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Ground and Form: Memoirs of a Pakistani Architect
Mukhtar Hussain
Jaar Publishing House
ISBN: 978-9-6923-0567-9
288 pages.
The title “Foundation and Form: Memoirs of a Pakistani Architect” suggests a book about the author’s personal philosophy and architectural practice. But readers will soon discover that this is, in the words of Arif Hassan in the foreword, “a story of people, places and events filled with love.”
Speaking at the Karachi Literature Festival, Mukhtar Hussain revealed that his main intention was to write his autobiography for his grandchildren. But this is not just the biography of one person, but the biography of an entire generation that was born in the 1950s, grew up in the 1960s, and started in the 1970s.
After laying the groundwork for Partition and the migration of the Hussain family from the Indian towns of Indore and Ujjain to Karachi, the book is divided into three parts. The first part is his personal adventure: childhood and school life, studying architecture in Turkey, personal travels in Europe and the Middle East, and his 40-year architectural practice in Pakistan.
The second part is dedicated to celebrating his family – his wife Rumana and children Adil and Asma. Part Three tells the story of Karachi and its transformation over the years, from the clean, well-governed city inspired by his father, Inayat Husain, during a brief stay on his way to the United States to study in 1945 , to the current situation of the chaotic and dilapidated city.
Architect Muhar Hussain’s autobiography is more than just a story about his personal journey.This is the story of an entire generation that grew up in the sixties, a treasure trove for sociologists
Mukhtar Husain, who trained in architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, noted the impact of the university’s curriculum and methods on architectural education in Pakistan. He recalled graduates around the 1970s, including Kauser Bashir Ahmed, Jawaid Haider and Noman Ahmed, who established the motto of “socially responsive environmental design” through their teaching practices.
Although Hussein is taciturn, he is no ordinary architect. He was appointed by Nespak as the chief architect of the Jinnah Terminal in Karachi and contributed to the Lahore and Islamabad airports as well as the Erakan Airport in North Cyprus.
He has been responsible for the design of many familiar flagship retail stores, including Liberty Books, English Boot House, Chhotani Jewelers and UBL Lounges. He has served as a technical juror for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and has been nominated for two of his projects – IBA Girls Hostel in 2016 and Turkish Consulate in Karachi in 2023.
He worked for Zor Engineers and Nespak for 24 years on projects across Pakistan before setting up his own company, FNHM, in 1997. His account of his career is filled with interesting anecdotes that provide engaging context for the reader.
We hear the German consultant’s disdain for the Jinnah Airport project – “self-centeredness, self-centeredness and distrust of colleagues” – and the French’s utter relaxation of the “considerate and caring attitude” during the construction phase.
We learn how he missed a flight from Lahore to Karachi in 1975 because he found he had no money to extend his stay in a hotel. By chance, an Italian family of eight asked him to help them communicate with the Indian authorities at the Wagah border and enter India in a Volkswagen van.
This is not a book about architecture, but a book about an adventurous life shared with friends and family. A large part of the book is about his travels – visiting 40 countries on four continents over 40 years – in his words, “exploring, observing, comparing, enjoying, learning. This is what travel is about.”
He threw aside his pride and surprised us today by accepting the Rs 100 they offered, which bought him a new PIA ticket, lunch and paid for his hotel! On the other hand, we learned that Hussain designed the logo for the Institute of Architects of Pakistan (IAP).
This is not a book about architecture, but a book about an adventurous life shared with friends and family. A large part of the book is about his travels – visiting 40 countries on four continents over 40 years – in his words, “exploring, observing, comparing, enjoying, learning. This is what travel is about.”
As a young student he slept under stairwells in France and taped fruit boxes in a Frankfurt factory, while later in life as a respected architect he made official visits to Japan, Indonesia, Spain or Germany .
This book is also a record of his time. Among them are some personal memories, including a makeshift freezer to stop butter from melting, the supply of the first flint gas, and a cherished Scrabble board from his childhood that he still owns.
But with it came memories of a world in turmoil: his studies at METU were set against the backdrop of violent left-wing radicalism in Turkey, the Vietnam War, Iranians fleeing the shah’s fearsome intelligence agency, Sarvaq, the six-day war in Iran. The Palestinian issue, the killing of nine members of the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and the change of martial law in Pakistan (East Pakistan became Bangladesh).
After he returned to Pakistan in 1973, the unrest continued, with the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979, the fatal air crash of General Ziaul-ul-Haq, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. His 1984 visit to India with his wife and children coincided with the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Hussian describes the process of moving to Karachi through a personal lens, from Garden to Bahadurabad, PECHS, North Nazimabad and finally to the Ministry of Defence. He grew up in a city with cycle rickshaws, trams, sidecars, double-decker buses, black and yellow cabs, camel coaches and a circular railway.
We learned about the first Greater Karachi plan, drawn up by the Swedish company MRV in 1952, which was envisioned as a central city for Pakistan, with its population expected to increase from 1 million to just 3 million by the year 2000! We hear his frustrations as the city that impressed his father in 1945 has grown into an “unloved, poorly designed” city of 25 million residents that “cannot Provide a chance to sustain life.”
The book is both an autobiography of his wife, Rumana Husain, and a biography of a graphic designer, author and cultural historian. Events in his father’s life paralleled Hussain’s own journey, including Dr. Abdul Salam, the construction of Kanup and the signing of the Indus Water Treaty. He was equally generous in his praise of his mentor Arif Hasan, his classmates at Karachi Grammar School and his many colleagues and friends.
This quality of sharing the spotlight is also evident in his earlier book, 100+1 Pakistani Architects and Their Own Homes (2006), in which he modestly positioned himself as a ‘+1’. The first compilation of Pakistani architects or those who agreed to be part of his book, it is a valuable resource for scholars of South Asian architecture.
This book is a treasure trove for sociologists, and for some it will bring back memories. If there was one thing I missed, it was insight into his design philosophy. He listed architects he admired and wrote, “I began to see everything around me through an architect’s lens and tried to understand the world from an architect’s perspective,” but one still wonders what he saw.
The book reveals a man who lived a fulfilling life, but Mukhtar Hussain was unwilling to hang up his boots. Instead, he said, now is “the time to reinvent yourself!”
The commenter is a Karachi-based artist.She can be contacted at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, March 31, 2024
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