Bengaluru: Malleswaram now has its own full-fledged website featuring prominent landmarks, heritage buildings, and stories of the spots and people that shaped the old locality’s unique identity.Malleswaram.org was launched on Jan 1 under the leadership of long-time resident Suchitra Deep, an architect who has worked on urban issues, particularly those affecting the locality. The website’s mobile version went live Thursday, enabling users to explore it on various devices. The site’s highlight is an interactive map that showcases landmarks, heritage buildings, Art Deco buildings, and location-specific oral histories.
The team is also working on a tree-mapping feature that will be added to the map. The ‘oral histories’ feature includes brief write-ups and photographs from residents, pourakarmikas, vendors, auto drivers, and businesses (including women-led ones), with each group using distinct icons located on the map.
Malleswaram.org is part of a project Suchitra undertook with funding from India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). Apart from the website, the project involves the curation of a book and is a collaboration between Malleswaram Social, a residents’ collective founded by Suchitra, and Sensing Local, an organisation that addresses issues around urban living. The documentation and conceptualisation for the book and the website started in Dec 2024.
“My core team of around seven includes a technical adviser helping build the website and a designer who handles the artistic part,” Suchitra said, adding that a wide range of people, from architects to participants of the Malleswaram heritage walks organised by her, contributed to the documentation. Architect and illustrator Bhagirathi MK worked on the visual design and illustrations for the website. “Malleswaram is a treasure trove of old buildings, some even 100 years old, hidden among the trees. We noticed something different each time we walked through the numerous conservancy lanes,” she said. “We made sure the website had a visual language incorporating elements that speak to the local population and trigger memories.
The railway station, the ‘ele oota’, and elements representing the locality’s musical heritage were some of the things we included.”The project’s community engagement was overseen by Ila Deep, who is studying public policy in Berlin. The original motivation for the project came from the lack of documentation, she said, adding that the aim was to make the project democratic and enable the community to contribute. “The project’s community engagement was driven by various events, like tree and Art Deco walks, which helped bring long-time residents and other stakeholders together to share their stories of the neighbourhood,” she said.
