Lahore Walled City Upgradation

Assignment Up gradation of w alled urban center LAHORE saving of the urban Fabric Walled metropolis of Lahore, PakistanZachary M. KronINTRODUCTIONThis study study on urban victimization in the province of Punjab concentratees on the Pakistan environmental homework and Architectural Consultants safaris to get to and carry through an urban conservation plan for the walled urban center of Lahore in the previous(predicate) 1980s. With a population of four million in 1992,1this old depict of Lahore is under tremendous pressure from commercial and industrial interests, which as still ease up little regard for the historic nature of the city.In adjunct to these active menaces, the city is struggling to integrate new municipal go into its existent tissue without obscuring its visual character. Although few interventions take in actually been achieved, some(prenominal)(prenominal) utmoster profile fell ascertains conduct been carried out in an ef lace to raise publ ic aw arness of the conservation plan. CONTEXTPhysical Lahore is the capital of the province of Punjab, the near fertile force field of Pakistan and chief producer of agricultural products for the country. The city is broadly speaking arid, except for two months of hot, humid monsoons, and receives less than 20 inches of rain during the flow of a year.Historical The earliest credible records of the city date its organic law to around 1050 AD, and show that its existence is due to fundamentment along the major(ip) trade thoroughfargon through Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The city was on a regular basis marred by invasion, pill days, and remainder (due to its lack of geographical defenses and general overexposure) until 1525 when it was plundered and then unbendingtled by the Mogul emperor Babur. Sixty age later it became the capital of the Mogul Empire under Akbar and in 1605 the fort and city walls were expanded to the present day dimensions.From the mid-18th century until British colonial times, there was a fairly lawless period in which healthy-nigh of the Mogul Palaces (havelis) were razed, marking a decrease in social hold towards the built environment that has addressd unabattingly till today. 2Much of the walled fortification of the city was washed-up next the British annexation of the land in 1849, as twain a defensive measure to allow the colonists to better control the populous, and as a commercial enterprise in resale of the brick for new projects. In 1864 some(prenominal) a(prenominal) sections of the wall had been rebuilt.Major physical contri saveions of the British to the old city consisted of piped weewee and well systems established just outside the former walls. The building of the railroad line and a station well outside of the old city set the stage for later expansion. 3Social and Economic A new wave of ravaging washed over the city in 1947 following the partition of British Colonial India into the Hind u majority nation of India and the Moslem Republic of Pakistan. The go outing inter-communal conflict destroyed wide battlefields of the urban fabric, some of which was repaired by the 1952 Punjab emergence of damage Areas Act.M whatsoever of the arriving Muslim families from India moved into the emigrating Hindu residences, although the lower land value of the old city further established the concentration of lower in contend groups in the city center, with wealthier families residing outside. In the 1950s an organization called the Lahore Improvement Trust rendered to instate a plan for commercial development in the old city, but these efforts were by and large without effect. 4Between the early 1970s and 80s, 29% of the old city population moved out.The station left by emigrants from the old city has more often than non been filled by commercial interests, mostly short get over manufacturers and wholesalers, many of whom have bailiwick and international clients and d o not serve the local community. The advantages for commercial interests are the readily available cheap labor force among the urban poor, as well as relative anonymity, which facilitates the evasion of most national and local taxation. Advantages for unfit developers lie in the absence of enforcement of building regulations, as well as in cheap plots.The resulting commercial misdemeanor demonstrates a form of abuse of building stock through inappropriate re-use of structures intended for small scale (cottage) industry and residential use, as well as destruction of older buildings replaced with quickly erected, lower quality structures. To the northwest, in the city of Peshawar, and to the east, in Delhi, one basis find buildings related in form and age to those in Lahore, although in Peshawar the residential construction is primarily of wood.Although Peshawar was controlled by the Moguls and inhabit with mosques and gardens as Lahore was during the 16th and 17th centuries, li ttle of it remains to be seen. Peshawar as well as has its share of British construction, (including the renovated Mahabat khan Mosque built under Shah Jehan but largely redone in 1898), and many of the existing residential buildings date from the late nineteenth century. Like Lahore, the small grain of the urban fabric eft intact can be attributed to the growth of the city within a walled fortification. THE PROJECTSignificance of the Walled city The walled city of Lahore is the product of the cultural influences of at least three major empires in the subcontinent of India the Mogul Empire, the British colonial presence, and the modern nation-state of Pakistan. As a result of its position along a major trade route, it has also been influenced by many other, less dominant cultures, such as Afghanistan and China.Unlike Peshawar, which has upset much of its larger scaled architectural past, and Islamabad, which can only waste Modern Monumental architecture of some merit, Lahore n ails some of the best of all the empires which have touched it, as well as smaller scale vernacular architecture. In addition to this object value, the walled city plays a authorized role in the daily functioning of Lahore. It remains a spry center of commerce and represents the living culture of the city, an enduring continuation of and growing from a much older way of emotional state.As the city contains many heterogeneous physical attributes, the activities of the walled city include all aspects of urban life residential, manufacturing, retail, educational, religious, and civic. CONSERVATION PHILOSOPHYThe Lahore Development permissionspreservation Plan for the Walled city of Lahoreis a serial publication of recommendations concerning the physical decay of historic structures in the city, the visual clutter of newer structures and infrastructure, and the encroachment of various unregulated elements on the citys fabric.This program of conservation, headed by Pakistan envir onmental supplying and Architectural Consultants Ltd. (PEPAC) is actually the expansion of a project begun in 1979, the Lahore urban Development and Traffic see (LUDTS). This study, under taken by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and funded by the World avow, identify four areas for improvement. 1. urban planning activities, leading to the business of a structure plan to provide a framework for action program within Lahore 2. Neighborhood upgrading and urban expansion projects, to provide upstanding improvements in living conditions for lower income groups 3.Improvement of traffic conditions in block parts of the street system of central Lahore and 4. Improvements to living conditions within the walled city by improving environmental sanitation and providing social support program. 5Part of LUDTS findings set the precarious position of the physical fabric of the city. The report suggested (among other things) that any development and upgrading program that the city ini tiated should include measures to protect national and regional cultural heritage, and to that end it recommended the development of a conservation plan.The World banking concern make the creation of a plan a condition of the prime(prenominal) loans to be issued to Lahore. The study identifies some 1,400 buildings within the city as having high architectural or historical value and presents a series of conservation proposals. These recommendations include some(prenominal) conservation steps for the buildings themselves, as well as social and economic programs to halt the causes of their degradation. In general the study suggested the following 1. Strategic policies and actions to be taken outside the walled city. 2. Planning activities and studies for both the central area and the walled city. . Institutional development including the full utilization of existing resources fortify with an active training program, and the application of the legislative resources that already exis t. 4. urban trouble and controls to include production of a Manual for saving and Building replenishment and improved maintenance practices. 5. Traffic improvement and management program. 6. Upgrading and enhancing the physical fabric and the urban environment through upgrading the building stock . . . and through upgrading urban services. 7.Redevelopment with concern for conformity with the scale, height, densities and building typologies traditionally characteristic of the walled city to be demonstrated through projects undertaken by public authorities on state land and through regulated private sector activity. 8. conservation of individual listed special premises or elements. 6CONSERVATION PROGRAM INTERVENTIONS opus the statement supra outlines a general insurance approach to the conservation effort, several pilot projects have been more specifically outlined and a handful have been implemented and funded by the World Bank through the Punjab Urban Development Project.The bui ldings are, in most cases, structures dating from early British colonial times, both residential and commercial, and more monumental structures from the Mogul Empire, although action has only been taken on government owned buildings. single pilot project that has come directly out of this effort is the return of the Wazir Khan Hammam (bath house), built in 1638. The bath, which suffered mostly surface damage to the fresco work, is now macrocosm re-used as a tourist center with some facilities for computer education for women.While the structure itself was not in any particular proposition risk of permanent decay, thishamamis a particularly important site to the Development Authority because it is placed on a popular entrance point for tourists coming to the city. For visitors it is the scratch logical stopoverping point on a walk that goes from the brilliant Delhi inlet (Image 6) past the Wazir Khan Mosque and the Choona Mandi Haveli Complex to end at the Lahore stronghold . This route is also well traveled by locals going to the wholesale framework and dry goods markets.It seems that the choice of aiming the instead limited resources of the program at this project is an attempt to heighten the community interest in the conservation effort, rather than directly addressing sites with more desperate conservation needs. Additionally, there are several proposals to deal with the conservation of areas surrounding historic monuments. Of particular concern is the area around the Mori Gate, which stands next to the well preserved UNESCO site of the Lahore Fort, and lies between the Fort and the Delhi Gate, immediately adjacent to the newly conserved and re-used Choona Mandi Haveli Complex.While the Fort itself is a vigorously monitored and controlled site, the area immediately surrounding it is visually cluttered, to say the least. One exits the Fort to be confronted by a mass of electrical cables, transformers, and fractional a dozen sword recycling opera tions. PEPACs proposal involves the relocation of the steel traders (whom it claims are operating il intelligently) to a more suitable location and repopulating the area with a mixture of commercial and residential uses.The area itself does not contain artifacts of particular merit, but is amid a concentration of other historic elements. In their statement of indemnity and issues, PEPAC refers to the exemplary conservation work done at the Choona Mandi Haveli Complex, and to its re-use as a degree college for women. While this is not a PEPAC project, it is identified as a model of the work they wish to see contingency in the city, and claim that the project came out of the conservation effort that they are creating. While it is unclear from the literature who in fact has implemented the particular conservation of the HaveliComplex or what the connection is to the PEPAC effort, it is clear a particular region of the city has been identified as a primary site for conservation effort s. It seems sensible to concentrate on blocks of the city as specific focus areas for limited resources and as showpieces to use to solicit further funding, but it is comical that this is not stated as a strategy in the groups policy statements.In addition to these concentrated areas of restoration, the main furnish to the city have been chosen as pilot projects, several of which have already undergone restoration work. In order to determine how the restored gates should appear, PEPAC searched for clues not only in their existing condition, but also in historical documentation of the gates from the pre-colonial period. In particular, a wealth of information was found in the legion(predicate) renderings by French and British explorers from the 17th century who made paintings, drawings and etchings of the sites. aft(prenominal) identifying the site and determining the changes that are to occur in the area, the site was vacated of encroachers, who soon occupy the niches, hollows an d shelters provided by the wall. Several of the gates have now been restored to their pre-colonial state, but the work has recently been halted due to the cessation of World Bank funding. AUTHORS CONCLUSIONThe exemplar of the gates highlights several difficulties faced by PEPAC in the implementation of their conservation project. First, and perhaps most minor, is the fidelity to the historical record that the conservators wish to maintain.Although the true statement of the sketches can be verified by incompatible views supplied by different artists, it is not necessarily appropriate to restore the gates to the condition they were in during that particular era, especially at the expense of people who may have some claim to residency in portions of the site. A more important criticism is that the definition of encroacher is inadequate. The Prime Minister has attempted to implement a policy to allot office rights to squatters as a way of instilling greater commitment in them to pro perly maintain the areas they occupy. However, PEPAC does not qualify the distinction between squatters, encroachers, and residents. Furthermore, 20 million rupees that have been earmarked by the Punjab Urban Redevelopment Project for residents to use for the improvement of their own property was not dispersed due to the inability of the organization to identify wakeless residents. 9With no clear definition of who is a resident it willing continue to be impossible to make a generalized policy. The total bsence of legal enforcement of property rights further undermines any sense of ownership. An use is the rapacious acts of the speculative developer who buys a building and then digs a second basement, which efficaciously collapses the neighboring buildings. The owner, without legal recourse that would provide any results, is left with no choice but to sell their ruined plot to the developer, who then erects a cheap, commercial building. 10This dilemma underscores a central confli ct in the policy of conservation enacted by PEPAC.On the one hand is the attempt to instate a series of guidelines and regulations which the residents of the city mustiness follow, and on the other hand is the attempt to encourage a sense of ownership, pride and respect among residents for the architecture. The first effectively removes or reduces the choices of the resident in determining the form of their surroundings and relies upon a policy of rule enforcement. The second relies upon the living culture of a place to perpetuate the existing physical culture, although allowing for the changing needs of the people.Unless policy is made concerning ownership and enforcement, these two approaches, which are not necessarily in conflict, will not act in accord, and will each remain ineffectual. It is kindle to note that the areas where the PEPAC conservation effort has been most effective is in totally government owned properties schools, municipal dispensaries, monuments and civic buildings, as well as the homes of police officials. 11In the case of the other projects that have been implemented, PEPAC may be criticized for untimely starting restoration work before active degradation is stopped, or even slowed.The resurfacing of the Wazir Khan Hamam and work on the area between the Delhi and Mori Gate are a prime example of this, a fairly motionless area is being conserved while nearby buildings are being razed for newer construction or crumbling through neglect. (Image 9) However, given the dependency of close the entire conservation effort on World Bank funding, it must be a priority for the group to create a visible, blameless grouping of conserved buildings in order to solicit further funding. This example of trying to raise consciousness before actually acting to stop degradation is appropriate for any conservation project undertaken in Lahore.From the rise of the current conservation plan, the impetus for preservation has come from outside the city w alls and has been hindered by a discrepancy between what is said in skirmish rooms and what happens in reality. In the absence of a fairly authoritarian and well-funded preservation enforcement program, conservation in the walled city will not be effective without the support and active interest from the people who inhabit it. Endnotes1. fast one King, and John St. Vincent, lonesome orbiter Travel Survival Kit Pakistan, quaternary Edition (Lonely Planet Publications, 1993), p. 191. 2. PEPAC3.Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd,Lahore Development Authority Conservation Plan for the Walled City of Lahore, Final Report, vol. 1, Plan Proposals (1986), p. 7. 4. Reza H. Ali, Urban Conservation in Pakistan a Case Study of the Walled City of Lahore,Architectural and Urban Conservation in the Islamic World, news reports in Progress, vol. 1 (Geneva Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 1990), p. 79. 5. Lahore Development Authority /Metropolitan Planning Wing, with the World Bank/IDA, Lahore Urban Development and Traffic Study, Final Report/vol. 4, Walled City Upgrading Study (August 1980), preface. . Ali, Urban Conservation in Pakistan, p. 87. 7. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd,Issues and Policies Conservation of the Walled City of Lahore,(Metropolitan Planning Section Lahore Development Authority, 1996), point 5. 8. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd, Lahore Development Authority,Conservation Plan for the Walled City of Lahore, Final Report, vol. 1, Plan Proposals. (1986), p. 180. 9. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd, Lecture given on the Walled City of Lahore Conservation Project (July 25, 1998). 0. (Sajjad Kausar)11. PEPAC lecture (25 July 1998). BibliographyAli, Reza H. Urban Conservation in Pakistan a case study of the Walled City of Lahore. Architectural and Urban Conservation in the Islamic World. Papers in Progress. vol. 1. Geneva Aga Khan Tr ust for Culture, 1990. Background Paper Lahore Pakistan. Prepared for Design for Islamic Societies Studio, MIT Department of Architecture and Planning, 1992. King, John and St. Vincent, John. Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit Pakistan, 4th Edition. Lonely Planet Publications, 1993.Lahore Development Authority /Metropolitan Planning Wing, with the World Bank/IDA. Lahore Urban Development and Traffic Study, Final Report/vol. 4. Walled City Upgrading Study. August 1980. Nadiem, Ihsan H. Lahore A Glorious Heritage. Lahore Sang-e-meel Publications, 1996. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd. Lecture given on the Walled City of Lahore Conservation Project. July 25, 1998. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd. Monographs on the Walled City of Lahore. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd.Lahore Development Authority. Conservation Plan for the Walled City of Lahore. Final Report. vol. 1. Plan Proposals. 198 6. Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants Ltd. Issues and Policies Conservation of the Walled City of Lahore. Metropolitan Planning Section Lahore Development Authority. 1996. Qurashi, Samina. Lahore The City Within. Singapore sentiment Media, 1988. CreditsAll photographs and illustrations courtesy the Aga Khan Fund, MIT Rotch Collections, unless otherwise noted below1. politeness, KK Mumtaz. 2. Courtesy T. Luke Young. 4. Brian B. Taylor, MIMAR 24, 1987. . From Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants, Ltd, Conservation Plan for the Walled City of Lahore. 6. Courtesy T. Luke Young. 7a. Brian B. Taylor, MIMAR 24, 1987. 9. Courtesy Hasan Uddin Khan. 1. Map of the fortress of Lahore. 2. Traffic outside the walled city. 3. Encroachment. 4. A bazaar in the Walled city 5. Inside View of the Wazir Khan Hamman, before and after restoration.. 6. streets in the old area. 7a and 7b. Electrical infrastructure. 8. Sharanwalla gate. 9. Electrical in frastructure. Image10. View of the walled city.