Daily Times

LAHORE: The three-day 7th International THAAP Conference on the theme of ‘People and the City’ concluded on Sunday after exhaustive, comprehensive, productive and informative discussion by writers, scholars, historians, economists, sociologists, artists, town planners, designers and architects.

Meanwhile, THAAP Photography Conference in collaboration with Camera for People and an art exhibition in collaboration with Ejaz Art Gallery have also been organised on the conference theme and would conclude today (Monday). MNA Shaista Pervaiz Malik participated as a chief guest on the last day of the conference.

THAAP has come a long way as an organisation that promotes scholarly discussions and talks involving people belonging from varied professional backgrounds. THAAP forum provided a formal, in-depth and well-focused paper reading sessions. Delegates from nine countries, including Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Iran, Nepal, USA, UK, and from various cities of Pakistan participated in the conference.

The first paper of the day by Architects USA Associate Principal Architect Ammr Vandal was presented by Prof Pervaiz Vandal. The paper discussed the winning proposal presented in the adAPT NYC competition, sponsored by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and created as part of the administration’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to introduce additional choices within New York City’s housing market and accommodate the city’s growing population of one- and two-person households.

The Mayor’s office waived certain zoning regulations at the Kips Bay site to allow the Carmel Place/My Micro NY pilot project to be developed. The paper presented the project in the context of all urban environments, as the demographic changes facing NY are facing most large urban environments across the globe, with a housing stock that does not offer solutions.

The second paper was presented by published researcher, practicing architect and academic Mehwish Abid. Her paper titled ‘Being and the City’ discussed the relationship between phenomenology and being within the context of architecture while highlighting the importance of understanding spiritual context to understand modern era space.

Third paper of the session titled ‘Remembering Manto: City, Architecture and Fiction’ was presented by Beaconhouse National University’s Razia Hassan School of Architecture (RHSA) Assistant Professor Razia Latif and RHSA Dean Prof Dr Gulzar Haider. Their paper examined the work of Manto and used it as base for establishing an architectural design project in two unoccupied distinct spaces and making them conducive to reading and storytelling.

Fourth paper of the session by architect, educationist and urban planner Hafsa Imtiaz was titled ‘Public Redefinition of Green Spaces in the new developments of Lahore’. The paper aimed at using activity mapping and photographic survey to understand new developments of Lahore and available green space from people’s point of view. It was followed by a question and answer session.

The fifth paper of the day was presented by architect and urban manager Swati Pujari on the topic ‘Urban Governance Perspective based on Citizen’s Response to Gorakha Earthquake 2015’, while the sixth paper titled ‘Towards People’s Right to Iranian Cities: Rasht and Chabahar’ was presented by Iranian architect and city planner Dr Taraneh Yalda.

It was followed by certificate distribution ceremony in which certificates were distributed among the participants and volunteers.