Umme Abiha Mehdi
Thesis Title:
Challenging Power Structures: Demilitarisation of Civic Architecture through notions of Publicness and Inclusivity.
Project Title:
Community Police Station
Location:
Katti Pahari across Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan, North Nazimabad, Karachi.
User Group:
Community of North Nazimabad and Qasba Colony, and Students.
Modern urbanization has seen the appropriation of urban spaces with explicit military purposes defined by power and control. Such spatial power dynamics become an imperative object of scrutiny, primarily civic. By their character (publicness and transparency), public spaces are secure spaces characterized by accessibility and mobility for all public regardless of any classifications. If at any point a space or its objects does not comply with the publicness of said space, it ceases to exist by definition. This thesis explores how the civic space of the “Police Station” can be re-imagined as one which is practically democratic and functions without the presence of security apparatuses or militarization of any degree giving the users their civic right to the city. The architecture of this space is not to exist as an object sitting within the context as a spectacle, rather an open space that respects the actual human flow within and around it.
Umme Abiha Mehdi
Architecture
Thesis Title:
Challenging Power Structures: Demilitarisation of Civic Architecture through notions of Publicness and Inclusivity.
Project Title:
Community Police Station
Location:
Katti Pahari across Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan, North Nazimabad, Karachi.
User Group:
Community of North Nazimabad and Qasba Colony, and Students.
Modern urbanization has seen the appropriation of urban spaces with explicit military purposes defined by power and control. Such spatial power dynamics become an imperative object of scrutiny, primarily civic. By their character (publicness and transparency), public spaces are secure spaces characterized by accessibility and mobility for all public regardless of any classifications. If at any point a space or its objects does not comply with the publicness of said space, it ceases to exist by definition. This thesis explores how the civic space of the “Police Station” can be re-imagined as one which is practically democratic and functions without the presence of security apparatuses or militarization of any degree giving the users their civic right to the city. The architecture of this space is not to exist as an object sitting within the context as a spectacle, rather an open space that respects the actual human flow within and around it.
0341-2688216
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Roof Plan
10
11
12
13
14
