The landscape of Karachi is in serious danger of being mercilessly destroyed by its very own people
ACCORDING to news reports, Karachi’s City Council has approved a new commercialization policy. Six major roads including Shahrah-e-Faisal, Tariq Road, Rashid Minhas Road, University Road, Shahrah-e-Pakistan (Super Highway) and Nazimabad ‘A’ Road have been identified for the first phase of the implementation of this policy. Eventually, more city roads shall be ameliorated in this plan.
This act of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) is likely to ruin the overall performance of the identified streets and their adjacent neighbourhoods. The probable reason behind the formulation of this policy is nothing but insatiable greed of some officials and their crony developers. In the absence of any scientific study, the CDGK has undertaken this most damaging decision which will no doubt cause adverse affect on the working and sustenance of affected neighbourhoods and the city as a whole.
Recently, the much publicized emergence of a shopping mall in the city centre of Karachi generated substantial controversy a few weeks back. The builder defended his project as an outstanding contribution to the trendy requirements of retail and entertainment business. A group of concerned citizens, however, questioned the legality and administrative validity of the project. They were of the view that the project was being built in flagrant violation of standing bye-laws. They also feared that it shall cause great pressure on the already burdened infrastructure of the Saddar Area where the project is to be located.
There are many other projects in the city that have already developed on similar lines. Many more are in the offing, given the commercial promise attached to such type of ventures. The scenario at least confirms one reality — shopping centres are in demand in the urbanscape of Karachi. It is also deplorable to note that commercial and business stakes of these building types are too high and powerful to be resisted by the relevant regulatory bodies.
Urban scape of Karachi is now grappling with a fast ascending trend — shopping malls, centres and allied developments. Although commercial spaces are not a new type in the urban outlays, yet the numbers and scales of such buildings is swiftly rising. Purpose built multi-storeyed shopping centres; apartment cum shopping spaces; office and shopping combination; illegally converted buildings from residential to commercial use; revamped structures of old markets to new commercial purposes and single roofed compact shopping malls constitute the prominent of the recent fed.
Like the mushroom growth of apartments in the yesteryears, shopping centres have simply outplayed all the other types of building and construction related domains. It also marks the beginning of more formalized form of real estate development which otherwise was restricted to client/builder — contractor — estate agent nexus.
The advent of globalization has directly affected almost every walk of life. Very visible transformations have been observed in the shopping and retail activity. Thus packaged rice, wheat, flour or sugar attract more customers than plainly kept unlabelled items.
Advancement in technology has given far more flexibility to shopkeepers and shoppers alike. A drastic transformation that can hardly go unnoticed is in the form of malls that are a relatively new building type. The large scale and multi-level shopping malls have emerged in almost every nook and comer of the city. These shopping malls claim to offer a wide range of merchandise, food comers, banking facilities, entertainment and recreation outlets, all under one roof. And with the passage of time they are becoming a visible part of the lifestyle of people in the city.
Like various other borrowed ideas about buildings, shopping malls are an unbridled adaptation from the West. The form, format and design of their malls has generally been commensurate with the needs. At least the basic essentials of urban, architectural and interior design were carefully accounted for. Spacious parking lots, specially designed access paths for disadvantaged and disabled, appropriate locational criteria for placement in the urban fabric, safety provisions for hazard mitigation and evacuation, optimum energy and standby systems, environmentally congruent designs, modular but exquisite interiors and use of state-of-the-art technology in every aspect of design and execution were common to most of the projects of this kind.
Similar to other walks of life, we are keen in adopting the surface glitter from such examples as feedback only to reach on half-baked options. Many examples in Karachi reflect the same sad scenario. It is obviously noted that the shopping malls developed in Karachi do not follow the site planning criteria which is a pre-requisite for such exercises. Ideally, a mall is developed as a complex surrounded by ample space for parking, landscape and service provisions. It is best suited in such locations where traffic volumes are manageable and do not get over-burdened due to the intensification of commercial activity.
The malls in Clifton, DHA, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and lately Saddar conveniently violate this pre-requisite. The so-called ‘shopping malls’ appear as clear denial of any prescribed zoning consideration.
Such structures only provide retail spaces without parking and other essential amenities. Therefore due to their hyped up activity, they become the spots for traffic jams, degrading the quality of spaces and environment. Although several malls in Karachi do not entirely fulfil the pre-requisites of its definition, they create hazards of a much more intense kind. The outfits in Old Clifton, DHA, Tariq Road, Bahadurabad, North Nazimabad and Gulistan-e-Jauhar fall into this category. Ironically, malls in our urban context seem to have copied only the external facades of their Western counterparts, without even bothering to care for the facilities that ensure their smooth functioning.
It is a known fact that space provisions for a free standing commercial space does not exist in most urban localities. The land parcels or space allocations are done juxtaposed to the residential and other uses. Thus the usual ambience and spatial flexibility needed for a proper functioning of the mall is seldom instituted. It gives rise to high densities that are not related with the smooth functioning of such spaces. Malls make use of the best possible means of technology to facilitate access, automation, internal movement, safety and security, thermal comfort, illumination and aesthetics. Guided drive ways, designated parking lots, elevators and escalators, close circuit televisions, internal alarm systems, fire fighting devices, heating and cooling systems are a few ingredients that make a mall perform its functions to the satisfaction of its users.
No wonder that some of these malls attract people to spend days wandering around their mazes. The provisions for this type of commercial space are not appraised by the city government despite the emerging requirements. The allocation and designation of land still follows the age-old categories of commercial sites in schemes developed by the now defunct KDA. These sites now lie in already congested and fast densifying areas of the city. Besides in contravention to pre-existing provisions and bylaws, there are many land use conversions that transform residential and enmity spaces into commercial land use, some times into a shopping mall. Obviously these incomplete and illegal attempts do not create any healthy shopping and entertainment premise.
It is disappointing to find that commercial centres destroy their own business potential by ignoring the importance for such essential facilities. In a bid to expand the direct salable area, builders even protrude into otherwise essential circulation space that makes pedestrian movement difficult. Shoppers are not able to appreciate the exuberance of the shops or the merchandise sold therein. With extremely few exceptions, the provision of car parking facility is non-existent. Despite the fact that some popular shopping centres generate a net vehicular flux of over 600 cars, it is not accounted for in the design. Thus people are left with no choice but to use the nearby lanes creating trouble for the adjoining normal residential life. The frontage of various shopping centres remains a mismanaged space which is either encroached or gets littered with indiscriminate dumping of garbage.
Most shopping centres are poorly ventilated. The shop space also do not conform to any standards of interior design. Absence of storage spaces in the shop, incongruent materials use for decor and violations of allotment lines make some of the shops least attractive. These short-comings are more commonly observed in the outfits springing up in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Bahadurabad.
Many conclusions can be drawn from the review and analysis of the shopping centres and malls. It is apparent that brute market forces shall convert many more spaces into shopping malls. The regulatory framework at its present capacity is totally insufficient to stop this fast escalating trend.
In the limited alternate investment opportunities, the shopping mall shall attract sizable investments in both white and black money. The outcome of these developments shall continue to pressurize the infrastructure, surrounding and the overall urban life.
In the face of these impending impacts of nascent commercialization of space, the city government, which is now authorized to undertake planning and developmental control, should initiate scientific studies to assess the impacts of these planned and unplanned commercializations. In light of these studies, guidelines for the development of commercial spaces must be prepared. In this process, all the stockholders must be approached to seek their opinions and feedback. In addition, the professional and statutory bodies of architects must be requested to sensitise their fellow professionals towards good design practices in commercial space. This shall be beneficial both for the clients, customers, people and the city at large.
The landscape of Karachi is in serious danger of being mercilessly destroyed by its very own people 
