KARACHI, Oct 5: While the general perception of architectural history in the country is specific to the Mughal Empire or anything pre-Independence with everything else being labelled “foreign or British”, due credit is not given to various other elements that had an impact on its development, said senior academic Fazal Noor at a conference on Saturday.

He added that documentation of architectural history in Pakistan was neglected and a very selective perspective was cultivated in its pedagogy, or instructional theory.

The programme titled ‘First History Group Conference 2013’ was organised by Architecture and Planning Department of the NED University of Engineering and Technology.

The conference was an attempt to analyse civilisation as evolving, and exploring our contribution to this continuum. The issue of the identity, or lack thereof, of Pakistani architecture was raised and need was stressed to make knowledge of history available for students and further build an attitude towards it.

Introducing an international viewpoint on architectural history, Dr Suna Guven, professor of architecture at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, concentrated her talk on how archiving and technological advancements had changed the course of history. Her session titled ‘Architectural History: What to Teach, How Much and How?’ expressed her concerns related to “how data is presented” that aids in “[architectural] pedagogy and engaging the student in the history of architecture.”

She highlighted old school techniques employed in teaching and how digital advancements, such as from lantern slides to regular ones, had changed the face of how history was presented through photos. However, she urged the architecture students present to not let go of drawing by hand, as the use of too much of technology can ‘stifle human wonder’.

Architect Ali Arsalan Pasha’s session ‘Temporal Pedagogues’ was very informative and interesting as his talk fluctuated from quoting philosophers and writers such as Ayn Rand, Voltaire and Twain to contemporary film-makers such as Woody Allen. He also discussed man’s occupation with size and grandeur with regards to architecture. A similar fixation of scale was also explored and how it had permeated all over the world and could easily be gauged by the number of ‘tallest buildings’ that had become major tourist attractions.

Architect and educationist Kamil Khan Mumtaz read out his paper titled ‘Historiography’ in which the modernist and post-modernist view of historical events and its writing was explored. “History,” according to Mr Mumtaz, “cannot be objective and unbiased … thus narrative precedes history”. It was through this narrative that people identified themselves, their origins, present locations as well as goals, he said, adding that man’s desire to know about himself was the first step to arouse a “longing to return to the original state”. He also spoke about post-modernist art and architecture as being inspired from materialistic and superficial dimensions of reality. According to him, development is now associated with economic growth, furthered by science. However, he said, it was essential to identify and highlight the darkness such growth had given rise to and its negative effects on the society at large.

Suneela Ahmed’s paper explored as to how contemporary housing design could learn from pre-independence housing typologies, within the context of Karachi and was one of the most engaging topics. Her study was to help students of architecture understand the difference between “origins and adaptations to make informed design choices”.

The paper documented and analysed the Hindu ghar, Parsi khanay as well as the colonial bungalow in the areas of Old Town, Parsi Colony and Karachi Cantonment.

The absence of two other speakers, Qasim Ali Qasim, Director of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Sindh, and Prof Dr Harsha Munasinghe from George Brown College, Toronto, was a damper for the audience.