Pictures of the Future    Fall 2006

The Green Hope

Vijay, your father built that building there?" asks Pete Johnson, one of the most famous urban planners on the West Coast in the U.S. "I didn’t know that. That was the building that inspired one of my projects in San Francisco." "Well, Pete," Vijay replies, "that was my father’s first big project in Mumbai—and also the first one I worked on." Vijay then uses his broadband cell phone to call up the old blueprints for the building on his OLED projector display. "You can’t imagine the symbolic effect the Green Hope Building had for the entire city back then," he says. Vijay, 45, has invited two former fellow students from Yale University to India to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their graduation.

They’re standing on the roof of the Gandhi Building and looking down on Mumbai Bay. Beneath them is Old Harbour, one of the city’s recently created districts. Elegant bridges stretch across the water to New Mumbai, where terrace-shaped apartment houses have been built into the green hills. "Wasn’t there once a big slum over there?" asks Jeremy Zhang, a star architect from Shanghai. "That was a long time ago," says Vijay. "Do you remember how you felt sorry for me after graduation, when I was returning to Mumbai?" asks Vijay with a laugh, slapping Jeremy on the shoulder. "I couldn’t tell you back then, but I had nightmares about it myself. I mean, you guys in Shanghai were light years ahead of us." "That’s history now," says Jeremy. "To be honest, I never took you seriously when you said you were going to turn Mumbai into a world-class city. How did you ever manage to do it?" "The Green Hope Building was sort of the spark that got things going," Vijay replies. "We originally planned it as an apartment house for rich Bollywood people. But after the first relocation program for Dharavi began, my father said he wanted to put the building smack in the middle of the former slum." "What’s Dharavi?" Pete asks. "It was the biggest slum in Asia," says Vijay. "A million people lived there 20 years ago, and the new building really gave them hope for a better life. It was futuristic, airy, tall and, most of all, green. We planted a garden on each roof and made the building into a place where people could also meet—right in the middle of a slum. Later, when the new apartments were finished, the people were still left with a symbolic point of reference."

"Okay, but that alone wasn’t the factor that made the difference," Pete says. "Well, administrative reform started around the same time," says Vijay. "You have to understand that Mumbai didn’t have an elected mayor with real power until 2010. With his new clout, the mayor was able to quickly implement plans that had been talked about for years and then filed away to collect dust. Mayor Patil was less of a politician and more of an entrepreneur. He brought every influential person in the city together and told them rather bluntly what would happen to Mumbai if action wasn’t taken soon. You probably can’t imagine this, but we had 6,000 tons of garbage piling up every day back then. There were 600 vehicles for every kilometer of road, and the trains were hopelessly overcrowded. What’s more, 350 new families were moving into the city every day. Patil had unbelievable charisma and a great sense of humor. He told a different version of his story to suit his audience at any given moment, which included bureaucrats, businessmen, investors and people on the street. And it worked. After just one year, all of his projects were up and running."

"I remember that," says Pete. "I also put in tenders for some projects back then—but I always came up short." "Sorry to hear that, but you have to understand that the only thing we needed from the rest of the world was financing," Vijay explains. "As it turned out, the creative potential in India was enormous." "That’s true," says Jeremy. "That was when Chinese banks began investing heavily in India, and it even led to a slight slowdown in the construction boom in Shanghai." "As soon as the city government started to function smoothly, investors started showing up practically without anyone even asking, and this ensured planning security," says Vijay. In many cases, the city didn’t even need to put up any capital of its own. For example, the bridges and city highways were fully financed by their operators, who are now posting great earnings from tolls." "Something similar happened in San Francisco," says Pete. "It was a long time ago, and it involved replacing all the bulbs in traffic lights with LEDs. After the job was completed, the city never had to pay for maintaining the lights again. The bulbs were replaced by a private company that was allowed to reap a share of the energy cost savings that resulted."

"And then," Vijay continues, "we were given a tremendous opportunity in the form of Old Harbour, which involved planning an entirely new district. My father was always a fan of environmental building design, and I was able to use the knowledge I had gained from my studies, since sustainable urban development was one of the subjects of my thesis." Vijay calls up the ground plan for the district on his color display. He first shows his friends the old port facility and then slowly superimposes the plan of the district as it appears today. "We did our planning using the highest technical standards," he says. "Everything is networked—energy and water supply, IT infrastructure, building systems, traffic guidance systems and so on. There are plenty of green areas, big parks, and tree-lined boulevards like the ones you have in Shanghai, Jeremy." Suddenly Vijay’s assistant appears and hands him a cell phone. "I’m sorry, Dr. Mukherjee, but it’s urgent." As Vijay listens, his face lights up. "That was Jakarta’s mayor," he says after the call is finished. "The Indonesian capital has been taking a very close look at Mumbai, and has decided to give us the contract to convert the last big slum there into a residential area. That’s cause for celebration. Come on, let’s go get something to eat." Vijay slings his arms around his friends’ shoulders and leads them into the Gandhi Building’s rooftop restaurant.
                                                                                              Norbert Aschenbrenner