ST. PETERSBURG (Russia): Admired by madmen and dreamers, the elegant skyline of St Petersburg has survived revolutions, wartime bombing and the heavy hand of Soviet planners. But its charm may not survive Gazprom and a new generation of Russian rich who are building up their own dreams -- some say nightmares -- in Russia's imperial capital.

The gas behemoth wants to build a towering office block 300 meters (990 feet) high that will dominate the skyline of Russia's second city, an elegant Baroque and neo-classical city of canals and bridges. Plans to construct “Gazprom City” only 24 meters or so shorter than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, albeit in a forlorn industrial area, have triggered outrage among local historians who see it as the latest attack on the “Venice of the North”. Russians hold St Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as a 'window on Europe', in special affection because of its imperial elegance and cultural cachet as the home of Russia's greatest writers including poet Alexander Pushkin and the tormented Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

But with oil money pouring in, the impact is felt in Russia's second city in the shape of outlandish restoration and demolition of 200-year-old buildings to free up space. Opponents of the planned skyscraper, for which Gazprom has short listed seven international architects, say it will blight the city landscape as seen from the historic center where no building is taller than 24 meters. 

“This destroys the skyline of St Petersburg,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the world-famous Hermitage museum. The skyline of St Petersburg,then known as Leningrad, survived a 900-day siege by German forces during World War Two,after Hitler ordered the city wiped off the face of the earth.

There were six finalists in the competition and all of them included a giant office tower in their proposals. None of the architects were Russian -- the six were Jean Nouvel of Paris; Massimiliano Fuksas of Rome; Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland; Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands; Daniel Libeskind of Berlin and RMJM from London. The winning design, selected after public exhibitions and a lengthy jury debate, is a 396-meter-high spiral tower by RMJM, the British firm.

IAP `Fellow` Honored

The Lahore and Islamabad Chapters of Institute of Architects Pakistan honored their member architects who were recently conferred the 'Fellowships' by National Council of the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP). On the occasion of IAPEX 2007, the Chapters arranged colorful evenings in their honor in the months of March and April 2007 in Lahore and Islamabad respectively. A large number of architects and people from different walks of life attended this ceremony.

The National Council of Institute of Architects Pakistan conferred 44 ‘Fellowships’ on architects in the months of April and June 2006, including 20 architects from Karachi Chapter, 19 architects from Lahore Chapter and 05 architects from Islamabad Chapter. The Memorandum of Association of Institute of Architects Pakistan accommodates five categories of members such as Fellows, Associates, Honorary Fellows, Candidates and Students. Fellowship is normally conferred on Associate members who have been actively involved with the Institute for several years and who may have rendered some service to the profession in any other way besides his/ her professional work.

Sitara-e-Imtiaz conferred on Ar. Yasmeen Lari

In recognition of her outstanding services in the field of Architecture, the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan conferred on Mrs. Yasmeen Lari the award of Sitara-e-Imtiaz. Mrs. Yasmeen Lari is the first lady architect of Pakistan who besides being excelled in her profession has also led various movements in order to bring a positive change in the society. Her books on heritage and her remarkable efforts for the promotion of 'Pakistani heritage" has created a very positive image of Pakistan in the world and furthermore it has added a glory to our past.

In the capacity of the Chief Executive of Lari Associates, she has not only introduced the state of the art building technologies but she has also rendered her services to improve katchi abadis environment by using indigenous and local building materials. Being the Executive Director of Heritage Foundation, she has played a vital role in strengthening Pakistani folk heritage, peace, prosperity and development at national level. Since year 2000, various steps taken for social and cultural development under the banner of 'Karvan Karachi' and 'Karvan Pakistan' has motivated people belonging to all walks of life and especially women and youth to preserve our heritage on modern lines.

In the year 2003-2005, she, as a UNESCO advisor, has developed a comprehensive plan for the maintenance of 'Shahi Qila' and 'Shalimar Garden'. Using her professional expertise, she has not only preserved the roof of 'Shahi Mehal' which was about to tumble down but also issued instructions to preserve cultural heritage and initiated research work and a public awareness campaign for the preservation of cultural heritage through children and students.

After the earthquake of Year 2005, she worked hard for the rehabilitation of the victims of 'Wadi-e-Seeran" - a valley in the mountains of North West Frontier Province. She helped the victims, especially women, to start a new life and revived their years old traditional handicraft for their survival. Mrs. Yasmeen Lari continues to play a significant role in preservation of historic sites and artifacts, as well as in promotion of urban historic cores and Walled cities of Pakistan.

A large section of Karachi’s populace has demanded that plans to privatize the city’s public beaches should be stopped immediately. This message came out loud and clear from a public walk, which was organized to protest against the privatization of Clifton beach. Participants in the walk demanded that that plans to privatize parts of the beach be stopped because they take away the right of the people to their beaches, which is not done anywhere in the world.Citizens Coalition, a group set up especially to protect Karachi’s beaches from being privatized, organized the walk. A number of respected Karachiites are part of the move to resist plans by the government to privatize the city’s beaches.Some government organizations like the Defense Housing Authority of Karachi and the Karachi Port Trust have plans to develop part of the city’s coastline. The ambitious projects involve setting up hotels, restaurants and beachfront properties. Many people have argued that these high profile developments will take away the right of the people to their beaches and will restrict their entry. Sunday’s walk was attended by more than 500 participants - men, women and children of varying ages and from different parts of the city. But the message they had was one. They were holding placards inscribed with slogans: “Save the beach, free access to the beaches is our right, this beach belongs to the people, development should be done for all the citizens, protect public interest, and amend beach development plan”.

IAPEX 2007 held in Karachi Architectural Forum on ‘Emerging Architecture’

During IAPEX 2007, The Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP) organized an international symposium on ‘Emerging Architecture’ to share the current ideas and architectural practices prevalent in various parts of the world. Eleven architects from ten countries not only presented their own works but also shed light on the works of their fellow architects and talked about their understanding about the term of 'Emerging Architecture' in their local context.

The first presentation on 'Emerging Architecture' was made by Ar. Tariq Hasan from Pakistan who shared his philosophy about the subject and supported his viewpoint with a wide range of his works including custom residential projects, office buildings, apartment buildings, medical and educational institutions.

Ar. Tariq Hasan was of the opinion that in our part of the developing world, we argue about preservation tradition and the emergence of modern principles that comes from the West and their influence on our traditional ideas and culture. For the last few decades we are struggling to find a way where one can actually merge these new ideas together with our traditional values.

The next presentation was made by Ar. Duangrit Bunnag from Thailand. Although Thailand is a country that does not have a colonial past and where there is no discontinuity in tradition, Ar. Bunnag does not believe in a traditional approach to architecture. He said that Architecture is not about tradition but it is an amalgamation of global world practices and not the continuity of tradition. His work shows that he is a firm believer of flowing knowledge having no boundaries affixed to regions, cultures or traditions.

The projects, Ar. Takaharu Tezuka from Japan, discussed at the symposium were characterized by spatial designs that were skillfully integrated with the outside environment. Their most important works were the Roof House, in which daily life expands onto the roof.An architect from Philippines, Dr. Gloria B. Teodoro shared her views on Emerging Architecture in her country. She said that there is no significant identity of Philippine architecture and most of the buildings are either influenced by American or Spanish ways of architectural practices. Ar. Teodoro's presentation was followed up by that of Ar. Cui Kai from People's Republic of China and Ar. Sonali Rastogi from India. While discussing her design approach, Ar. Rastogi said that she creates environment responsive spaces and built forms. She supported her statement with a visual presentation of her works. Her significant projects included a pilgrimage facility around a cave shrine outside Jammu where design inspiration came from the fold of a 'Chunri' (a fabric draped around an iconic goddess) and the whole structure of the park emerged like a folded fabric. Belonging to Japan, Ar. George Kunihiro’s presentation covered his architectural work consisting of residential and commercial projects of varying scale in America and Asia. He believes in developing 'human architecture'.

Ar. Madhura Prematilleke’s architecture is a clear example of clean and uncluttered spaces with natural ventilation and use of indigenous materials.  Belonging to Sri Lanka, he is a strong advocate of context-generated architecture and design-based urban intervention in Sri Lanka. He shed light on how the architecture in Sri Lanka transformed with each successive dynasty like Portuguese, Dutch and British for several hundred years. Currently the architecture in Sri Lanka is tremendously influenced by Geoffrey Bawa's philosophy and approach which deals with the cemented floors, open plinths and open plans, etc.

The next presentation was made by Ar. Philipp Meuser from Germany. Ar. Meuser's work is based on the discussion about history and theory of architecture and to create an architecture scaled for the human needs as well as for the requirements of the urban environment. His presentation was followed by Architect Rui Leao from Macau S.A.R who presented his selected work including the renovation work of Quartel dos Mouros/ Macau Port Authority Building and the design of Nam Van Square. His design for the Nam Van Square in the center of the Nam Van reclamation scheme deals both with the vicinity to the water and a complex road infrastructure where he intelligently integrated all components into design.

The IAPEX 2007 Forum on 'Emerging Architecture' came to an end with the presentation of his work by architect Dr. Wael Samhouri who had flown in from Syria to attend the IAPEX 2007. Besides showing his work, he also shared his extensive research work in urban morphology and its relation to cosmology, symbolism, music and scared architecture. He also discussed his philosophy on rationalist modern architecture synthesized with traditionalist and local architecture. His work on a Madrassah School and a Mosque was evidence of his bold approach and the theoretical framework which he presented as an expression of Islamic Architecture in 21st century.

IAPEX 2007 held in Lahore Symposium on ‘Lahore Vision 2030’



At the occasion of IAPEX 2007, the Lahore Chapter of Institute of Architects Pakistan organized an Architectural Forum on the subject of 'Lahore Vision 2030' in March 2007. Under the chairmanship of Dr. Shakeel Qureshi, the Chapter explored different perspectives for Lahore to be in 2030 as they invited professionals from various fields to speak on the subject including architects, town planners, doctors, lawyers, journalists etc. In his presentation, Engr. Sabir Chohan shed light on the process of developing Lahore Master Plan keeping in view many problems faced by Lahore at present such as uncontrolled growth, congestion, deficiency in social and physical infrastructure, resource constraints and environmental degradation.



Ar. Khalid Rehman was of the opinion that due to its geographical location, Lahore has potential to be converted into a regional trans-business hub. He concluded his presentation with a note to initiate efforts to make Lahore a desirable brand city by 2030. One of the panelists, Ar. Qayyum Khan said that we should learn from the world examples of such urbanism to develop our Master Plans as they have gone through all such studies. Their practices and precedence of decentralization should be studied as case studies. Plnr. (Dr.) Sohail Qureshi said that it was the third master plan and no earlier master plans were ever implemented. He criticized the authenticity of the data used for current master plan, as it was completely out-dated. Giving remarks on his vision for Lahore 2030, the Chief Guest, Mr. Sleman Ghani, Chairman P&D, Govt. of the Punjab said that in next 15 years the population will increase tremendously due to shift of populace within province for which government is making every effort to cope with the future demands. Sharing his perception for a master plan, Prof. Pervez Vandal said that to him city is not all about buildings, tunnels, roads and bridges but it is all about people. "My vision for Lahore 2030 lies near Harappa - a city without big dynasty and palaces but houses of all scales and basic sanitation for every body, keeping water and sewerage separate", he conveyed. While concluding the session, Ar. Nayyar Ali Dada said that failure of urban issues is due to lack of realizing the role and participation of people. We are only consumers and not a part of decision making. Decisions made by politicians, he added, are not in favor of public at large, in general. He said that market forces are doing town planning these days keeping human beings away as much as possible. Ar. Kamil Khan Mumtaz made his presentation on Lahore vision 2030 and talked about the lack of integration among various densities of the town in relation with the users' ratio of varying income groups.



Activist Ar. Imrana Tiwana's main focus was the Canal Road Widening project which under the banner of LBT (Lahore Bachao Therek) had created hype in he city due to proposed cut-down of 30,000 trees along the canal road by the government. She demanded for a green & sustainable vision for Lahore. One of the panelists, Prof. Sajida Vandal urged the need of having 'Talking Parks' where people could speak and express themselves. She said that we, as a nation, need to change our attitude. Sharing his point of view, Prof. Abdul Rehman insisted on the need of research work and studies.
The session was concluded with the remarks by the Chief Guest, Mian Aamir Mahmood, District Nazim Lahore who said that IAP's recommendations would be fruitful for the government. "I believe in decentralization and public participation", said by Mian Aamir. He assured the audience that no development project would be implemented without environment study.

IAPEX 2007 held in Islamabad Architectural Forum on ‘Architectural Education in Pakistan’

Architectural Forum was one of the components of IAPEX 2007 recently organized by IAP Rawalpindi/ Islamabad Chapter under the chairmanship of Ar. Salman Mansoor at a local hotel in Islamabad. It was a very healthy discussion on ‘Architectural Education in Pakistan’ with a main focus on ‘Internship Program’ for students and fresh graduates. Ar. Sikandar Ajam Khan moderated the session in which various aspects of the subject were not only highlighted by the presenters but were also argued by the audience including academicians, practicing architects and students. All presenters belonging to various schools of architecture submitted their concrete suggestions, which the Chapter intends to forward to the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners for further contemplation, if needed.

To initiate a debate on the need of Internship Program and its proper integration in our educational system, the IAP Rawalpindi/ Islamabad Chapter invited five speakers including Ar. Fariha Amjad Ubaid, Ar. Syed Ehtesham Husain, Ar. Hammad Husain, Ar. Jahangir Sherpao and Ar. Samra Khan from Karachi and Islamabad.

Ar. Syed Ehtesham Husain told the participants that in European countries, students are taught course work for three years and then they go for one year internship which enables them to appear for RIBA–I Paper and have Diploma in Architecture. Students may continue Course Work for one more year to appear for RIBA–II Paper with one year of internship to acquire degree in Architecture and practicing license. Finally they are ready to be launched in the market as independent practicing architect.

Highlighting the role of schools and universities, Ar. Samra Khan said that they should provide opportunities to the students for internships at professional offices and also should arrange lectures/ seminars/ interaction for the students with professional      architects and town planners. Regarding internship she was of the opinion that students should go for internship in 2nd year and must keep it continue till graduation.

Ar. Fariha  Amjad Ubaid made her presentation on “INTERNSHIP; A bridge between Architectural Education and Practice” Instead of introducing internship programs in 3rd and 4th year of studies, which most of the institutions normally do, she proposed to elongate the internship program on all five years of education to make the most of this process. Fariha emphasized to disregard the transition of architects from internee to professional as a linear and uni-directional process. However, she was of the opinion to incorporate internship at every process of education for almost 6 _ years. Discussing the problems in architecture schools of our country, Ar. Hammad said that there is acute shortage of qualified faculty with an inappropriate ratio of practicing and non-practicing teachers. Not enough, he said, emphasis is made on Design Studio and our curriculum is also not up to an international standard. Emphasizing the need of Internship, Hammad Husain said that it's a time when interns apply their formal education to the daily realities of architectural practice and acquire comprehensive experience in basic practice areas. This is the time, he said, when they explore specialized areas of practice, develop professional judgment and refine their career goals.While talking about Architectural Internship, Ar. Jahangir Khan SherPao said that Internship is the stage of learning for a young architect to bridge the gap between Architectural Academia & Architectural Practice. He was concerned over the fact that very little practical work has been done in Pakistan on the formalization of ‘Architectural Internship’ and to develop a system such as ‘House Job’ for doctors or ‘Articleship’ for accountants etc.

Polshek’s Kahn Yale Gallery Restoration

The Yale University Art Gallery, designed by Louis Kahn, reopened a few months ago after a three-year restoration and rejuvenation by Polshek Partnership Architects, working with a team of experts in restoration, exhibit design, and other specialties. The result brings the building back very close to the way Kahn envisioned it when it was completed in 1953. With its exposed cast-in-place concrete triangular ceiling structure, steel and glass window walls, and glowing stainless steel railings, the art gallery is considered the first Modern building on Yale's New Haven, Connecticut campus. It was also Kahn's first major building and is today considered an early masterpiece in a career that would extend another 20 years. In it, Kahn expressed a reverence for materials, space, and light that he would continue to refine in later buildings.
All buildings change over time, and even masterpieces can get muddled. "Beauty concealed by the progress of the times," is how Richard Levin, Yale's president, described.

AIA Maryland Design Awards 2007

The Maryland chapter of the American Institute of Architects has announced the recipients of its annual awards program. The goal is to encourage design excellence and bring public attention to the architect's role in shaping the built environment. In this historic region of the eastern seaboard of the United States, some clients and their architects are opting for infill and adaptive reuse as ways to both maintain the built heritage and to avoid having to further encroach on green fields with new construction. One of those chosen for an honor award, in the multifamily residential category, is the infill project Ridgely Commons in Baltimore, designed by Peter Fillat Architects (PFA). The firm converted the 1844 Columbia Avenue Methodist Church into six high-ceilinged luxury town-houses, integrating the original fenestration, plaster molding, and wooden trusses from the original structure and choosing materials that visually connect new construction with the old.

Rogers got the Pritzker Prize

The Pritzker Prize, one of the world's highest honors in architecture, goes this year to British architect Richard Rogers. In announcing the jury's choice, Thomas J. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation, said: "Rogers is a champion of urban life and believes in the potential of the city to be a catalyst for social change.Rogers was born in Italy in 1933, and educated at the Architectural Association in London and at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
His vision is that cities of the future will no longer be zoned as today in isolated one-activity ghettos; rather they will resemble the more richly layered cities of the past. The Pritzker jury citation reads: "A unique interpretation of the modern movement's fascination with the building as machine, an interest in architectural clarity and transparency, the integration of public and private spaces, and a commitment to flexible floor plans that respond to the ever-changing demands of users, are recurring themes in his work." Rogers says his vision is that cities of the future "will no longer be zoned as today in isolated one-activity ghettos; rather they will resemble the more richly layered cities of the past. Living, work, shopping, learning, and leisure will overlap and be housed in continuous, varied, and changing structures."