Rahul Mehrotra presents a reading of Mumbai’s form as a symbol of India’s emerging urban culture.

The lecture examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity on conventional city maps. The second is the Kinetic City, a three-dimensional construct of incremental development. The bazaar-like city in motion can be seen as a symbol of the emerging Indian urban condition.

Rahul Mehrotra is principal of the firm RMA Architects of Mumbai, India and an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT in the United States.

This lecture is part of the Learning from… series.