of a research cell at the institute sometime in July last yearrdquo shares Ansari adding that it became the foundation for The Bandra Signage Project which will be on view at the college campus starting February 27As part of the project 21 students mentored by Ansari and research assistant Gauri Kanchan have mapped signage as seen on the homes of the Salsette Catholic Cooperative Housing Society SCCHS and some of the private buildings in the neighbourhood Developed in the year 1918 by combining multiple tracts of land into a planned layout of 199 plots linked by a gridiron pattern of roads the Salsette society originally accommodated individual houses many of which later evolved into walkup apartments and highrise towers It is one of Bandrarsquos oldest planned colonies for members of the Roman Catholic faith extending roughly from St Andrews Church to Pali Mala Road to the northThe team plans to create postcards and pamphlets as keepsakes for heritage enthusiastsAnsari and Kachan say that the precinct became the perfect place to start the project because many of the homes that sit in the internal lanes were still untouched by development and commerce ldquoAlso some of the homes like Lilly Villa that had made way for new buildings still continued to retain the old namesrdquo says Ansari According to her often clues to a neighbourhoodrsquos evolution in the past present and future lie in the etymology of precincts villages roads institutes establishments and housingTo begin with the students were introduced to the idea of mapping and its significance before they were taught to think seriously about house names and how they evolve ldquoOnce they had the needed theory we divided them into pairs they went down the lanes streetwise and started documenting the signage on the homes and clicking pictures Some of them even interacted with the residents who shared the backstory of the namesrdquoThe documented signage was divided into various categories While the names of some homes were inspired from natural elements people and places there were a few others that had theological influenceThe patterns began emerging only once they had completed documenting the 200odd homes late last year ldquoMost mapping projects begin with curiosity and some intangible need to know morerdquo feels Ansari adding that after feeding their data into an Excel sheet the team was able to make interesting connections The signage map was the first element that the team worked on after referencing the original map of the society which they had accessed from the book In Retrospect 100 years of Salsette published in the centenary year of the society in 2018 Still a workinprogress the map which currently showcases the signage on each home will eventually also make room for a trail after getting inputs from the community so that people can use it to discover the precinct themselves on foot ldquoBut itrsquos the meanings of the names the design of typefaces their location and the materials used for the signage that also made for interesting studyrdquo says AnsariArchitect Minaz Ansari left and research assistant Gauri Kanchan who led the The Bandra Signage Project which documents signage of homes and private buildings in and around the Salsette Catholic Cooperative Housing SocietyThe categories of house names included natural elements like birds and flowers others had a religious connect or were named after ideas places and cities reflecting aspirations Colombia Utopia Windsor then there were houses named after people Kanchan observes how the suffixes and prefixes have changed over time from say rest cottage and villa to tower apartment residence enclave ldquoThe changing urban fabric is also leading to a change in the names of the structuresrdquo she says The team also looked into the design of the signage Most of it was largely laid out horizontally especially in the bungalow and cottage typology with housenumbers located above or sometimes below the signage Some signage especially that which was located on marble plaques was inscribed in the form of an arc This pattern was also seen in the design of marble tombstones in the cemeteries in Bandra ldquoPerhaps the same craftsmen were engraving the signagerdquo thinks Ansari The location of the signage was also of interest In older houses the signage was usually located on the pillar alongside the entrance gate Apartments on the other hand have bolder sizes of signage on the main faccedilade placed either horizontally or vertically As far as the typography used goes the team categorised it under five major families of typefaces Serifs marble engraved plaques use serif and sans serif typefaces and these were largely seen in older independent houses script used in engraved marble wire metal and fibreglass signage and seen in the older houses as well as new apartments blackletter seen largely in marble engraved fonts in older independent houses decorative mostly seen in Art Deco typefaces and others and bold seen in newer apartments and usually cast in fibreglass or stainless steel The material and colour palette was also researchedmdashthe commonly used stones were white marble black and red granite while the newer designs incorporated Italian marble and grey granite a more commonly used colour for the signage is metallic silver either as a background with contrasting black letters or as bold metallic silver letters against brightly coloured background red blue white green and othersThen there are the backstories too The name of the Bandra home Sun An Vin says Ansari is a fusion of three names Sunil Antonino and Vinod all sons of a landowner Phil Haven meaning the haven of love was built by the Clifford family in the 1900s The owner was said to have spent most of his years looking for an environment where love was the only way of life Naming his home after his pursuit seemed only natural ldquoWe will be sending out a Google form to the residents to collect more such storiesrdquosays AnsariRekha DesaiThe students with the help of Kanchan and Ansari have designed pamphlets and postcards that they hope to eventually distribute to cultural centres in and around Bandra interested in the history and heritage of the suburb These name plates might soon be a thing of the pastrdquo feels Ansari recalling how the Art Deco bungalow Desiree was torn down during the pandemic ldquoThe signage on the building was in metal and in cursive fontrdquo she recalls adding that fortunately the gate still had the name which they could use as reference for their documentation project ldquoGiven that people in Bandra are surrounded by heritage we take a lot for granted Itrsquos a curse of the plentyrdquoRizvi principal Professor Rekha Desai believes that architecture colleges can act as a resource pool for public design projects in the city ldquoWe look forward to collaborating with local government bodies like the BMC MMRDA MMRHCS to participate in designing the cityrdquo says DesaiNext on Ansarirsquos agenda is mapping the old municipal bazaar of Bandra ldquoThatrsquos going to be a bit of a challenge because itrsquos unplanned and slightly chaotic like any traditional open market The fabric there is very different There is a church a mosque and Jain temple in shouting distance of each other We need to document the Bandra thatrsquos struggling to surviverdquo