Introduction This project is based on research of the densification issue in Karachi as a megacity. Location is in Lyari Town, one of the oldest settlements in Karachi, which is located close to the city center. Lyari is a low-income, high-rise (G+5/6) residential area. This town is developing mostly in informal way. When I was analyzing my first expression of Karachi, I decided to focus on privacy issue. Low-income inhabitants have to live in high-rise apartment blocks, sometimes with extended family in one room. The main reason why they prefer to live in this area is the accessibility to necessary facilities and a work. It is hard to provide the desired level of privacy for each resident. After some discovering, I found the phenomenon of Extimacy. I followed this idea to find a sollution of the privacy issue in Karachi. The research question is how to densify Lyari incrementally. It is obvious that this city has to grow vertically. Therefore, I tried to find a way how to create a liveable settlement in these complicated circumstances. The proposal is to combine existing typical high-rise housing with new generic structure. Existing living space can be extended and new structure provides some private “pockets” where people can hide, some shared space where only residents of community can spend their time. Also, some facilities as school or kindergarten can be organized on rooftops. New “vertical streets” have few functions: a vertical axis around which this generic structure “self-organizes”, a windcatcher or a water tower and a main staircase. Gradually the structure will expand and all block will become a “uniform organism”. (like The Kowloon Walled City) I used urban principles in my design of the high-rise structure; The same space can be a corridor and a street at the same time, rooftops can be used as a playground and a square. I believe that this strategy will create a strong community spirit within Karachi residents and help them to survive and develop in really difficult conditions.
Urban interiority Extimacy: an exterior privacy
What extimacy means spatially?
How to integrate this phenomenon in urban context?
The border between private and public, interior and exterior, personal and collective is gradually disappearing. The challenge is to provide desired level of privacy for people in the high density enviroment. Above I have defined that privacy is not physically isolated space, it is state of space at some moment. Therefore, such things as streets, rooms, playgrounds, corridors, etc are transformed to something intermediate, flexible, that can change their state. For instance, corridor can be a market street or place for gathering during the day and regular corridor during the night, appartment on the third level transforms to hairdresser’, because block has grown and densified. The new city should be mutatable and generative. Urban interiority What does it mean for architects? It means that concepts of the city and home, the urban and the architectural mixes up as well. The aim of my project is to create urban interiority in high-rise “buildings” in Karachi.
What extimacy means spatially?
How to integrate this phenomenon in urban context?
The border between private and public, interior and exterior, personal and collective is gradually disappearing. The challenge is to provide desired level of privacy for people in the high density enviroment. Above I have defined that privacy is not physically isolated space, it is state of space at some moment. Therefore, such things as streets, rooms, playgrounds, corridors, etc are transformed to something intermediate, flexible, that can change their state. For instance, corridor can be a market street or place for gathering during the day and regular corridor during the night, appartment on the third level transforms to hairdresser’, because block has grown and densified. The new city should be mutatable and generative. Urban interiority What does it mean for architects? It means that concepts of the city and home, the urban and the architectural mixes up as well. The aim of my project is to create urban interiority in high-rise “buildings” in Karachi.
