Description
Fantastic Architecture is where myth, imagination, and built form collide. From the haunted labyrinth of the Winchester House to Gaudí’s dragon-roofed Casa Batlló, from Dante’s descent into Hell to Saudi Arabia’s futuristic Line, Mustansir Dalvi traces how architecture becomes a vessel for stories, dreams, and anxieties. Moving between literature, cinema, visionary drawings, and real buildings, this monograph reveals how the fantastic exposes what we most desire—and fear—in our cities. Both playful and profound, it invites us to see architecture not only as shelter, but as theatre, allegory, and the stage upon which we dwell in dreams.
About the authors
Mustansir Dalvi was born in Bombay. He teaches architecture in Mumbai, as Professor (Metropolitan Architecture) at the Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design. He is the Academic Lead for the Digital Library of Mumbai’s Built Heritage, an initiative of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay), and also a member of the Advisory Committee of its Mumbai Gallery. He is currently a trustee of Art Deco Mumbai and on the Board of Governors of the MMR Heritage Conservation Society. Mustansir Dalvi was Professor of Architecture at Sir JJ College of Architecture, University of Mumbai, from 2003 until his retirement in January 2024. He is part of the core group that set up the vision for the Sir JJ School of Art Architecture and Design. He is a long-time archivist at Sir JJ College of Architecture where he curated several successful exhibitions. Mustansir Dalvi is a poet, translator and editor. His blogs on Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz are widely quoted and have been the subject of academic research. He translates from Urdu and Marathi into English and from English into Marathi. He has three published books of poetry in English, brouhahas of cocks (2013), Cosmopolitician (2018) and Walk (2022). His poems have been translated into French, Croatian, Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati. He is widely anthologized. His books include Citizen Charles: A Biography of Charles Correa (2024), The Past as Present: Pedagogical Practices in Architecture at the Bombay School of Art (2016) and The Romance of Red Stone: An Appreciation of Ornament on Islamic Architecture in India (2010). He is the editor of 20th Century Compulsions: Modern Indian Architecture from the MARG Archives (2016). He writes regularly for the National Herald, the Hindu, The Wire and Scroll.com, where he casts a critical gaze on Mumbai in its current post-planning avatar. He has lectured on architecture, culture and urbanism at various venues like the Red Fort, Delhi, The Darbar Hall of the Asiatic Society of India, Mumbai, The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti Bhavan, Delhi, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences, Amsterdam, for the Columbia University, City of New York and the Miami Design Preservation League.
About MINĪ
MINĪ – Stories of Art, Architecture & Style
MINĪ is a new collection of small, finely crafted books exploring the larger world or art, architecture and design. Each volume is a standalone extended essay that offers a fresh way of seeing and imagining our larger world.
Born in Barcelona and rooted in Chandigarh, India, Altrim celebrates this cultural exchange through MINĪ, original essays from voices across the globe.
Elegant, distinctive, and evocative, MINĪ offers a literary journey where imagination and design meet on every page.
