Barefoot Social Architecture Towards a Sustainable Urban Future

[Music]

[Applause]

hello everyone

greetings from pakistan until 2000

when i retired from my successful

practice as a starchitect

i had been among the most wasteful

architects in pakistan

i have to admit that i had indulged in

an extravagant egotistic journey

which largely focused on serving the

elite of my country

having designed architectural deficits

for the one percent with the most wealth

as defined by french economist thomas

piketty during the 1980s and 90s i had a

field day

in choosing the most exotic and

expensive materials such as concrete and

steel

along with imported granite cladding and

aluminium glazing

way back in 1987 the bruntland

commission report had emphasized

sustainable development and in

particular meeting the needs of the

world’s poor

but even three decades later prima donna

architects driven by the desire to

create

star architecture for the select few

unthinkingly continue to exploit earth’s

resources

with little thought of sustainability

i probably would also have not learned

to build zero carbon structures had it

not been due to a quirk of fate

it was the devastating 7.6 vector scale

earthquake that hit pakistan

northern pakistan in 2005 resulting in

80

000 casualties and displacement of 400

000

families that transformed my

architectural perceptions

today all of us need to be aware of the

rising levels of poverty

enormous disparities within our

societies

the impact of global warming climate

emergencies

and recurring disasters climate change

migrants

and conflict in belt camps for the

displaced as well as of the debilitating

impact of covet 19.

we know that worldwide building industry

is responsible for at least 40 percent

of energy uses

60 percentage of water usage or 3

billion tons of raw material

and 15 to 20 percent of waste stream we

also know that cement and steel have

excessive energy requirement

in production and burnt brick is not far

behind

we should also be aware that being

responsible for 65 to 70 percent of

greenhouse gas emissions

our urban centers will remain global

warming battlegrounds

unless urban environment professionals

devise ways to begin creating echo

enclaves

with the ultimate objective of

converting present cities into eco

cities

those are the factors that have led me

to campaign for zero carbon or carbon

negative movements

to change mindsets of urban design

professionals it has become imperative

to discontinue the use of

contemporary industrialized materials

building materials and revert to

traditional sustainable green materials

in order to lower the carbon footprint

and create climate responsive designs

there are three strands that are

consciously integrated in all my work

learning from tradition and heritage

community engagement for co-building and

co-creation

and reliance on barefoot approaches i

have found

that there is a synergy between social

well-being and ecological justice

when traditional sustainable materials

are used for construction

my fellow travelers are those that walk

barefoot

i found that walking without shoes helps

us to tread lightly on the planet

and use earth’s resources judiciously

today my life’s mission

is it to find ways to build for bop or

bottom of the pyramid

as well as to deal with the climate

change impact by reduction of greenhouse

gas emissions

and the dictum i follow is low cost zero

carbon footprint

and zero waste

using basa mechanism we have been able

to reach out to 0.84 million people

or over 100 000 persons per year through

provision of basic needs

also we have been able to work towards

12 out of 17

sustainable development goals

so there are four tenants of bazaar

mother is a result of my struggle over

the last decade and a half to articulate

people’s humanistic architecture

as part of rights-based development

incorporating attributes of social and

ecological justice

bazaar is akin to social engineering for

bringing about social change

incorporating environmental cultural and

technical dimensions

resulting in transformation of mindsets

from a cycle of dependency

to a culture of pride and self-reliance

first the basa tenet number one which is

maximizing the potential of barefoot

ecosystem

as you can see in the slide the barefoot

ecosystem consists of barefoot economy

barefoot market barefoot enterprises

barefoot entrepreneurs

barefoot skills and barefoot products in

contrast to the market economy with its

aim for personal profit based creates a

parallel

informal and inclusive economy that

fosters collective benefit

by serving disadvantaged populous

now this is telenet number two zero

carbon humanistic architecture fostering

pride

dignity and well-being this tenet

encourages participatory co-building

using sustainable materials and building

upon age old techniques

there are these are some of the slides

to demonstrate co-creation activities

these are houses are being decorated by

women to show their pride and their

ownership

of what they have and this is a bamboo

house and a toilet

as a mark of identity you can see how

beautifully decorated this is

and this is a world habitat winner

earthen pakistan chula

this earthen cookstove provides dignity

for women and assures health for

children

as far as my work is concerned i am an

advocate of earth lime and bamboo

as these are among the most sustainable

materials which are the only materials

i use in my current work

now we come to basa tenet number three

which is delivery of unmet needs through

biscuits

which is barefoot incubator for social

good and environmental sustainability

now this is a biscuit training center at

zc3 or zero carbon cultural center at

zero carbon campus at mukhley

and here that is where we have the

incubatees being trained they are

provided mentoring and monitoring

and these are the poorest of the

communities that we are training

and they fabricate products for the

other poor in order to fulfill their

primary

needs as well as unmet needs of the

surrounding communities

each of the eight former beggar villages

specialize in affordable good quality

products consisting of green

construction materials

such as earth lime bamboo and thatch

organic soap organic compost and natural

fuel

briquettes climate smart farming for

food security

craft products for everyday use for

achieving a better quality of life

now this now is tender number four which

is non-engineered structures for

shrinking the ecological footprint

now these structures such as this one

have placed pakistan in the lead as the

largest zero carbon shelter program in

the world

as you see no carbon emissions no trees

were felt

1750 villages were served and 300 000

persons

were housed now this is a

two-stories two-story structure that has

withstood annual inundation since 2011.

the ground floor is a as a shaded area

is usually

used for children’s activities during

floods as the waters rise

the upper flow becomes a refuge for

people and their belongings

now this is an example of prefabricated

structures

uh it is based on a mod modular

construction using prefabricated bamboo

panel for ease of fabrication

and transportation these can be prepared

in advance and can be erected very

quickly

eight panels are used to build a

one-room house of 12 foot by 12 foot

size

then addition of two more panels

makes a village classroom of 12 by 18

size

and by using 12 panels you add on

another two

a village center of size 18 by 18 is

constructed

while a three module combination makes

into interpower center at mukhley

and you can see that we’ve used a dome

domical form

which actually we’ve learned from

mukhley which has lots of domes because

of the monuments that are there

here you can see that it was tested at

nad university in karachi and subject

sequentially to ground motions

corresponding to kobe earthquake

earthquake of 7.3 lecture scale levels

applied were from

25 to 100 and

then from 125 to 275

with no damage to the structure and

later subjected to 670

which hopefully never happens but you

will see that walls did not collapse

which showed life safety

performance under extreme conditions and

here is the shaking table test itself

so you will see that uh uh first it’s

this is a hundred

hundred percent of a copy earthquake

which means this is exactly what

happened

at the time of the earthquake and you

can see nothing happened and then

uh uh it’ll it goes on to 275 percent

and again nothing happens and we can see

that it is nothing but

earth walls and bamboo interlacements

and bamboo lattice

that has been used in the structure and

when uh it didn’t

then collapse uh the vice chancellor

there said it it’s got to you’ve got to

break it so

they went up to 670 of the of the

movements

in my view new york or dubai with their

high carbon high density

glittering skyscrapers will no longer be

the urbanist future

beacon i’m optimistic that instead

lessons will be drawn upon age-old

wisdom

and traditional environments found in

countries such as pakistan

aiming for low-rise medium density

formations with open to sky terraces for

families to remain in contact with

nature

when a pandemic strikes with pedestrian

enclaves and local around the corner

shopping

without being disrupted by vehicular

traffic also there are several lessons

we could learn

from the past consisting of zero energy

natural devices which can provide

comfortable micro climate

within buildings without employing

mechanical means

these bring about traditional benefits

uh when formulating echo urbanist

strategies on the left is the zero

carbon wind cooling

that can be attained by the

unidirectional wind catcher of tata

where incoming breeze provides thermal

control air movement

as well as warm air exhaust on the right

is the zero energy thermal comfort that

is achieved by utilizing passive solar

design

and thermal mass the courtyard helps

cool air during the night keeping the

interiors cool for much of the day this

is a

technique that’s used a lot in some

parts of pakistan

on the left among the best examples of

zero energy water cooling is the

paradise of jharbar of world heritage

shalamar gardens

with spectacular water displays creating

a cool environment entirely by

natural means and on the right water is

also used in the paradisal quadrants in

the shishmahal

enclosure of the world heritage lahore

fort we have seen

that traditional urbanism is a result of

local wisdom use of sustainable

materials

and techniques for minimizing the use of

energy many of us believe the

traditional urbanism equals echo

urbanism

and there is an urgent need to transform

our present wasteful urban centers

into low carbon echo enclaves so what

does it mean

compact cities not urban sprawl methods

or models

low rise medium density mixed use

development not skyscrapers

to keeping keeping short distances to

work then vehicle-free walkable cultural

activity forested streets

plantation and water bodies for

transforming urban micro climate

low impact architecture that minimizes

energy consumptive materials in

construction

and seeks for net energy solutions

and above all saving all heritage

buildings as any replacement will only

add to further carbon emissions

also there are good examples for for

example

oslo that could be emulated so we need

such attributes to lead

our cities towards low carbon resilience

and enable us to help contain emissions

to within 1.5 degrees centigrade

rise stipulated by cop 21 of paris

agreement of 2015.

the implication of covet 19 exhort us to

move towards a society that is

humanistic and inclusive

together we must endeavor to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions as we fashion a

new urban environment

based on more sustainable lifestyles

adopting movements such as

transition design degrowth or low carbon

compact cities

which are becoming popular in the west

and my own barefoot social architecture

of basa

for achieving sdgs or sustainable

development goals

as well as sustenance of the

disadvantage of the third world

in conclusion i would like to ask this

question that i have asked audiences

around the world

and that the question is knowing the

state of the planet as it is today

are we ready to play a role in mending

the imbalances in this world

and to help stitch the highly damaged

earth tapestry

thank you