By By Shahid Husain
Thousands of people living in pigeon-house-like apartments in the mega city of Karachi have been forced to spend their nights in parks due to persistent power load-shedding.
“I have no alternative but to kill my time in this park after power breakdowns every night,” said Danish, a young man living in a middle class locality Gulistan-e-Johar. “People are so fed up of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) that they have attacked its local office several times but have failed to move its employees,” he said.
Ironically, while men have the privilege to sit in parks till late night, women are condemned to stay in apartment buildings even if the power breakdown persists for hours. Apartments as well as many residential houses built in Karachi have no open spaces, and are built in such a fashion that one cannot even shave or comb during day time if there is no electricity. Given the agony and frustration of living in congested spaces, many now lament the erosion of the concept of courtyards.
“Courtyards were considered an essential space in our residential designs for all categories of housing. These spaces were suitable due to their climatic responsiveness, social relevance, cultural factors and incorporation of other internal spaces of the house,” Dr Noman Ahmed, Chairman of the Department of Architecture & Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology told The News.
“During the pre-British times, most of the housing was constructed with courtyards as the central element. This practice was applied all across the sub-continent as the lifestyles had a great deal common with this building type,” he said.
The courtyard or “Aangan” – as it is called in Urdu – has been discussed in our rich poetry and literature because men, women and children spent time there; it use to have a few trees and flower beds and it was a place where not only people mingled together but would also sleep during summer nights. Eminent short story writer Khadeja
Mastoor wrote a novel under the title “Aangan”, while there are references made to Aangans in Urdu, for example “Naach Na Janey Aangan Tehra” which is the equivalent of ‘a bad workman blames his tools’.
“The British modified the concept of courtyards and replaced it by bungalow design. Bungalows normally had front and back open spaces for lawns, which were adjusted according to the dimensions of the plot,” Dr Ahmed said.
“Although, this concept was different from the traditional courtyard design, the existence and emphasis of domestic open spaces always remained a vital element in the design of houses,” he said. “After partition, the same trend continued till the 1980s at least in the major residential areas that were planned. The negative deviations started showing up due to rampant commercialisation of residential properties, violation of building bye-laws, densification of otherwise low-density areas and the inability of local government institutions to properly regulate these negative practices,” he said.
In the absence of adequate planning and non-adherence to building by-laws, the construction we are witnessing in the mega city today can at best be called chaotic, ugly and devoid of aesthetics.
“Sixty to seventy per cant of the city’s population lives in notified Abadis (Katchi Abadis) and hundreds of thousands have invested their hard-earned money in flats and apartments,” said Perween Rehman, an architect and director at Orangi Pilot Project (OPP). “Space is money and there is not much effort for the quality of space,” she said.
“Although some local research was available that was conducted by local education institutions, professionals and practitioners did not play their due role in ensuring the existence of domestic open spaces and courtyards in layout,” Dr Ahmed lamented.