An edited version of this post was published in The News, a national newspaper in Pakistan, on April 22nd 2018, titled A Tale of Two Medinas
The old neighborhoods in Pakistani cities are considered grimy, derelict, and impoverished. In truth they are undoubtedly a treasure trove of history, traditional heritage, and urban design wisdom. Narrow streets lined by two-to-three story buildings create natural shade making it easier to walk during the heat of day, courtyards in homes are an effective provision for natural light and fresh air, whilst high ceilings and multiple stories form a natural means to regulate temperature; these are but some of the wisdoms of old which we have discredited over the years. As cities expanded outwards tradition was replaced by, at first colonial, and eventually, western methodologies of urban design and architecture – deemed signs of progress and social status – but were never properly contextualized to blend with our social fabric, climate, or environment.
Strolling through cities in Morocco one becomes aware of the lack of heritage in our own. Cities such as Fes, Tangier, Essaouira, and Marrakech boast whole areas of old neighborhoods – the medinas – where heritage is in abundance while newer parts of the city, although characteristically different from their medina counterpart, still harbor a semblance of character and identity with their past. Unfortunately in Pakistan it is rare to find a city where such a tangible and pervasive sense of culture and heritage exists. They exist in pockets – primarily in the historic districts – but rather than being an influence for the expanding city, those areas have been relegated to the sidelines of society and consciousness, their existence instead threatened by the modern expansion of the city.
Lahore’s androon shehr is a fascinating example yet a tragic affair of powerlines cobwebbing the views of the sky, peeling paint, crumbling infrastructure, dilapidated roads, garbage strewn around, drains open to the sky, unregulated and illegal construction, and signboards that are more of an eye sore than informative. It takes a persistent imagination to see past the dereliction to acknowledge the potential it harbors. Instead of wires crisscrossing overhead one could picture the countless wooden balconies jutting out from pastel colored facades, cobblestone streets devoid of cars and bikes allowing pedestrians to walk freely, shop owners with their wares on display out on the street, and the smell of delicious desi food wafting through the air.
These scenes are prevalent in the medina of Marrakech – sans desi food smells – as elsewhere in the country, resonating how heritage rehabilitation can breathe life back into a neighborhood. Roads repaved with adequate sanitation and garbage disposal, walls with fresh coats of plaster and ochre red paint, wooden awnings with intricate patterns above storefronts for shade from the elements, mosque entrances framed by exquisite calligraphic and geometric stucco carvings, historic landmarks renovated into museums and tourist attractions; each aspect aiding in preserving heritage as well as inadvertently welcoming further investment. The space itself becomes a melting pot of cosmopolitanism where tourists and locals throng the streets and squares. Adding to the character of the medina are the fortification walls that skirt it, delineating it from the rest of the city. The entrances into the medina are punctuated by elaborate archways, similar to the ones of other medinas such as Fes, Tangier or Rabat.
Just like Marrakech, androon shehr is a mix of residential neighborhoods interspersed with bazaars as well as workshops for different kinds of trades. Historic landmarks are scattered throughout the area such as Wazir Khan Mosque, Sunehri Mosque, the Shahi Hamam, Barudkhana, not to mention the countless havelis. Imagine what it would be like to walk along a reconstructed wall skirting androon shehr and entering through one of the many restored darwazas to explore a space brimming with aesthetic beauty and intrigue hearkening back to a long-forgotten dream.
The Shahi Guzargah – the area around Delhi Gate leading up to Wazir Khan Mosque – is one of the few examples of rehabilitation efforts that have been carried out within androon shehr. Headed by the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) and in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and other development agencies, it is a step in a promising direction.
However the efforts pale in comparison to the concerted efforts by the Moroccan government to rehabilitate Marrakech, or the countless other medinas in the country. Androon shehr is also a much smaller affair, a meagre 2.6 sq. km swath of land compared to Marrakech’s 11.1 sq. km medina. There is more that still needs to be done to revitalize androon shehr, and cities such as Marrakech are a great case study to learn from.
Tourism has played a pivotal role in the medina’s rehabilitation, whether as a direct effort by the government to promote tourism and commerce, or as a consequence of the resulting gentrification. This becomes evident from the variety of economic activity happening in the medina: multitudes of restaurants cater varying cuisines, luxurious spas and hammams offer services to weary travelers to indulge and relax, numerous riads (somewhat like havelis) provide comfortable and luxurious accommodations, shops in the souks sell artisanal handicrafts – carpets, jewelry, bags, ceramics and the like – to haggling tourists, skilled artisans labor away in their workshops on said handicrafts, local bakeries offer sweets and bread, roadside stalls offer juices or delicious cheap food, henna artists set up in the square to tattoo tourists, snake charmers and monkey wranglers use their animals as attractions, and the numerous fruit and vegetable markets where the locals grocery shop, all are present in the sprawling medina. By granting private enterprises the opportunity to set up businesses creates an environment that attracts tourists and customers, which in turn promotes local businesses already present as well as allowing for newer businesses to be established as well.
However it is important to incentivize the preservation of heritage and have regulations and policies in place to ensure the historical and social fabric of the area is maintained. Otherwise if left unchecked the very gentrification intended to help the locality can end up consuming it entirely, driving residents out due to disparity in income, economic opportunity, and affordability.
One of the problems the medina faces to this day are real estate price hikes. Riads end up being bought by foreign investors who renovate them into holiday homes or hotels, resulting in a reduction of available property. This drives many residents who have been living in the medina for years to the peripheries of the greater city where rents are cheaper. Those who remain end up in homes repurposed by illegal constructions: either more living spaces are added on the roof or the homes are subdivided into smaller units to cater for more tenants. These constructions end up using subpar materials and techniques which take away from the heritage as well as the structural integrity of the building. Incidentally this issue exists in both the medina and androon shehr.
Realizing the need for equitable rehabilitation led the Moroccan government to establish the Initiative Nationale de Développement Humain whose aim is to rehabilitate not historic landmarks – which had been the mandate of previous initiatives – but focus instead on the preservation and social uplift of buildings and areas of historic value. Perhaps it also helped that the entire medina is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site which gives an added incentive for such initiatives.
However there are still areas of the medina in Marrakech that are derelict and income disparity prevalent. A dynamic forms where shop owners use aggressive tactics to sell their wares to customers, where locals help out tourists with directions only to later ask for money, some people resort to begging, and young teenagers try to discreetly sell hashish. A deeper dive into the economic lives of the residents sheds some more light on the issue. Most have blue collar jobs either in the medina or out in the city, making barely enough to support themselves and their families. In the case where there is no minimum wage or job security regulations this can lead to the exploitation of labor. As many businesses are primarily invested by people living out of the medina the profits do not end up being invested back in the area. This is the ugly truth of gentrification that cities the world over are struggling with and proper regulation and planning is required to create an equitable economic and social policy.
To that effect the WCLA can learn from these methodologies and outcomes to form a holistic approach of rehabilitation where heritage preservation is part of a grander policy involving economic regulation and social uplift. Longer term the WCLA could even become a model for other such heritage rehabilitation initiatives in cities such as Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, and others across the country.
Pakistan is a treasure trove of beautiful and diverse heritage. It is important we invest in preserving and restoring our heritage but not just for the sake of aesthetics, beauty, and economic potential. By embracing traditional and cultural knowledge of our architecture and urban design we can begin to contextualize new methodologies with these frameworks and create robust solutions that preserve heritage and also fit better into our social fabric and environmental and climatological context.
