Zohra Faisal
Class of 2023
Advisors
- - Qurratulain Poonawala
- - M. Usman Ansari
- - Rafia Dadi
Stop 14
Can multiple temporal identities form a spatial intervention?
Site:Abandoned Horse Stables, Merewether Tower, Karachi
This thesis seeks to understand how the convergence of various fleeting and non-fleeting identities redefine and reshape interior spaces, fostering a dynamic interaction between the context, users and the history of the built.
The idea of fleeting revolves around place and traveling identities, like those present amongst people who travel daily on routes of public transport, from which I selected the W-11. Initially, I studied the route of the specific W-11, as it was considered the one and only bus route that passed through the heart of Karachi from New Karachi all the way to Keamari. With there being an extreme extent of users and sites throughout this route, I chose my site as Stop 14, right next to Merewether Tower. The selected site dates back to 1950s and is a Pakistan Railway owned horse stable.
In response to the historical and contextual richness of the site, the design approach embraces adaptive re-use architecture, allowing the existing structure to be reinterpreted rather than replaced. This methodology not only honors the layered past of the building but also gives it renewed relevance by accommodating contemporary social needs.
My thesis being defined by contextual perimeters, while designing, I kept in mind my users, the inhabitants of the context and their behavior, and the essence of the built environment.
