Soak

Book excerpt: Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary is a unique way of looking at Mumbai's terrain and the history of its making. It presents an alternative visualisation of MumbaI's landscape with extraordinary' artistic and design expertise. Innovative technique in architectural drawing, rare photo-works, maps and models add to the thought-provoking and exciting insights. Proposes twelve design initiations that work to resolve the problem of flood. Uses approximately 72 historical maps and illustrations and 90 new drawings and photographic works done by the authors themselves. Comes across as a major initiative that will bring awareness of contemporary concerns of cities, using design to create public awareness and involvement. Holds global relevance in the context of sea level rise and climate change. This is a distinctive book in response to the Mumbai flood of 2005. It aspires to address and transform the increasingly shrill language of fear, anxiety and dread that marks our reception of the rains in Mumbai today. The book imagines the sea and the monsoon not as enemies and agents of flood, but as inevitable partners in the shaping of the land and thereby offers a new vocabulary for living with the monsoon and the sea.