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Intervention of the 'Mirror’ at Haji Ali, Mumbai

Part 2 Project 2009
Awni Patni
Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute Mumbai | India
The project began with questioning the idea, concept and perception of space, this investigation was carried forward using the body as an apparatus for this construct of space through its sensations. The paintings of the Impressionists and the Expressionists were understood as an exercise of mapping what they “saw”. The Situationists drift was another method of understanding the relationship of a body (myself as a subject) with its surrounding space (of the city). The drift was performed by the Situationists as an act of liberating oneself from the functionalist city. The surrealists also believed in the idea of liberation through one’s passions and desires. They also understood hysteria and dreams that lie at the crux of this liberation (juxtaposition of one’s conscious and subconscious). Foucault describes madness as a result of the inability to control one’s passions. Foucault also describes civilizations that construct itself by keeping the insane or the ill away from “civilization”. This generation of institutes whose duty is to keep the ill away from civilization, then later transforms to correction houses. He also terms these spaces as ‘heterotopias’ as these other spaces, real spaces that exist; he also describes ‘utopias’ as these desired, unreal spaces that do not exist. The next exercise was to locate a site possessing this disjunction between a ‘utopia’ and ‘heterotopia’ having the potential for the liberation of the two spaces. The site chosen is the island of Haji Ali in Mumbai, the dargah is located away from the city in the sea as an act of sanctifying the dargah and on the same island lays the sanatorium that is an act of keeping the ill away from the city and near the dargah as an act of curing the ill. The idea for intervention into this disjunction was taken forward from Foucault’s idea of ‘the mirror’ as a mixed joint experience in between the two spaces. The space of the mirror was understood as an in between space through the act of “seeing” the other side and being “seen” by the other side. This space was programmed by a psychiatric museum, gallery, occupational therapy rooms and library. The existing language of the dargah is retained with its grid and a north south grid that is imposed upon the sanatorium allowing for the language of the ‘mirror’ to evolve through the weave from the two forms. Spaces are created keeping in mind the subjects gaze, allowing to “see” the other side and to be “seen” by the other side.


Awni started exploring the project by understanding through personal experiments her questions about space and experience- in terms of the sensual. The exercise further extended into understanding similar artistic movements and readings.
Culminating in an architectural exploration based on Focault of Other Spaces

The project is imposed in an industrial, functionalist society where the idea of the ‘other is defined and distinct. These boundaries in socio-cultural context of a cosmopolitan city, Mumbai, are irony thickened as well as blurred due to multiple projections of desire. This space of the boundary is where the intervention places itself in an introspective manner. The choice of site heightens the experience- since the site, the Haji Ali Durgah, is connected to the mainland by a causeway, where it is a part of the city at the same time can objectively view the city. The function being a sanatorium-the other space where the ‘others’ are healed and then accepted back in the society, and the Durgah’s association with the act of healing.

The project revolves around the act of gaze with reversible roles for the viewed and the viewer. Thus the metaphor of the mirror is cleverly explores the subject object relationships at different scales and the idea of the heterotopia with a sensuous architectural play of spaces, materials, and functions.
The project successfully treads from a personal space to a collective space of multiple realities and throws open many interpretations of the ‘felt’ experience itself.

Tutor(s)
Manoj Parmar
2009
Research: Construct of space for a body (subject) is nothing but a rendering of our mind through its sensations and perceptions and our entire being in a surrounding (civilization) caught in the pursuit of liberation. The argument is constructed through p
Research: Hysteria lies at the crux of this liberation where your conscious and your sub-conscious are both present. Foucault describes civilizations that construct itself by keeping the insane or the ill away from civilization.
Foucault describes this generation of institutes whose duty is to keep the ill away from civilization as ‘heterotopias’ as these other spaces, real spaces that exist; he also describes ‘utopias’ as these desired, unreal spaces that do not exist.
Haji Ali, Mumbai: The dargah is located away from the city in the sea as an act of sanctifying the dargah and on the same island lays the sanatorium that is an act of keeping the ill away from the city and near the Dargah as an act of curing the ill.
“I believe that between utopias and these quite other sites, these heterotopias, there might be a sort of mixed, joint experience, which would be the mirror.”
The mirror is, after all, a utopia, since it is a placeless place. It functions as a heterotopia: it makes this place that I occupy at the moment when I look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it.
The mirror is about your gaze, the act of seeing yourself where you belong from where your gaze is directed to the other side where you do not belong, seeing your shadow there but in order to be a part of it you need to pass through the virtual point.
The mirror was fragmented and scattered along the site and new relationships are created through engagement with different realities.
The programming of the ‘mirror’ begins with the ENTRANCE that opens onto the Dargah on one side and the outpatient department on the other side. A GALLERY that opens onto a library and a MUSEUM that flows from the occupational therapy room.
The existing language of the dargah in white marble is retained with its grid and for the sanatorium a north south grid using different stones is imposed upon it allowing for the language of the ‘mirror’ to evolve through the weave from the two forms.
The entrance: that opens onto the dargah on one side and the outpatient department on the other side, glass is used in different parts to allow for a visual relationship.
View from the music pavilion and a section through occupational therapy room that opens onto the music pavilion.
Section showing the day room on one side and the gallery reception on the other. View of the occupational therapy room.
View of the outpatient department's waiting area. View of sitting area in the sanatorium. Section through the music pavilion.
Intervention of the 'mirror' at Haji Ali, Mumbai
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