Mumbai’s Iconic Art Deco Buildings Were Made to Conquer Disease
After devastating outbreaks of plague and influenza, the Indian city embraced light, air and a sleek new architectural style.
An Art Deco apartment building near Marine Drive in Mumbai.
Photographer: Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images
Bombay Deco. To residents of India’s largest city, the phrase conjures the spirit of the 1930s, when independence — and architectural experimentation and innovation — was in the air. The megacity known today as Mumbai houses the largest collection of Art Deco buildings outside of Miami.
Art Deco flourished in Mumbai during that decade, just as the style was gaining international popularity. On South Mumbai’s Marine Drive, brightly colored apartment buildings with curved corners and exotic motifs marched along a curved promenade on the Arabian Sea. Architects riding this wave adapted the style to local conditions, adding balconies and cantilevers that project from the face of buildings and provide more shade in Mumbai’s tropical conditions. In 2018, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) placed the “Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai” on its World Heritage List, calling the city’s distinctive blend of Indian design and Art Deco imagery “Indo-Deco.” Locals simply call it Bombay Deco.