PEDESTRIANIZATION IN HUSSAINABAD – KARACHI

This came as an Urban Design project and was originally asked to design a footbridge to facilitate the pedestrian crossing of the Hussainabad road from the Kaka Bawany vocational training centre for girls towards the various bus stops on the other side of the road. And to Design a monument as a separate project.

Since footbridges over such major roads need to take into account very important clear heights and since in general people in Karachi prefer to avoid climbing up so many stairs, it was decided to provide a network of underground passages, and also wanted it to be attractive and lively so by combining these underground passages with a sunken courtyard for hawkers we were able to build a requested monument above it. The monument consisted of a steel structure pyramid which would allow light and air to pass through and, at the same time, could be become a structure on which political propaganda could easily be hung.