The Many Architectures of Bombay

🕌 🏗️ 🏢 No great metropolis in the world is as peculiar as Bombay.

No other great city emerged out of physical reshaping, being reclaimed out of the sea. This reshaping continues to this day, even as we choose to assiduously turn our backs on the very sea that made us its citizens. Bombay’s architecture follows the arc of its remaking, and retains the artefacts of its long colonization.

Once the initial islands and archipelago were stitched together by a series of causeways and landfill, the British put a stamp on their prized possession though layers of architecture seeking ways to represent their identity through their authority. This led to a series of architectural stylings that brought material presence to a set of discourses that we will explore through this lecture.

About the Lecture

We will examine several eventful turns in the city’s history that would lead to the evolution of its architecture. The Great Fire of 1803, the bringing down of the Fort walls in the 1860s, the impact of the events of 1857 countrywide, the devastating bubonic plague of the 1890s.

The efforts to reshape the city thereafter led to layers of architectures all palimpsest on each other. The speaker will examine these efforts as stylistic representations and share some easy ways to identify them. There is a continuity in these layers of architecture that spans the two decades before Indian independence in 1947 and the three decades that followed. Modernity became the hallmark of the Nation State and Bombay responded in kind.

The impact of liberalization in the 1990s brought another change in perception—the monetization of the ground beneath one’s feet, and we shall look at the rise of real estate and its impact on the architecture we see all around us today. Our story begins with reclamations, and we find ourselves dealing with more reclamations today, as well as a great need to reshape our built space, not for habitation, authority or urban value, but as units of transactions and exchange.

We are fortunate to have these layers still all around us, still in use, but we take them for granted at our own peril.

About the Speaker

Mustansir Dalvi is an architect, professor, poet and translator, author and editor, columnist and curator, academician and semiotician, urban commentator, and historian. He was born in Bombay and teaches architecture in Mumbai.

He is a Professor (Metropolitan Architecture) at the Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design. He is currently a trustee of Art Deco Mumbai, and on the Board of Governors of the MMR Heritage Conservation Society. He is an alumnus of IIT-Bombay, where he completed his doctoral studies and of Sir JJ College of Architecture, where he received undergraduate and postgraduate education. You can explore his academic research at this link.

He considers himself a Hope Street Poet. His writing and translated work on Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz are widely quoted and have been the subject of academic research. has three published books of poetry in English, Brouhahas of Cocks (2013), Cosmopolitician (2018) and Walk (2022). His poems have been translated into French, Croatian, Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati. You can explore his writing at this link.

His most recent book is Citizen Charles (2024), a biography of architect Charles Correa (2024).

What to Expect:

🕌 🏗️ 🏢 60 minute lecture about the architecture of Bombay and Mumbai

🎤 30 minutes of interactive Q&A with the speaker

👋 30 minute mixer with the speaker and other participants

🍺 One complimentary Moonshine Mead or Cold Drink/Hot Drink is included with your ticket

🤩 Avail "happy hour" benefits from Woodside Inn from 4 pm to 8 pm

Pint of View Mumbai is inspired by the Lectures on Tap and Pint of Science communities, and we're taking this format across 10+ major cities in India and counting! It’s where big ideas meet bar tables.

Event Details:

Title: The Many Architectures of Bombay: What Its Buildings Tell Us About Who We Were - And Who We Are

Speaker: Mustansir Dalvi

Day: Sunday

Date: February 1st 2026

Time: 5 pm to 7 pm

Venue: Woodside Inn, Bandra

Disclaimer: Ticket holders must be of legal drinking age (21 and above).

At Pint of View Mumbai, curious minds gather over drinks to explore cutting-edge ideas and to unravel the threads of human culture. It’s the perfect way to spend your weekend - stimulating your mind, meeting people who think like you (or challenge how you think), and learning something you’ll definitely talk about all week.

See you at the lecture!

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