Table Of ContentUrban Architecture and Local
Spaces in Pakistan
This book is set in Karachi, Pakistan and investigates the possibility of
achieving localness through identifying urban process and their impact on
built form, addressing how locals associate with the urban spaces and how
they value it. Thus, the investigation, using the local terminology maqa-
miat, goes beyond the physicality of space and develops a framework that
helps to understand the social, ethnic, economic, ecological and other the
non-physical aspects of space, which are of value to the locals. The aim is to
investigate the possibility of achieving localness through identifying urban
design elements that can be incorporated into the process of designing new
built forms that acknowledges what is valued by the locals instead of super-
imposing imported designs, negating the contextual realties, both physical
and social. For this purpose, the book includes three case studies from
Karachi. The book questions the aspiration of many cities in the South
Asian context to imitate the built forms of Western cities (increasingly, Sin-
gapore and Shanghai) which are viewed as modern and represents future.
The book will make a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on
postcolonial urbanism and explore space from a local vantage point for
understanding how to look inwards for aspiration.
Suneela Ahmed is an architect, urbanist and an academic. She earned her
PhD in 2016 from Oxford Brookes University, UK. This book is an out-
come of her PhD research and interest in developing an understanding on
local processes, everyday adaptations of urban spaces at the grassroots level
by locals of the Global South. Her interest lies in documenting and analyz-
ing the mitigation processes through the challenges of globalization, local-
ization and informalization which give shape to everyday spaces within
an urban setting. She has written various research papers, book chapters
and newspaper articles, and presented in conferences around these issues/
themes/ideas. This is her frst solo authorship and a tribute to the city that
has always inspired and aspired her, her hometown—the city of Karachi.
Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South
Series Editors
Ashraf M. Salama
Professor, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
David Grierson
Reader, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South places emphasis on devel-
opments in cities and settlements in the Global South which is defined geo-
graphically to include key capitals, major cities, and important settlements
within Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian Sub-Continent, the south-
ern Mediterranean and the Middle East, South America, and South Asia.
The series aims to capture and depict architectural and place production
in these regions and to portray it to the global professional and academic
community. Written by international experts and researchers, the volumes
cover a wide spectrum of topics that range from vernacular architecture,
architectural heritage, urban traditions, explorations of the works of Global
South and international architects, to themes that include the architecture
of squatter settlements, housing transformations, urban governance, the
impact of globalisation on cultural identity as manifested in architecture,
and sustainable urbanism.
Tiles in the Series
Uncertain Regional Urbanism in Venezuela
Government, Infrastructure and Environment
Fabio Massimo Capra Ribeiro
Influence and Resistance in Post-Independence Egyptian Architecture
Marwa M. El-Ashmouni and Ashraf M. Salama
Urban Architecture and Local Spaces in Pakistan
Suneela Ahmed
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Architecture-and-Urbanism-in-the-Global-South/book-series/AUGS
Urban Architecture and Local
Spaces in Pakistan
Suneela Ahmed
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Suneela Ahmed
The right of Suneela Ahmed to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-15911-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15912-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24627-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003246275
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
To all the honest struggles out there in the city that inspires,
aspires and leaves the onlooker in awe.
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
1 Background and introduction 1
2 The complexity of western and regional design theories
of place and maqamiat 19
3 Karachi, an introduction: analysing maqamiat of built form 47
4 Kharadar and Meethadar within Old Town 79
5 Kehkashan Clifton 105
6 Pakistan Employees Co-operative Housing
Society (PECHS) 130
7 Importance of the notion of maqamiat for Karachi 149
Index 169
Figures
3.1 The Greater Karachi Plan—1952 identifying the growth
corridors 49
3.2 The Greater Karachi Resettlement plan—1961 identifying
the location of satellite towns 50
3.3 The Karachi development plan—1974–1985 51
3.4 Qamar House, Karachi—Date of completion: 1950
Designer: Naqvi and Siddiqui Architects 56
3.5 H abib Bank Building, Karachi—Date of completion:
1969 Designer: Architect Leo A. Daly 57
3.6 Use of steel cladding in recently designed buildings by
architects in Karachi Date of completion: 2007, Designer:
ASA (Pvt.) Ltd 59
3.7 Typical plan of a house in a low-income settlement 66
3.8 Unplanned low-income settlement in Karachi 66
3.9 Master plan of Al-Azhar Gardens Housing Scheme 70
4.1 Location of Old Town in Karachi (base map prepared by
Rida Khan, MUD) 80
4.2 Location of quarters within the Old Town 82
4.3 Plan of a typical apartment building in the Old Town that
still survives 84
4.4 New building in the Old Town 91
4.5 The urban scale of the neighborhood 91
4.6 The streets of Old Town 92
4.7 The perception of the neighborhood boundaries by locals 93
4.8 P laces important for people within the Old Town and its
immediate vicinity 94
4.9 Important built form in Old Town as mentioned by
government offcials 94
4.10 P latforms in front of buildings being used for socializing
and for extension of the market activity 97
4.11 ‘Masala gali’ (Spice Street) and ‘Bartan gali’ (Utensils Street) 98
4.12 Integration and connectivity analyses of Old Town 99
