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