Mumbai | An artistic space in Khotachiwadi village has infused new life into the heritage neighbourhood

The initiative has kickstarted conversations around preservation and could serve as inspiration for other such locales in the country

Fashion designer James Ferreira is synonymous with Khotachiwadi, the heritage village in South Mumbai’s Girgaum. It’s no wonder then, that he was the one who got curator Srila Chatterjee to look at Bungalow 47-A, a couple of houses down from Ferreira’s own property, 47-G. Chatterjee used to run Baro, a furniture design store, which transitioned to an online marketplace during the pandemic.

Chatterjee says, “James called me in November to come and see a space here because he knew that we had shut Baro and that Baro Market was online, and he’s spent the last 30 years trying to revive, or not revive, just to keep this place, keep this village the way it is, without developers coming in and tearing down spaces.” Most recently, there’s been a tussle over the redevelopment of a nearby property, Bungalow 28, which is half-demolished.

If Ferreira thought retail stood a chance at saving the neighbourhood, Chatterjee had some qualms. “I didn’t think Khotachiwadi was a destination. It wasn’t a place that was full of shops and markets, so getting somebody to come here in a crowded, very difficult to park area, just for one shop, was not going to work.”

That’s when she thought about creating “a destination itself”, and decided to approach Mort Chatterjee and Tara Lal of the city’s Chatterjee & Lal to see if Bungalow 47-A could become a gallery.

The urban village of Khotachiwadi was once made up of 65 houses, though now, fewer than half remain. Its history is at least two centuries old, with Ferreira able to trace his house back over 210 years. The Portuguese-style dwellings made of wood are distinct and were built after a resident Pathare Prabhu landowner sold parcels of land to the local East Indian community.

Over the decades, it has retained its local charm, as the city has expanded around it, but as maintenance costs and calls for redevelopment arise, the Khotachiwadi Heritage Trust, of which Ferreira is president, is working to preserve the neighbourhood’s character.

At the moment, the gallery at 47-A is playing host to ‘This Ground, Plus: Khotachi Wadi in Design Context’, curated by André Baptista, a fourth-generation resident and Ph.D. Spread across the ground floor, the show includes archival maps and images along with architectural elements — most memorably, stained glass arches that can be found in the old-style houses. The previous show, ‘Future.IsNow’, featured upcycled and recycled work by Goa-based architect and industrial designer, Satyajit Vetoskar. Chatterjee says, “Our focus is going to be on design, and on design in various aspects. The history of design, contemporary design, community design — that kind of stuff.”