What’s Happening?
The BMW Guggenheim Lab was most recently in Mumbai, where it was open December 9, 2012 through January 20, 2013. The central location of the Lab, organized in collaboration with the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, was on the grounds of the museum in Mumbai’s Byculla neighborhood. Additionally, nearly half of the public programs were held at a network of satellite locations throughout the city.
The Mumbai Lab offered programs that addressed challenges and opportunities related to public space and the choices Mumbaikars make to find a balance between individual and community needs. This approach was part of the ME=WE program, developed to generate new insights, with and for Mumbaikars, with potential to inspire other cities. The Mumbai Lab Team—an international group of experts and innovators—also created projects, studies, and design proposals that reflected Mumbai’s unique conditions.
The Mumbai Lab worked with local organizations on two city-wide studies—an academic research project on Mumbai residents’ perception of privacy and space, spearheaded by Mumbai-based independent research collective Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research (PUKAR), and a visual survey that asks participants to photograph and map spaces in Mumbai that they consider personal and private, conducted by the Design Cell at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA). In addition, Mumbai-specific design projects looked at ways of redesigning effective and efficient public spaces. These projects and studies were intended to suggest new ways for citizens, designers, and city officials to approach public space in Mumbai.
