Walking through Karachi’s old city, one’s eyes inevitably lift above the cacophony of the street to the quiet sadness of beautiful stone balconies, roof top belvederes and elegant doorways clothed now in a cobweb of wires trapping errant plastic bags, concealing crooked shop signs. The newly renovated Khaliqdina Hall, with its handsome portico and gracious hall made for the people of the city, where once local elders came to read the daily newspapers, and whose hall echoes with the sounds of animated meetings and gatherings give a glimpse into a Karachi where the quality of life of its people mattered.

Cities were once made to be comfortable and graceful — deep balconies and interior courtyards for women, and informal chabootra platforms projecting onto the street for men. Public buildings had wide steps to sit on and shaded passageways. The 12th century Andalusian judge, Ibn Abdun, is often quoted for saying, “Architecture is the haven where man’s spirit, soul and body find refuge and shelter.”

Realists are adamant that there is no room for nostalgia when planning modern cities. Modern cities are planned to enable economic growth, as they were from the inception of city life as far back as Mohenjo Daro or Harappa. However, what is different now is perhaps that they are planned not by the residents of a city but by government departments. A city is not just a productive factory but a settlement made up of families, friends and communities.

The city of Fez in Morocco was founded in 808 AD. Each successive dynasty expanded the city without destroying their predecessors’ achievement and included scholars, legal experts, the craftsmen guilds and neighbourhood representatives in the planning and execution.

City spaces should be designed in a manner that resonates emotionally and aesthetically with the citizens and reflects the identity of the community

Probably the most influential critic of modern city designs, Jane Jacob, believed, “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” Her famous phrase “eyes on the street” suggests the importance of observing how people intuitively use their city before arriving at improvements.

Where urban planning is a science, it is also an art to design spaces that resonate emotionally and aesthetically with people, and reflect the identity of a community. Parks, tree-lined avenues, and leisure and sports facilities are an integral part of modern, carefully zoned, city planning. However, these require planned outings. In most neighbourhoods it is the streets that become social spaces. Iftikhar Ali and his team conducted insightful research on the importance of street life in Pakistan as public gathering places, interacting with neighbours and vendors, used for Friday prayers, weddings or playing cricket on Sundays.

Planners design streets and pavements as mobility corridors, but are appropriated as community spaces by residents. Pavements become spillover spaces for dhaba restaurants, street vendors, paan shop hangouts, and even to sleep on during electricity breakdowns — what Jacobs sees as a haphazard juxtaposition of everything that ensures the vibrancy of a city. With an “eyes on the streets” philosophy, pavements can be designed to accommodate self-organising neighbourhoods. Ali Budha Street in Karachi’s Marwari district is lined with takht seating with reclining back rests on either side, where the elders sit to share their daily stories.

Ergonomics is the designing of spaces and products that fit the people who use them. Great effort goes into the design of more comfortable chairs, office spaces or tools. Engaging artists and product designers on city master plan teams to work with the community could also make more comfortable cities, and bring back aesthetics and emotional connections to the city. Artists and designers emphasise human-scale design, centred around how people experience spaces on a day-to-day basis. Art Nouveau, the revolutionary art movement of the late 19th century, reshaped cities and urban spaces bringing aesthetics to the street.

Megacities are always presented as unwieldy problems, a future crisis in the making. But for the people living there, a city is not just a place to make a living but a place to live in, a home, where people are valued and develop a sense of belonging. The Arabic term ‘min ahl’ perfectly describes a city as belonging to the people, and ‘nisba’, once a tribal identification has become a city identification, where strangers, ghuraba, soon become ahlyan of the city.

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist. She may be reached at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 5th, 2025