New glossary offers vibrant vocabulary to appreciate city’s colonial buildings

The book was inspired by archaeologists who, despite knowing history of buildings, sometimes lack vocabulary to describe architectural details, technicalities

MUMBAI: Very few books about Mumbai will make you look at a building and observe its tiny details: the slatted ventilators of a timber-framed bungalow, the different columns that support a Neo-Classical structure, or the inner ribbed dome decorating the historic CSMT. It may all seem like architectural jargon at first, but architect-educator couple Mustansir and Smita Dalvi’s new book, ‘Glossary of the Architecture of Bombay’, attempts to both demystify and simplify it, helping articulate the built heritage of the city.

Mumbai, India. Aug 19,2026 - Mustansir and Smita Dalvi, Indian architects, posed for an interview with Hindustan Times in Mumbai, India. Aug 19, 2026 (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)