Quest For Latent Habitats

This paper concentrates on the diverse heritage of Walled City of Lahore (Pakistan). A city that has evolved from Kot (the first walled settlement on the bank of River Ravi) to a city of thirteen gates (Peck in The architectural heritage: Lotus collection, Lahore, 2017). A city that has seen different rulers with different ideologies and ethnic backgrounds. A city, the history of which has been written by many historians and travelers, some describing it as a city of art and craft, some describing it is as a city of trade. These attributes of the city have given it rich architectural context. Thirteen gates, mosques, temples, haveliyan, landmarks of profound architectural practice and spectacular artistic expression. To discover the relation between the city’s architectural spaces and its people, we used photography and literature. Photography, a medium to document the essence of the city and understand the nature of spaces that gives it distinct stature of architectural practice among the great cities around the world. To understand how these spaces have preserved the social behavior through generations and to learn the relation between a city and its people, we took up the task of describing the Walled City of Lahore as had Italo Calvino in his magnum opus Invisible Cities.

Published In: Cities’ Identity Through Architecture and Arts