ADA: Architecture Design Art

Laying the foundation for a quality life in Aliabad

2015-05-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Text | Anoushe Khan
Visuals | Courtesy AKPBS,P

Meet Garee Khan

The 52-year-old man from Aliabad, Hunza is the patriarch to a family of six. Along with his wife and three children, Mr. Khan lives in a semi-engineered stone laid house that has been under construction for the past seven years because of the family’s limited financial resources. For employment, he relies on farming and labour jobs that earn him a meager salary. To support the family, his teenaged daughter works as a housemaid in the neighbourhood. Combined the father-daughter duo earn just enough to cover basic household expenses such as food, school fees and medicine–that is primarily prescribed to treat waterborne diseases rooted in the consumption of contaminated water collected from open sources.

The Khan family’s dire situation is further exacerbated by the fact that their home had no sanitation infrastructure. They use a traditional pit latrine that is located adjacent to their partially fenced house. In addition to creating an unhygienic situation for the entire family, the female members of the Khan household have to wait until nightfall to relieve themselves. “A proper soakage pit costs approximately PKR 70,000 which I cannot not afford with the limited income I have,” said, Mr. Khan.

According to the United Nations Water-Glaas 2014 report, as the world turns its attention to the formulation of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) much remains to be done particularly to reduce inequalities across populations:

2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation;
1 billion people practice open defecation, nine out of ten in rural areas;
748 million people lack access to improved drinking-water and it is estimated that 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking-water that is fecally contaminated;
Hundreds of millions of people have no access to soap and water to wash their hands, preventing a basic act that would empower them to block the spread of disease.

Creating breathing spaces

2015-05-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Text | Sana Aslam
Visuals | Courtesy NADA

Project: Fatima Jinnah Park, Islamabad

Architect:
Nayyar Ali Dada                                 Principal Architect

Ghazanfar Ali                                      Architect

Raza Ali Dada                                     Architect

Nadeem Aslam                                    Resident Engineer

Hyder Ibrahim                                     Project Architect

Farheen Asim                                      Site Architect

Quratulain Kazami                              Architect

Saqib Bashir                                        Architect

Anjum Masood                                    Horticulturist

Client/Owner: Capital Development Authority CDA Islamabad

Consultants: Nayyar Ali Dada & Associates

Contractor: Expertise Pvt. Ltd.

Project completion: Phase 1 in 2006 & Phase II-IV in 2010

Areas: Total Park Area 760 acres

Islamabad a young city, conceived from its origin as the power seat of Pakistan, the capital city of the country that had acquired independence in 1947. The New Capital was decided in the year 1959, had from its start an ambitious, power induced; showcase to the world a major writ behind the project brief given to the assigned urban planner. A Greek firm of architects, Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis designed the master plan of the city based on a grid, which was triangular in shape with its apex towards the Margalla Hills.

A city nestled between the Margalla Hills, abounded with green forestation was laid out on a grid, that did not meander through the mountains and valleys but infact made inroads into the areas that has substantially grown as a concrete densified city which caters to Government bodies, Diplomatic enclaves and ancillary facilities today.

Islamabad has an impressive natural landscape and the views of hills form a comfortable and pleasant visual all around the city. There are some small parks dotted around the city, but Fatima Jinnah Park is the only place that caters for the community on an urban scale much suited to the city. During the rapid growth of the city with a concrete-jungle like approach, this park provides much relief as it acts as the lungs of the built city.

The Islamabad Park project overall concept addresses the need aimed at relief for a city developed only through buildings. First steps included removal of buildings construction from existing site and expected program and only essential forms were retained so as to maximize on the functions opportunities presented through natural landscape environmentally responsive and relevant master plan was created to blend necessary and inanities into a seemingly natural landscape.

Imran Mir | 1950-2014

2015-05-26T13:15:00.004-07:00

RASHID ARSHED’S LETTER TO IMRAN

Dear Imran,

We had a brief talk when you called me early October. If I knew it was going to be our last conversation I would have extended it a bit longer. You told me you were not feeling well but you did not give me a clue that it was so serious. A week or so later, I made a few attempts to call you to find out how you were doing but without luck. Perhaps you were too busy preparing for your last journey.

On October 25, I received a shocking email from Karachi saying that your prognosis was not good. A few days later, another email carried the sad news. Understandably, Nighat, Jibran and Ken’an must have felt more pain, but your family extended far beyond your household. I want to tell you that a large circle of your friends and admirers in Pakistan and overseas are deeply hurt and miss you so much.

Your dear friend Dr. Sughra in Boston wrote these words to share her grief:

“I have been deeply saddened by Imran’s passing, and am writing to you as a fellow mourner. Imran meant a lot to most people fortunate enough to know him, including me. He has been a generous, loving, kind, encouraging, fun, and a completely loyal friend for over forty years and I miss him terribly.”

A Manifesto of Design

2015-05-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Text | Maria Aslam

Photography | Gary Otte, Janet Kimber & Maria Aslam

Building Facts

DESIGN

Architect: Maki and Associates, Tokyo

Architect of record: Moriyama and Teshima Architects, Toronto

Landscape architect: Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture, Lebanon

Museography: Studio Adrien Gardère, Paris

KEY FIGURES

The site: 6.8 hectares 

Museum gross floor area: 10,500 square metres

Size of galleries: 1,800 square metres

 Size of collections storage: 620 square metres

Seats in auditorium: 350 

Height of auditorium roof: 19.8 metres

Period from design to completion: 2004 to 2014

On the highway, short of Don Valley Parkway, a glimpse of the new addition of a Museum in Toronto is clearly visible. Situated away from the downtown area a major district of Museums and academia, itself is a statement and with such an iconic contemporary architecture amongst nondescript entities of sky-rises; it’s the distance and the distinction from its surroundings that reinforces its massive appeal in the design conundrums. In todays sprawling cityscapes the addition of any museum is distinctly urban and urbane specially Toronto; that boasts of a number of Museums equally designed by Star architects hence The Aga Khan Museum, the very first North America’s monument to Islamic art and founded by The Aga Khan renowned world over as an architecture aficionado, who was involved in the project from concept to materialization, it is known to all that His Highness himself selected the iridescent granite cubes that adorn the façade; is set to make a statement both in architecture and culture. The Museum a white gleaming Brazilian granite masterpiece adds to its distinction from its surroundings and creates an oasis of history, learning and entertainment; an oasis that once you enter, you leave the world behind.

With the lush gardens and the five reflective pools outside its front door and its inner-sanctum, open-air courtyard—entered from inside the building and ringed by walls of glass and wooden latticework so that light from outside projects dancing shadows into the museum over the course of the day—it is clear that this is a labour of love. But that is not all; The Ismaili Centre, Toronto is situated, together with the Aga Khan Museum, within a 6.8-hectare landscaped park, a new space for the public that showcases the work of three renowned architects. Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki designed the Aga Khan Museum, while Indian architect Charles Correa designed the Ismaili Centre and architect Vladimir Djurovic of Lebanon designed the Park, which features a formal garden. The Canadian firm Moriyama & Teshima are the architects for the entire project and responsible for integrating all aspects of the project.

Post-disaster Construction Using Vernacular Traditions

2015-04-22T05:27:00.002-07:00

Text: Yasmeen Lari
Visuals: Courtesy Heritage Foundation

In Pakistan, during the last couple of decades, recurring disasters have underscored the destructive impact of climate change on people’s lives. Their frequency and greater magnitude are attributed to changing weather patterns, melting glaciers, and deforestation, as well as increase in use of industrialized materials in construction that inflict avoidable ecological footprint. Due to the impact of changing climatic conditions, while centuries’ old archaeological sites and built heritage are rapidly turning into endangered sites, vernacular architecture is equally susceptible in the wake of floods and earthquakes.

Unsustainable post-disaster development leading to increased carbon footprint

Over centuries, vernacular construction in Pakistan has promoted social cohesion, fostering pride, stake and ownership through community participation and the use of local materials. These non-engineered methodologies, developed over centuries, are economical in construction and climatically highly suitable, warding off heat and cold.

Festival Marketplaces- A brief background

2015-04-22T05:25:00.003-07:00

Text: Zarminae Ansari
Visuals: Courtesy Zarminae Ansari & Port Grand Authorities

Karachi’s waterfront festival marketplace

The Port Grand Food and Entertainment Complex opened at the end of 2010, to much fanfare, inspiring great optimism in the midst of the violence that plagues the city. It was, and is, a rarity: an adaptive reuse project on a historic 1,400 ft bridge, creating a 200,000 square foot waterfront development in old Karachi. Known commonly as “netty jetty” (Native Jetty), the area of the Old Napier Mole Bridge was used to dump garbage, and was frequented by junkies. Shahid Firoz, the CEO of the project, intended the project to be a catalyst to “…revive the culture and traditions of old Karachi”[1]. Its much-photographed highlight is not just the view of Karachi Port and the occasional cargo train rattling past to the delight of children, but an awe-inspiring 150-year old Banyan tree skillfully lit at the entrance of Napier’s Tavern- an exclusive club-restaurant built using material from the old bridge.

The website of the project still uses the original 3D renderings rather than actual photographs of the built reality, which clearly express the original intent. Balloons, fireworks, and throngs of people: a “festival marketplace”. Indeed, many visitors to the development have pointed out the similarity to other famous waterfront marketplaces in North America, an idea that was most popular in the

Seventies and captured the imagination of town administrators as the great answer to revitalizing downtowns and waterfronts.

Mega Infrastructure Projects and their Impacts on the Urban Design of Karachi

2015-04-22T05:24:00.001-07:00

Case of the Lyari Expressway Project

Preamble

Text | Asiya Sadiq Polack & Suneela Ahmed

In developing contexts urban design is a word synonymous to elaborate public space design. Therefore the formally used terms in Pakistan shy away from the word design and prefer to use terms like; urban planning,

urban development and mega projects to describe any scale and form of urban design interventions. The nomenclature used by the city agencies and professionals is reflective of a mindset which absolves itself from

the pre-requisite study and design of urban projects addressing the social-political and spatial networks involved in the making of aesthetically designed urban projects.

These design questions are constantly discussed and debated in all studios and forums at the department of architecture (DAP) at NED University. One such study of the local urban design issues and their situation in

practice and teaching, was undertaken in a 04 year long Euro-Asian, EU funded inter universities collaborative research and teaching projects called Asia link and Asia Urbs City Design and Capacity Building

Projects. 06 cases (in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India) including the Lyari Expressway Project (LEW) in Karachi were studied to assess urban design practices and impacts in south Asia. Several staff

members / researchers, students and studios were involved in these investigations and the cases were discussed in-depth in international workshops, seminars and a joint conference in 2007 in Sri Lanka.

The published results of these activities are available at the DAP-NED archives.

One of the most important finding was that research by design on urban issues must be a continuous process conducted via research based design studios and practice fed into city policies and plans by professional

work and advocacy. To ensure this an Urban Research and Design Cell (URDC) was setup at DAP-NED in 2007, which engages regularly in city research and design projects and disseminates the analysis and
information via seminars, articles, consultancies and professional practice of its members.

DESIGN OF INFRASTRUCTURE

2015-04-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

Editorial

Infrastructure boggles ones mind, we are completely surrounded by it though invisible to our eyes and hence completely overlooked. Today more so our life styles are entirely embedded within a supporting network of technology
and its paraphernalia. Lets put technology aside for a second, can any building actually work without water, gas, electricity supplies or drain facilities? A unanimous no; so how can the design of such important parameters and life
sustaining elements be overlooked since all and every built structure however profound or mundane is sustained by the ever-growing network of services and facilities?

The work is not miniscule even if considered for one building or one family dwelling but is colossal and threatens to overpower the society. Once the infrastructure is laid below the grade level it is impossible to work, amend, or revisit the structure as it is not only phenomenally expensive but an impossible feat in removing the population inhabiting over and around it. Eventually the infrastructure over the years wears thin with the population advances and the demands of the now obsolete and stretched to it maximum layout of wires, cables, pipes and passageways.

Hence why then something of that dire almost life changing importance be ignored or considered ugly? The technological advances in the late twenty first century are immense; small chips can detect the surface and subliminal reading of the earth movement. We can therefore use technology to its maximum yet still the development or the design of infrastructure for the built environment is a task that the stakeholders and politicians of our country are wary to address. Newer urban or maybe rural developments in the scenario of the built environment include some aspects, but the productivity still lacks the demands of the current century.

Risk Free Schools in Pakistan – A Comprehensive School Safety Framework and Approach To Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

Text: Anoushe Khan
Visuals: Courtesy FOCUS

School safety is a phenomenon dealing with policies and practices that lead to creation of a safe, secure and enabling learning environment within and outside a school building. Risk reduction in education emphasises on building a culture of resilience and safety through education, teacher training, training on school level risk assessments, building and retro-fitting school and finally strengthening disaster preparedness in education.
It is said that “earthquake doesn’t kill people -buildings do”. So how those buildings are designed and built, and where they are located, is critical to their ability to withstand different types
of natural hazard. Natural disasters have no borders, it could happen anywhere and anytime, but what is important is the wisdom & effective planning before undertaking any development
project. Multi-disciplinary skills are required to make a structure more aesthetic, attractive and cost-effective, however, one critical and fundamental element is always lacking and often ignored,
is how a structure could be made resilient to different types of natural hazards. Because our preference has been more focused on the aesthetic and architectural designs rather resiliency to any
disaster.

If the multi-disciplinary skills are utilized effectively keeping the element of risk reduction on priority, no doubt risk could be reduced and the ratio of causalities by the failure of structure can
reduce as well. The skills of architects, engineers, planners and surveyors can be collectively utilized to make such safe havens as part of a quality built environment opportunity.
Focus Humanitarian Assistance an affiliate of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has been active in Pakistan since 1998 and its Comprehensive School Safety framework is tailored for the geographies it serves and is unique for the institutional capacity it brings to bear. FOCUS plays its direct role in disaster preparedness and response at one hand side in the mountainous and coastal areas of Pakistan, and also its in-direct role for sensitizing community, stakeholders at other hand side, for getting conscious for site selection of infrastructures to be constructed and how to be safe within the existing buildings in emergencies. It has been involved in risk anticipation and identification of hazards through mapping and GIS based analysis. FOCUS Pakistan has been advocating legislation for school safety and implementing programmes for awareness and has been providing disaster response equipment to schools.

Art & Architecture Education Part II

2014-05-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

Text: Ar. Pervaiz Vandal

Education Fragmented- age of specialization

As compared to the earlier times education was now more focused on the abilities and techniques required to facilitate the production processes. An efficient education system with a defined curriculum, taught in time-bound packages, with grading and testing to assess employability of students was developed. Such an approach lends itself to a systematic break-up of education into modules, to be taught in a given time, students tested and evaluated and thus graded like industrial goods to be used according to the demand of the customer. Holistic education of the Renaissance was replaced with a specialized, short term, education. Knowledge was split into useful and profits generating sciences and the not so useful arts; ‘age of specialization’ was born. Among the many, a small number who could afford longer periods of education went onto further specialize and lead the developments in science.

Resonating Spaces

2014-05-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

Text: Ruqayya Rizwan
Photography: Ahmed Shajee Aijazi

Encountering space is a unique human experience. It amalgamates romanticism of art and literature, functionality and ergonomics of design and timelessness of brick and mortar. The experience itself engages maximum of our senses at the same time. For most part what we perceive as a visual treat is actually a sensory treat and therefore I can say with confidence if I entered a Rizwan Sadiq house with my eyes closed and ears shut I would be able to tell right away where I was, just like one can tell when one reaches home after a vacation.

Rizwan Sadiq is a contemporary architect. He finds his voice through the mechanics of building a space primarily through a plan. All credit due to his teachers and specially his mentor Tariq Hassan. A plan is the foundation of his houses. Elevation follows the plan. Everything else follows the plan and rightly so for you can live in a space that allows you flexibility and lets you grow as years pass by. If you ask Rizwan what is the strength of his plan he is likely to say his client’s lifestyle. If you ask me the same question I would say it’s the designer’s tribute to light as it falls upon a site.

RM Naeem on Red chilies, secularism and the male ego

2014-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Text: Mariam Qureshi

Visuals: R M Naeem

RM Naeem’s work is a paradox in itself. His art work will speak loudly with an uncanny bluntness yet the execution will be calculated and with exceptional finesse. The reason why RM Naeem has managed to prove his mettle as one of Pakistan’s finest contemporary artist is not only because he has dabbled with all the contemporary artistic mediums such as installation and performance art, yet he has a deep respect and understanding of traditional art forms --- in short RM Naeem’s diversity as an artist is evident. RM Naeem talks about some of his recent works. His work carries vision and sometimes ironic humor.

He starts his discourse with a painting titled ‘Dulha Hazir Hai’. This painting depicts an emaciated man wearing a sehra and posing in front of a cactus. Naeem explains that in our society men want to get married without realizing whether they can support a wife and a family. The cactus implies the shape of a phallus, an innuendo of the prevalent sexual frustration amongst Pakistani people.

Contemporary Notions of Home

2014-05-07T18:57:00.001-07:00

Text: Salwat Ali
Visuals: VM Gallery

Who we are is determined by where we come from and how we define ourselves.
A new type of person whose orientation and view of the world profoundly transcends his or her indigenous culture is developing from the complex of social, political, economic, and educational interactions of our time.

“Nation, culture, and society exert tremendous influence on each of our lives, structuring our values, engineering our view of the world, and patterning our responses to experience. Human beings cannot hold themselves apart from some form of cultural influence. No one is culture free. Yet, the conditions of contemporary history are such that we may now be on the threshold of a new kind of person, a person who is socially and psychologically a product of the interweaving of cultures in the twentieth century.”

-Peter Adler
Centered on the multi-visions of multiculturalism a recent VM exhibition, Homelands- A 20th Century Story of Home, Away and All the Places In Between, curated by Latika Gupta attempts to project this continuously evolving definition of ‘home.’ Comprising art productions selected from the British Council Contemporary Art collection Homelands is a concentration of British artists but their focus is not confined just to Britain because as Andrea Rose, Dir Visual Arts points out, “Britishness” itself is now an increasingly fluid concept, with the capital city, London, home to 300 different nationalities. The artworks in the exhibition explore a range of meanings associated with the word “homeland”: migration, exile, displacement, the search for belonging, and the life of a minority community. Through these themes, Homelands expands its scope to show how identities are no longer defined in terms of nationality, but also through language, religion, ethnicity and custom.

THEME 2012 - RESIDENCES OF PAKISTAN

2014-05-07T03:40:00.001-07:00

Shells and doorknobs, closets and attics, old towers and peasant huts are pleasant memories of our childhood…..or are they memories of “the home”. As per Bachelard (in his book Poetics of Space) admits that every house is first a geometrical object of planes and right angles, but ask his reader to ponder how such rectilinearity so welcomes human complexity, idiosyncrasy and how the house adapts to its inhabitants.

How does the body, not merely the mind remember the feel of the latch in a long-forsaken childhood home? If the house is the first universe for its young children, the first cosmos, how does its space shape all subsequent knowledge of other space, of any larger cosmos? Is a house “a group of organic habits” or even something deeper, the shelter of the imagination itself?

As we listen to the geometry of built spaces, the echoes dignifying and distinguishing every old house, every experienced house, the probe is the impact of human habitation on geometrical forms, and the impact of the form upon human inhabitants.

So how do we sum it; a house is a nest for dreaming, a shelter for imagining or is always a container, sometimes contained, the house serves as the portal to metaphors and imagination. From time immemorial hoses have had a mystifying curious appeal, each into his own, especially when architects try to define a house, an abode a shelter

- “A house that has been experienced is not an inert box. Inhabited space transcends geometrical space.”

- All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the person in that space.

- "The house is a machine for living in." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

- Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Francis Bacon, Essays of Buildings

- "The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines." Frank Lloyd Wight New York Times Magazine (4 Oct. 1953).

- I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values. Luis Barragan

- These cities of 20 million and 30 million people, with densities of thousands of families per acre, they require new inventions to humanize that mega-scale, to find a way in which, though we live densely and though we live one on top of each other, we still want nature, and we still want sunlight and we still want the garden, and we still want all the qualities that make a place humane. And that's our responsibility. Moshie Safdie

EXAMINING DIVERSE VIEWPOINTS: FOUR ARTISTS FROM SINDH

2014-05-07T03:39:00.002-07:00

Text: Marjorie Husain

Photography: Courtesy

Looking at the work in exhibition of artists such as Hussain Chandio, Jam Depar, Manzoor Solangi and Nusrat Raza Mangi, one was reminded of the fascinating cultural history and traditions of Sindh; its arts and crafts created through the centuries by gifted artistes and artisans. The fifty-seven exhibits recently displayed in Karachi, encompassed the disciplines of sculpture, figurative work, landscape and modern miniature art. Each series carried themes of the individual artists to be examined in detail. Yet there remains still so much to be written about the province of Sindh. There is so much to discover of the Indus Valley Civilization and the inhabitants of the region 5000 years ago. We know they enjoyed wearing decorative ornaments made from coloured stones; lived in well designed homes and streets, and were buried without weapons. One realizes how very culturally advanced these early inhabitants must have been. When the markings on the seals discovered are deciphered, one may learn so much more.

In Pakistan the first official centre of art education began in Sindh in 1970, when A.R.Nagori established the Fine Arts Department of the Sindh University. He was joined by Mussarat Mirza and several talented artists began their art education at the university. In recent times it is Muhammad Ali Bhatti who heads the department following the principle of educating future generations.

Varying Art Assessment Standards in an Era Where “Anything Goes”

2014-05-07T03:38:00.002-07:00

Text: Seyhr Qayum

Scholars, critics, your regular run-of-the-mill Average Joe – everybody, has at one point or another asked the incredibly profound and simultaneously incredibly futile question: “What is Art?” Countless articles have been published proclaiming art to be the visual representation of deep, intellectual thought. Some say it’s something – anything, which elicits an emotional response from the viewer. Many ramble tirelessly about how it’s all encompassing and is entirely subjective; what could seem like the consequence of a knocked over tub of paint on some canvas that conveniently happened to be lying beside the tub, for some people, could prompt others to empty out their bank accounts. By virtue of the fact that “art” has an even vaguer globally accepted, dictionary definition than it did say five hundred years ago, it is impossible to satisfactorily,universally answer this question. I personally believe that there is indeed, no right or wrong, no good or bad – to me, art is whatever induces one to stop, look at something, really look at it, and think “wow.”

End of Cowasjee era

2014-05-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

Text: Danish Azar Zuby

About a hundred years ago, there was a Parsi gentleman by the name of Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, a respectable citizen of Karachi who became the first elected Mayor of Karachi. He is also known as the ‘Maker of Modern Karachi’. Those times are synonymous with his name and generally referred to as the Nusserwanjee era, as it was in those times that the roads of Karachi were actually washed every morning and it was called the cleanest city of south Asia. Those were the happy and peaceful times.

Today, in November 2012 we mourn the passing away of another great Parsi citizen of Karachi, who besides many titles that are showered on him, is also being addressed as ‘The conscience of the Nation’. Earlier this year, on the 20^th of March SHEHRI (Citizens for Better Environment) an NGO held an evening function to celebrate the illustrious life of Cowasjee and confer upon him the award of ‘Citizen Emeritus’ for his extraordinary services and contributions to Karachi.

Painting is not dead - it's alive and kicking….

2014-05-07T03:26:00.000-07:00

Text: Salwat Ali.

Photography: Courtesy various galleries/artists

Peppered with spurts of creative zest and technical flair, Visual Arts 2012 remained buoyant in a social and political environment that continued to plunge ever deeper into turmoil. Particularly noticeable were refreshing perspectives in the works of young painters on topics questioning the space between art and life in the often violent and chaotic reality they are faced with every day. Growing in the age of Breaking News, power outages and shutter down calls the current generation of artists critique disorder not with alarm and despair but with a cool rationale often tweaked with biting humor. Hardy and resilient they have the aplomb and ingenuity to explore new directions to address their concerns.

In an art climate increasingly dominated by mixed and multimedia young artists as committed practitioners of representational painting are few and far between. The Canvas show, (shown in last week of Dec2011, but reviewed in Jan2012) Condolence Theatre, by Muhammed Ali and Altars, by Komail Aijazuddin centering on the painterly exercise was a pleasant reminder of the grandeur and instant impact that can be achieved through this traditional genre. Religo - cultural storytelling is a relatively unexplored field here and in this regard the two artist’s deliberate engagement with their chosen subjects was the other striking feature of the show.

Visiting a city of paradoxes

2014-05-07T03:25:00.001-07:00

Text: Mariam Qureshi

Photography: Courtesy the author and Dirk

Dhaka is a city of paradoxes; on one side we look down the 18 story of Westin Dhaka with all the glitz of an international five star hotel on to the dirtiest slums of the city. On the other hand is a tuk tuk driven by men all around the city whose stamina can match a sprinter performing in the Olympics and on the other hand cars lined up at a traffic signal for no less then forty five minutes. To narrate another contradiction would be that a real string of pearl will cost you as less as 300 Bangladeshi Takkas which would amount to around four hundred Rupees where as a bottle of water can cost you up to 500 BDT. It is a characteristic city with a flavor of its own. Essentially another paradox of the city; it is extremely poverty stricken yet art and culture thrives in abundance.

Temporal Infrastructure

2014-05-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

Text:Maria Aslam

Photography:Marium & Maria Aslam

Seems like yesterday when the same scribe had reviewed S Abdulla in Lahore, the dynamic play of construction beams and exposed framework had set the setting of the new warehouse design entity in the design world. Then it was just a beginning, an exploration that was picked up by many architects a new aspect for less is more? Today we go a step further with the Builders Mall perched almost at the outskirts of Rawalpindi - Islamabad, an area where construction is in full swing whether commercial or residential. In a year’s time the building which stands aloof in the typical usual constructed environ of the capital city might just be engulfed by its neighbors.

Set back from the road and sitting royally in a slender mass enveloped in fair-faced concrete that captures ones eye because of the elevation the exterior belies the interior completely. As one walks over its entrance portal and enters its atrium space a new world of interiors and products unfolds. The central natural lit space bewilders as a playful world suddenly surprise you. I literally did a twirl just to get an expanse of the space from down to the top. I also noticed the traffic and the reactions of the people visiting the Mall then, it is obvious that one needs to spend hours to get the maximum out of the space whether in the design context or the plethora of products that it houses.

Love, life and cinema……

2014-05-07T03:06:00.001-07:00

Text: Maria Aslam

Photography: courtesy Naheed Mashooqullah Studio for Architecture & Design

Nothing deters the masses to watch a great movie that has had raving reviews, a stupendous box office opening or a steam roller caste……but for us Karachiites big movie or not watching movies is a great way of getting away from the daily works and stresses, the sudden play of city coming to a halt, the ever changing political scenario, the hide and seek of power fluctuations……….. all of this can be best taken care off by going to the cinemas.

A great cinema experience was a story of the bygone era when various cinema halls on the main artery of M. A Jinnah road competed with each other and then a long story of a society deadened in culture and art followed that naturally killed the art of filmmaking and cinema viewing as well.

Hence going to cinema and that also creatively designed with state of the art facilities is definitely a new entity to the recreation-starved city of Karachi. The cinemas have revived (hopefully) good film making and released a spirit of verve and enjoyment to the masses especially the youth of the society

A Tribute to Perween Rehman alias PR (1957 to 2013)

2014-05-07T03:05:00.002-07:00

Text: Asiya Sadiq Polack

As I pen my thoughts today, to say a few words of tribute for our beloved teacher, friend and fellow architect Perween Rehman. I wish that, these were to be spoken to applaud her in person and not to laud her when she is no longer with us. It is our misfortune that, the “extra ordinaries” amongst us, carries on performing so silently, that, we are only jolted from the “ordinary”, when they are no more.

However, PR rises above the cliché, because she with her vision and professional choices became immortal in life and death through her work. By choosing the ordinary and the poor of the society as her clients, she and her colleagues achieved the extraordinary in the 21^st century spatial and social milieu, both nationally and internationally.

A remarkable architect and an honorable citizen of this country, PR’s premature death and assassination on 13^th March 2013, while conducting her professional work, is a personal, national and universal loss. She literally gave her life, living and dead to this city and country. Taken away brutally, she leaves behind a huge legacy of a socially responsive architecture both in theory and practice, achieved over three decades.

Perween’s architectural practice was unconventional, out of the box and ground breaking. She had a detail oriented creative thinking process which she chose to apply to a development project. She was a meticulous designer, documenter, manager, trainer, teacher, thinker, researcher, activist and a great human rolled in to one.

Searching -Through the Looking Glass

2014-05-07T03:04:00.002-07:00

Text: Salwat Ali

Visuals: Courtesy Amin Gulgee Gallery

Stepping through the Looking Glass into Amin Gulgees Wonderland was a strangely familiar experience. A collision of the personal and the universal his medley of creative entanglements titled “Through the Looking Glass”, exhibited at his own gallery, centered on a reconfiguration of old works. The trick was to see them through a new lens. Mirrors have a great propensity to draw people into them physically and cognitively and Amin played creatively with mirror reflections, the see through look, peek – a - boo effects and gazing into infinity to transform familiar tales into new stories.

ASNA – A Moment in Time

2014-05-07T03:03:00.001-07:00

Text: Marjorie Husain

Photographs: courtesy VM Art Gallery

Ceramic artifacts link the universe with a history that is traced back thousands of years. Clay figurines 27,000 years old and remnants of pottery have informed archeologists of the behavior, culture and methods of the world’s ancestors. It was surprising to discover on a visit to the Moenjodaro Museum that shards of pottery excavated from the site are decorated with patterns that are similar to those found in contemporary designs of art and craft pieces of present times. Pakistan has an historic history of clay work from throughout its regions, and artists aware of this tradition continue to explore and encourage the work of potters of the interior. Clay is in our genes and people from all parts of the world continue to practice the tradition in diverse ways.

In Karachi a meticulously planned and eagerly awaited event was received with enthusiasm when in January 2013, the Fourth ASNA Clay Triennial began. Held at the Rangoonwalla Community Centre, the occasion lasted three interest packed weeks and included a well planned programme of events. A two day seminar opened followed by an exhibition of ceramics contributed by 60 artists from 16 countries. A `Kumbhar’ mela where potters from various regions in Pakistan demonstrated and exhibited their work took place. At Chawkandi Art Gallery, a popular event was the exhibition of the work of promising young ceramists with the country’s renowned ceramist Sherezade Alam, accompanying her students from Lahore for the occasion. Amin Gulgee arranged a fabulous evening of Performance Art – Riwhtti - at his studio; while Sheba Akhtar curated a display: Earth, Light and Architecture at the NED University campus.

2013 AGA KHAN AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURE RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED

2014-05-07T02:48:00.000-07:00

Lisbon, August 2013 – His Excellency Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of the Portuguese Republic and His Highness the Aga Khan will present the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture at the Castle of São Jorge in Lisbon on 6 September.

The five winning projects are:

• Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, Khartoum, Sudan:

• Revitalisation of Birzeit Historic Centre, Birzeit, Palestine

• Rabat-Salé Urban Infrastructure Project, Morocco 

• Rehabilitation of Tabriz Bazaar, Tabriz, Iran

Islamic Cemetery, Altach, Austria

Hybrid polemics - a manifesto for reviving architectural identity through cultural roots

2014-05-07T02:43:00.001-07:00

Text: Ar. Maria Aslam

Photography: Ahmed Shajee Aijazi

We live today in the age of partial objects, bricks that have been shattered to bits, and leftovers... We no longer believe in a primordial totality that once existed, or in a final totality that awaits us at some future date

-(Deleuze and Guattari 1983: p.42)

Architecture invades pervasively in our lives, shapes our living and to some extent occasionally determines our futures. A project that a decade back defined a different standing in a nubile city but today flanks the streets it occupies strategically with its uber- strong presence is Islamabad Serena.

An icon that beguiled intrigued and announced its importance to the city even in construction and developmental stages is Serena Flagship Premier five star hotel of Islamabad. True to its expectations today the Serena Hotel is a landmark and a successful hospitality representation that stands tall within its surrounding competing with the majestic Margalla Hill in its backdrop. The project was initiated in 1999 and by the time of its completion in 2002, the second phase of development was already in progress.

The Serena management team was lucky to acquire the adjacent neighboring land and plan the extension of Islamabad Serena. Though the shape an L extension and the topography which varied from 0 to 25 feet at road level was a challenge for the architect and design team but well integrated the entire scheme. A challenge that neatly configured the hospitality industry working machine tucked away in the lower levels and the works; out of sight within the contours while the giant hospitality retreat entertains its massive clientele.