Habib University – City Campus, Karachi, Pakistan

1) The design is for Habib University (HU), a unique and fi rst of its kind liberal arts university in Ka-rachi, Pakistan. Three faculties – Science and Engineering, Arts and Humanities, and Entrepreneur-ship – will together impart a liberal arts undergraduate education unprecedented in Pakistan where these diverse disciplines are typically isolated in specialized institutions. Habib University Foundation (H.U.F.) has articulated three elements of its academic vision: inter-activity, openness, and environmental friendliness. To establish design objectives, the architects interpret in these elements relationships to be nurtured between three stakeholders: the city of Ka-rachi, students and teachers of the University, and nature. Consequently, three objectives emerge: diverse disciplines should actively interact while every student should enjoy both introspection and social engagement; openness should be facilitated with the city, offering opportunities for construc-tive contact; and a degraded natural context should be proactively ameliorated and a haven created for study, recreation, and human development essential for nation-building.

These objectives are challenged by a context inhospitable to them. The 6.79 acre site abuts natural storm-water rivulets long serving as open sewers of untreated effl uent from upstream residential and industrial areas, posing a health hazard and environmental nuisance. Proximity to Karachi’s in-ternational airport limits allowable building heights, increasing density of footprint on a site restrictive compared to the 350,000 sqft building program. City-wide water shortages challenge green land-scape. Finally, Karachi’s sustained problems with law and order demand a well-secured educational campus.

Computer rendering: Front facade in the evening, Habib University.

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2) In order to achieve the three design objectives, the planning process deploys three strategies in simultaneity: urban, environmental, and architectural.The urban strategy is based upon the following elements:

The north façade of HU is designed as a permeable urban wall that provides an edge to the • weakly-defi ned urban space at the roundabout, and helps create an urban place where none exists yet. Outside this wall and parallel to it is a boundary wall to secure the campus.The library and auditorium as semi-public facilities are arrayed along the urban edge for acces-• sibility by outside users.The restrictions on building heights due to fl ight-path requirements are used as an opportunity • to deliver a building profi le stepping downwards from a monumental civic presence at the north end of the site to a domestically-scaled building fabric at the south end.

Site Analysis Sketch, Habib University.

Site map showing rivulets along western and east-ern edges.North

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The environmental strategy comprises the following elements:

The rivulets are addressed as an opportunity to solve pressing civic issues of open sewers and • scarce open recreational space. Channeling the effl uent in a buried conduit, the design proposes a public park, outdoor sports facilities and parking on the land thus reclaimed. Tree-planting is preferred over grass to conserve water and ensure a durable, shade-giving • green landscape and edge with the city.Covered circulation is deployed as a protective spatial layer outside workspaces.• Passive solutions such as sun shades, pergolas, and north lights are used to modulate natural • light.

The architectural strategy comprises the following elements:

Whereas the urban wall to the north and the public park relate to the external context, court-• yards of a range of scales create inward-looking microcosms for individual refl ection, collective study, and recreation. In the laboratory blocks, courtyards are preferred over long corridors as spatial organizers. Open green spaces and terraces preserve human scale.

Computer rendering: View of front facade of Habib University as a permeable wall to the city.

Site Plan showing proposed buildings and landscaped rivulets, Habib University.

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Extra-curricular spaces are centralized in a communal meeting place for students• Fragmented building masses placed within nature create experiential richness and environmen-• tal comfort through natural ventilation drawing on Karachi’s natural western breezes.

3) The civic institutional character of the project is the foremost criterion for not only the spatial strategy but also the choice of architectural materials. For ease of maintenance and durability all buildings and shading pergolas are proposed in textured, unpainted concrete. At the same time, to ground the project within its local context, retaining walls as accents will be of yellow sandstone quarried in Karachi. Aging of the campus has been kept in mind with these materials expected to be taken over in time by greenery. Water is used as a cooling presence in the Arts and Humanities courtyard where building height is too low to provide shadow. Terra-cotta tiles are chosen for exterior spaces as a way to decrease heating of fl oors, and all roof surfaces are covered with white gravel to refl ect solar heat as well as noise from the airport.

Ground fl oor plan showing pedestrian and vehicular circulation.

Computer rendering: Sunken courtyard giving on to labs; stone and concrete taken over in time by greenery, Habib University.

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4) As the project awaits construction, measurable results are not yet available to prove the effi cacy of planning to meet objectives. However, aspects of the planning process are useful for and transfer-able to future projects in Pakistan.For example, the plan for a public park and management of sewage sets a worthy precedent in community and environmental improvement for future institutional projects in Karachi, specifi cally by addressing the city-wide issue of open sewers and scarce open recreational space. Also in the post-colonial context of Pakistan it offers an example of how public institutions can interface through form and function with the urban realm. Rather than physically buffer itself from the public sphere – as is the wont of Karachi’s colonial institutional buildings and their local progeny – the building form of this urban campus meets its context, natural and urban, directly at its edges. Arraying the library and auditorium along the urban edge, the campus offers these for use by the public. By deploying trees along its edges it contributes greenery to the city.

Computer rendering: Landscaped solution for polluted rivulets, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Birds-eye view from northern end of site, Habib University.

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5) Five of the most important issues driving decision-making are as follows:Academic program requirements The challenge is to retain the integrity and autonomy of each discipline while allowing abundant op-portunity for cross-pollination in a liberal arts educational program. Therefore, two introverted aca-demic courtyards are created, open enough for easy access and egress. One recreational court with amphitheatre, gym, and indoor leisure center concentrates noisy socializing near the center of the site plan with the intent to draw everyone together. These three courts are connected with a central street as circulation spine and a central sunken court that caters for relaxed academic exchange at the cafeteria. The program for science and engineering labs is deployed in layers of four stories in order to effi ciently concentrate services in vertical cores.

Ground fl oor plan showing courtyards, Habib University.

Computer rendering: amphitheatre as non-programmed space in recreation courtyard, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Outdoor meeting space in Science courtyard, Habib University.

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Open space and pedestrian circulationEducation outside the formal classroom and lab environment has been given importance from the start of the design process. Open space has been seen as a catalyst for informal and liberal ex-change of ideas as well as of cross-departmental interaction amongst students and also their teach-ers. A range of scales from the large center court to intimate upper-fl oor patios is deployed to allow gatherings in a range of numbers. A variety of such spaces distributed all over the campus would also promise the possibility of individual introspection. Together with bridges and open walkways, the vertical layering of these spaces delivers a dynamic fi eld for exchange and connection for the academic community.

Computer rendering: Seating bay in patio, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Cafeteria outdoor seating in sunken court, Habib University.

Concept section showing vertical layering of open and closed spaces, Habib University.

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An experiential richness and a sense of promenade has driven formal development. Students have to be given an environment where a sense of discovery is felt. To offer an uninterrupted pedes-trian experience, vehicular movement is restricted to the peripheries of site. Karachi’s temperatures throughout the year allow open corridors and walkways shaded from the sun and rain. At HU these allow interface with nature as well as promote social encounter. At the same time handicapped ac-cess is ensured by connecting all levels with ramps and elevators.

Computer rendering: Central Street with seating balconies to overlook the sunken court, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Ramped promenade to Science courtyard. Covered walks as climatic buffers for conditioned spaces, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Landscaped entrance court starts the pedestrian experience from vehicular drop-off, Habib University.

Computer rendering: Entrance Plaza

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Space UtilizationThe fl ight-path around the airport stipulates precise limits on building height over the extent of the site. These height limits taper from sixty-fi ve feet at the north end of the site to eleven feet at the south end. Also at the south end, the site converges to its narrowest point. These conditions sug-gest a concentration of the largest programmatic components such as administration and the Sci-ence department towards the north end. The smaller departments of Arts and Entrepreneurship are housed at the south end. Signifi cant topographical depressions in the north-east and south-west portions of the site present opportunities for creating sunken courts and labs in those two zones, mitigating to a degree the fl ight-path restrictions.

North-south longitudinal section showing stepped profi le, Habib University.

Computer renderings show contrasting scales of spaces: monumental in the north entrance court, domestic in southern Arts and Entrepreneurship courtyard, Habib University.

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Other: Physical Context The campus is sited in a degraded natural context.Open natural storm-water rivulets are an integral and long-serving component of Karachi’s sewerage system, carrying untreated household and in-dustrial waste. A city challenged by an enduring law and order breakdown arising from its turbulent socio-political history, Karachi is also seriously defi cient in open public recreation space and public amenities for social interaction. The design endeavor is driven by an aspiration to vest academia with a proactive role in addressing these civic issues.

Architectural and open space design heritageInspired by a sustained debate on how to be architecturally contextual and respect tradition while embracing modernity, the design seeks to draw on spatial strategies that have endured in local tra-dition. The courtyard is one such element that is adopted for its climatic and social functions. At the same time a morphology based on an accretion of masses is preferred over an architectural object of pure form. This is done not only for fl exibility in planning but also to evoke the sense of community and incremental growth that is to be found in the organically formed traditional cities of South Asia.

Computer renderings: Habib University campus is a cluster of courtyards.

Concept sketch showing vertical scaling of courtyards, Habib University.

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