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Activists stress need to preserve architectural legacy of Karachi

Activists stress need to preserve architectural legacy of Karachi

The seminar, “Bunder Road se Keamari: Confluence of Cultures,” brought together architects, archaeologists, artists, and designers.
20 Jan, 2025

Heritage sites and cultural spaces are part of the identity of a city as they keep its relation with its past alive in a special way along with strengthening and invigorating its present, too, and therefore, it is a collective responsibility of citizens and government to preserve and protect all such places in Karachi.

This was the key takeaway of a seminar titled “Bunder Road se Keamari: Confluence of Cultures” which brought together architects, archaeologists, artists and designers at the Khaliqdina Hall on Sunday to discuss Karachi’s cultural heritage and shed light on some small efforts being made to preserve it.

Ironically, however, as the seminar was about to start, Kanji Building, a majestic heritage site from 1868, was being demolished on the city’s Outram Road.

As Durriya Kazi, who moderated the seminar, made that announcement during the presentation of an artist who had recently made a drawing of the Kanji Building among many others as part of his project, he and everybody else in the hall felt frustrated and, perhaps, enraged, too.

But as all of them also felt helpless, the seminar continued.

The focus of the first three talks was the work that has been done by different partners to renovate and revitalise the Khaliqdina Hall and its library.

The first talk was delivered by Saima Zaidi, a communication designer and founder of Numaish-Karachi, an interdisciplinary collective focused on activating underutilised public spaces for cultural production and as inclusive urban retreats.

Zaidi started with the history and significance of the Khaliqdina Hall and Library and how it lay in a dilapidated condition before being restored and renovated by her team along with other partners.

Thereafter, she spoke about the projects of the Numaish-Karachi team. One of them is the “Reading Room Series Karachi” at the hall which aims to provide an urban cultural retreat for the citizens.

“We along with our partners renovated the hall and library and now it is providing various cultural activities for local communities since June 2024 along with access to the newly conserved and digitised literary assets in the library,” she said.

The second talk, “Interior Restoration of a Multi-Cultural Public Space in Hyper Transforming City” was by Sadiq and Polack Architects, who did the interior renovation of the hall. Christophe Polack and Asiya Sadiq explained to the audience how research and planning were carried out in the interior restoration of a heritage site and how they did so at the Khaliqdina Hall.

“Beside all efforts and hard work, I would say it is maintenance that is most important after the restoration of such buildings,” emphasised Sadiq.

A panel discussion titled “Digital Documentation” included three presentations, mainly focused on the importance of digital recording and preserving the data of heritage sites.

Amer Bazl Khan, director MaritimEA Research, Karachi, spoke about the essential steps in heritage conservation through the use of digital tools and technologies to record, preserve, and manage the physical and historical aspects and data of cultural heritage sites.

The second presentation was by, Ozair B Mansoor, an artist and designer, who is preserving such sites in the city through drawings. It was titled “Karachi’s Lost Communities — The Serai and Bunder Quarters”. Mansoor spoke about the architectural legacy of communities no longer living in the city, but whose remaining buildings and structures enriched Karachi’s cultural environment.

His drawings mainly focused on such buildings, including the Rustomjee Building, Sevakunj Building, Luxmi Building, and the earlier mentioned Kanji Building, to name a few.

The third presentation, “Adaptive Reuse: Interpret, Investigate, and Intervene”, was given by Qurratulain Poonawala, head of the Department for Interior Design, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.

She emphasised how it is first important to thoroughly interpret a cultural heritage site instead of just starting work on it based on available information. “The first step is to interpret the theories and methodologies that shape the idea of preservation and reuse through the examination of its place in history, and its relationship to adjacencies in art, culture, climate and society. Then comes investigating an existing building within the local city context and developing perspectives around them,” she said.

“Building on that, strategies should be formulated to intervene within the existing architectural shells to assess the spatial transformation capabilities of these built structures, not as a fragment but rather a part of a bigger urban and social fabric,” she added.

Another panel, “Creative Karachi”, had two presenters. Ayla Raza, an architect by profession, discussed the development of classical music in the Indian subcontinent and then its evolution in Karachi and also spoke about the role of the city as a patron city of such arts.

Nusrat Khawaja, a researcher and curator, focused on the art in Karachi from 1947-1967 and identified the new strands in art that emerged in the first twenty years of Karachi while it was the capital of Pakistan.

The speakers were also of the view that hundreds of cultural heritage buildings in the city are in a dilapidated condition and face various threats and, therefore, collective action by the government and citizens is needed to reclaim and revitalise all such sites.

Earlier, the welcome address was delivered by Mayor Murtaza Wahab, who chose to remain silent about the demolition of a heritage site in the city.

Originally published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025

Comments

Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Jan 20, 2025 12:30pm
Activists are 100 percent right in calling for to preserve and protect the great architectural legacy of the historic and wonderful city of Karachi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan. However, in the corridors of power and influence in Sindh in general and Karachi in particular, dominated by the family-owned, clan-operated, dynasty-backed, cult-dominated and Larkana-based PPP, who cares?
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Laila Jan 20, 2025 01:15pm
Activists against corrupt establishment, morally bankrupt system and or course local mafia like politicians. Its who will win. As usual.
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Taj Ahmad Jan 20, 2025 05:42pm
I give credit to current Mayor of Karachi for making British era historic Empress Market well cleaned it’s surroundings after long delayed by previous administration of Karachi. Mayor Karachi also focusing other historical buildings in the mega city such as repairing and painting them as well. I urges residents of Karachi to work with KMC and Mayor office as team and together make Karachi a beautiful city once again.
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Ehsan Jan 20, 2025 07:10pm
Even if the whole building cannot be preserved, at least preserve the façade and build modern structure behind it
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zarmeena azeem Jan 20, 2025 07:35pm
I am an old Karachi-ite. I even remember the song by Ahmed Rushdi which this forum adopted it's title. A lot of words and chin wag. The crux of the matter is stated within this article. "Kanji Building, a majestic heritage site from 1868, was being demolished on the city’s Outram Road." Alas the only thing that we feel is frustration. The land mafia, the government at all levels are blind to the needs of this city let alone preserving it.
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IMP Jan 21, 2025 03:06am
The Sind government is hell bent to stop at any cost the sale of the former Metropole hotel in the name of heritage which is not that old, we all know why they are doing , if they are that bother then they should have done to other sites also which are much older than Metropole hotel .
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