A Significance for Brick: Architecture and the Public in Lahore, Pakistan
Dr. Chris Moffat (Senior Lecturer in South Asian History, QMUL)
1.30 to 3pm, Friday 24th February 2023
Location: Lecture Theatre 1. Rendall Building
This paper explores how Pakistan’s architectural histories might offer insights into the postcolonial career of ‘the public’ as a category, and particularly its intersections with questions of urban history, aesthetics and politics, security and risk. It focuses on the career of Nayyar Ali Dada (b.1943), arguably Pakistan’s most celebrated architect, and his design for a prize-winning arts centre in Lahore. Along the way, it sketches the contours of a major Pakistani metropolis, reaching from Lahore’s Mughal fortress to its minor brick kilns, from colonial art schools to contemporary shopping malls.
Part of the Seminar Series “Transformations in Land, Labour, and Meaning” organised by the Power, Space, and Cultural Change Cluster, Department of Geography and Planning.
