2025

Beyond Material Heritage: A Values-Based Approach to Heritage

Rohama Saqib

[email protected]
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Karachi: A City Lacking Shared Spaces

Karachi, Pakistan, faces an ongoing heritage conflict marked by the everyday loss of urban history due to inadequate heritage policies and a continued reliance on a colonial approach to heritage legislation. Frere Hall - a heritage site housing a library and art gallery in Karachi’s historic Saddar district - illustrates these tensions, as competing heritage agendas increasingly segregate this rare public space. 


Through the lens of Frere Hall, this thesis argues for a broader understanding of heritage that moves beyond monumental and material-based frameworks. It applies a values-based approach to conservation to enhance physical and social accessibility throughout Frere Hall and its surrounding landscape to better engage diverse communities. 
 

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Planned Interventions Across the Site

A key aspect of Frere Hall’s significance lies in its position within the booksellers’ district of Saddar, yet the building largely functions as a monument—life unfolds around the building rather than within it.


This project argues that heritage cannot exist in isolation or be privileged above the social and environmental needs of the city; it must remain connected to everyday life.

 
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In Karachi, where water scarcity, public access, and community use are urgent concerns, Frere Hall should be actively used and shared. Through targeted landscape interventions and a minimal-change approach within the building, Frere Hall is reimagined as a more accessible, integrated public space.

 
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P3urban forest render with benches
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Foyer render
Library shelf system render