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Part I - Minding The Gap Urban Infill Façade Design: Process Diagrams

The document discusses the design of an urban infill facade that blends with the surrounding context by taking features like geometry and symmetry from neighboring buildings. It also discusses the redevelopment of Heera Mandi in Lahore from a red light district into restaurants and museums, known as gentrification. While this changed the negative image, it also destroyed the historic culture and traditions of the area. Finally, it examines the concept of authenticity in historic preservation, comparing the Western view of focusing on original materials to the Japanese view of prioritizing intangible spiritual connections.

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TEHREEM ZAHRA
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
83 views5 pages

Part I - Minding The Gap Urban Infill Façade Design: Process Diagrams

The document discusses the design of an urban infill facade that blends with the surrounding context by taking features like geometry and symmetry from neighboring buildings. It also discusses the redevelopment of Heera Mandi in Lahore from a red light district into restaurants and museums, known as gentrification. While this changed the negative image, it also destroyed the historic culture and traditions of the area. Finally, it examines the concept of authenticity in historic preservation, comparing the Western view of focusing on original materials to the Japanese view of prioritizing intangible spiritual connections.

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TEHREEM ZAHRA
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© © All Rights Reserved
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TEHREEM ZAHRA FA18-BAR-033

Part I - Minding the Gap

URBAN INFILL FAÇADE DESIGN:

PROCESS DIAGRAMS
The idea behind the design is to make a façade which follows the context and blends with the
surroundings. Because any new addition in a place should respect the surroundings and when the
buildings in the context are historically important they should be valued . I took some main features like
geometry and the symmetry of elements from surrounding buildings. Made the shape of the roof by
combining the shapes of existing roof and a triangular element which is in the building on the left side.
That is the only asymmetrical shape and I wanted to use it so that it can get blend in with the
environment too.

I divided the facade in three stories following the context and the shape of the windows at the top are
going with the shape of the roof and added a full horizontal window like that in the ground floor to
maintain the balance. Windows are a major part of the buildings so I kept that feature too and gave
windows the maximum part of the façade.The materials will also be in relation with the context .

Part II - Rebranding through Gentrification

Redevelopment of Heera Mandi is a very interesting example of gentrification in the history of Lahore.
Heera Mandi is basically a bazaar in Taxali Gate which lies in the old city of Lahore. It was famous for its
culture of dancing and singing .The trend of dancing and singing there was set by the Mughals, people
used to go there for visual and musical entertainment .Girls used to sit in very specific shaped balconies
called Kothas but Mughals never promoted prostitution publicaly. It was later in the Sikh era that the
business of prostitution started there. Then these proper brothel houses were first developed by the
British in the Anarkali bazaar for the entertainment purposes of british soldier and later on they were
shifted to Lahori gate and then to Taxali gate. They settled in the Heera mandi and that became the Red
light district of Lahore.

During the era of Zia ul haq the government decided to ban the culture of prostitution and dancing here
because Pakistan being an Islamic state should not allow such business to be legal. This business did not
end but it got spread in the whole city rather than a specific area. When the era of PML-N started they
strictly banned such activities in Heera Mandi and later in 2012 they decided to preserve the
architecture and culture of Mughal era and transformed those 27 buildings into a food street with
Pakistani food and some interior parts serves as museums which shows the cultural and architectural
importance of the area. The old buildings were painted and renovated and transformed into
restaurants.

Gentrification basically means the renewal and rebuilding of an area which causes the influx of rich
people there and that often displaces the poor community living in that area, because they cannot
match the standards set by the elite people. The conversion of brothels of Heera mandi into restaurants
gentrified that area and the neighborhood . The historic buildings, architecture and the culture of the
area got destroyed by the cliché restaurants and activities.

In my opinion the gentrification of this area had both the pros and the cons ,but the cons are greater in
number. Such areas create a negative brand name for the city and Lahore is a very famous city of
Pakistan so, the gentrification helped in changing that negative image to a positive one by converting
the brothels into a family friendly space. The aim of the government was to preserve the art and
architecture of the area for cultural heritage purposes and social sustainability of area. But I think that
aim got lost during the process of renovating those spaces because they didn’t follow any rules of
conservation and preservation. As Maryam Rabi who is an architect and worked on walled city Lahore
also said the same thing that one expects to see the true culture of the area but they are just presenting
a disneyfied version of it with no rules of conservation and protection and these words are
misunderstood.

Also the tradition and culture of this area which was dancing and singing and and was set by the
Mughals got completely lost and destroyed and was replaced by activities which would attract the rich
and the tourists and it doesn’t respect the culture at all. The people who used to live there also had to
leave because of the strictness and they were given no insurance and support. The additions in
architecture and so many decorations also don’t respect the culture. So, redevelopment of Heera Mandi
destroyed the culture and tradition of that region.
Part III - The Dilemma of Authenticity

The word authenticity means original and genuine. Venice charter is basically a document that includes
the basic guidelines to preserve the historical buildings. The word authentic has been used a lot in
Venice charter and they took authenticity in terms of materiality and the tangible things. The Venice
charter explained that if a building has the documents and the materials in the right condition then the
building is authentic otherwise it’s not. They actually linked the authenticity of a building to how much
original and genuine its tangible parts are. They gave all the importance to the built part of the historical
building.

But the indigenous societies did not agree with it , specially the people in Japan who believe more in the
spirituality and feel of a place, the connection of a person to that place rather than just the building
materials. The Japanese challenged the western definition of authenticity and a debate started which is
called the Narra document. In the Narra document they explained that authenticity cannot be defined
based on a single thing ,it has multiple aspects and it can vary from culture to culture and can even vary
within the same culture . In this document they gave more value to the intangible aspects too.
Authenticity lies in both the tangible and the intangible aspects and it can have different definitions
according to the different values and cultures.

In my opinion I agree to the part of Venice charter that the original material and original location can
add some value to the historical building but it cannot define the authenticity of the building because
the term authenticity cannot be defined ,it can be changed over time. Only the materiality of the
building is not important but how people connect to it and how they feel about it, that defines the
authenticity of the place. If changes are happening in the material over time but people still connect to it
spiritually , we cannot then say that it is not authentic anymore because the connection is still there.

REFRENCES FOR Q2:

https://tribune.com.pk/article/1150/heera-mandi-the-scarlet-secrets-of-old-lahore

https://www.slideshare.net/EishaS/amsterdam-creative-city-final-project-critical-essay-uv-a-eisha-
salim-11120010docx

https://lahorenama.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/the-scarlet-secrets-of-old-lahore/#more-1952

https://dailytimes.com.pk/487163/the-untold-tales-of-heera-mandi/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g295413-d10076152-Reviews-
Food_Street_Fort_Road-Lahore_Punjab_Province.html

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/vikram-kapur/tales-from-hira-mandi/article2927560.ece

https://www.dawn.com/news/1330106

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