Designing the Designer

An academic’s journey

Architecture education in Pakistan has burgeoned in the past few decades, largely thanks to new schools,

government initiatives as well as encouragement from the building industry. This has led to an influx of

young and motivated architects into the market as well as recognition from acclaimed institutions abroad.

Rather than write about practices followed by other educators which I do not agree with, I would prefer to

discuss to the benefit of others, practices which have worked for me throughout the establishment and

development of the curriculum at SADA-NUST.

Speaking from my own experiences, SADA-NUST boasts a 5% acceptance rate and a 95% passout rate in

the past few years. Students from SADA-NUST have gone on to win prestigious awards within the national

as well as international architecture and industrial design community such as the BAE thesis award 3 times

in a row and the Lexus design award (Design for a better tomorrow) to name a few. Our recent graduates

encounter an almost 95% employment rate and are considered as some of the most sought after

graduates in today’s market. Those who feel confident enough in their own abilities have also started their

own firms with projects in hand. SADA students have also been regularly accepted by leading forigen

higher education institutions in the US and Europe such as Yale, UCLA, Columbia, Pratt, Politecnico Milano

and Turin. It is through the establishment of these qualities and metrics that we evaluate our progress and

the school. On the back end, the school has been very successful in establishing student transfer and

teacher training with METU(Turkey) and is currently in talks with leading Chinese, and American universities

towards establishing such programs with them as well. In order to keep the students motivated we

regularly invite leaders in the field for lectures; most recently we had the pleasure of inviting Pritzker Prize

winner Yvonne Farrell for a spellbinding lecture/ presentation which we are planning to share with the rest

of the architectural community as well.

However, the journey to bring a relatively new school such as SADA-NUST up to such a level over the span

of 10 years, was not an easy one. My journey towards this endeavour actually began 20 years ago when I,

working with a like-minded group of local architects, envisioned setting up a school of architecture in

Islamabad geared towards international standards and practices. Nevertheless, the earthquake of 2008

put an end to this effort as funds collected for the school were diverted towards earthquake relief activities.

In 2009 there again was a glimmer of hope towards setting up an architecture school as envisioned. An

informal meeting with the Rector NUST Gen. Asghar resulted in a series of meetings with NUST

management. NUST intended to open a school of architecture. We set off with the idea of developing a

studio based curriculum which had to be in line with HEC criterion. This curriculum would be bolstered with

input from METU (Turkey) and latter from Jur Jurgens, who has also served as HoD of the Architecture

department at Utrecht University.

With SADA-NUST, my intention was to create a resource rich environment and initiate a constant feedback

process through which academic standards could be improved and upheld. Any contemporary curriculum if

competently implemented will lead to quality students. Conversely, if not implemented properly, can lead to

poor results. Through teacher training and monitoring systems as well as a tight control on how the studio

outlines are being formulated and implemented we are able to maintain and uphold standards. Having

competent external jurors from industry is another element which leads to improvement in quality.

A constructive byproduct of the process is that students understand that they are getting a high return on

the investment they have made towards their education. Towards the end of the academic year we

annually publish a catalogue of student work as well as host an open house which is open to all. Displaying

work in such a manner allows for a set standard to be maintained as well as create a repository of

knowledge and skills which serve as a benchmark for students to exceed in the future. Besides striving for

academic excellence, the vision of the school was to produce a holistic change in the student and

empower them to bring a positive change in their environment.

Life in the school revolves around the design studio. The school studios have evolved over the years and

are in a constant process of change almost like a living organism. Feedback and experience from the
previous semester is studied and analysed so that any weaknesses and shortcomings are addressed, while

strengths are built upon. Moreover, the support courses focusing on architectural and art history,

construction technology, and sustainability feed/ inform the studios, creating linkages between design and

theory. Through audits of student work and courses it is ensured that such a method is implemented and

maintained.

For the student, the school acts as a point of first contact to many philosophies, experiences and softwares.

In the end the onus is on the student to explore and immerse themselves within them. This creates a

culture of academic hunger and self reliance which gives the student more agency into how their

education is shaped. After a student stays in the school for about three years, changes do take place in the

students personality, critical and design thinking. As a result, now they see life through a different lens. For

some, it makes them question their lifestyles, changing their perception of the physical space around them.

Original positions get moved, their self awareness undergoes significant shifts. As a result the student is

able to learn and think for themselves, valuable skills which help the students in life even once they leave

SADA-NUST.

If the objective of every architectural school is to prepare architects with design flair, running their own

consultancies or even to work as Assistant in an office, it is up to PCATP, BAE/IAP and the HEC to ensure

that the minimum education standards are upheld.

Over the years we have collaborated with PCATP as well as HEC to maintain a high standard of education

and made an effort to be as transparent as possible towards the ins and outs of the school. Together with

PCATP we have also worked towards hosting teacher training programs which were attended by teachers

from institutions all over Pakistan. Accreditation of new institutions is one of the important activities

entrusted to PCATP, however it may be in the benefit of the profession to seasonally audit the schools and

work towards a national ranking system as well. Besides working towards a national ranking system, I feel

a step should be taken towards ensuring transparency during accreditation by making future accreditation

and audit reports or atleast a summary public, and posted on the PCATP website so schools and faculty

may use them towards self improvement. The report of the observer who is sent to monitor the thesis
should also be part of the PCATP website. This will result in the improving of standards, and create a

healthy competition between schools as well.

Moreover, the recent direction followed by HEC will soon become a cause for concern. HEC plans to revise

undergraduate programs throughout the county, where the first 2 years of study will be dedicated to

general education, e.g geography, history, etc. This will mean effectively that either 5 years of design

education will need to be condensed to 3 years of architecture education, or the total course of study for

B.Arch degree will need to be increased to 7 year. PCATP has yet to take up this issue with HEC; it might

be easy now, as the top management has been changed. Skills and competencies cannot be achieved in a

three-year time period.

Another serious concern are the Masters, and Phd programs, undertaken by a number of local Universities,

which are not regulated either by PCATP or HEC. These same Phd’s will be employed in other Masters

programs, leading to a further deterioration of Academic and professional standards. These unregulated

programs would prove detrimental to the profession. Further HEC requires a minimum of two Phd’s to run a

Masters program in architecture, this is contrary to good accepted practice where the programs are instead

run by renowned academics, well established practitioners, or faculty who have written books/ papers.

At SADA-NUST we have tried to work together with institutions such as IAP and BAE to arrange events to

improve the standard of educators in Pakistan and provide a platform for architecture discourse. BAE and

IAP, having the backing and legitimacy of leading Pakistani architects, allows it to be an extremely powerful

entity which would not be in the favor of schools to ignore. BAE particularly, can be a very useful force in

bringing various schools together, and then these schools can learn from each other. In the past we have

worked together with BAE-IAP to organize largely successful teacher training workshops which were

attended by local as well as international architects and theorists. Activities ranged from teacher training, to

a large prestigious event in which architects from Turkey and Bangladesh participated and debated over

architecture discourse and the state of the profession. Other activities were spread evenly over Islamabad,

Lahore, and Karachi.

Looking towards the future, I hope that SADA-NUST can act as an example of an institution which gives

back to the community as well as the profession and serves as an ambitious yardstick for institutions to

compare themselves against. If schools over Pakistan, similarly work within their sphere of influence to

elevate the level of architecture education of their city or province it will raise the level of architecture of

the country.

Besides educators, I would welcome potential employers to play their role in shaping the future of

architects and designers in the country. The young architect has an uphill task fitting into a new

environment when transitioning from academic life to professional life. Paid internships in a good

professional office during a student's school years does wonders in preparing students for this jump. when

they are making this jump. At SADA-NUST we always work hard to make sure students find paid

internships during their summer breaks from the third year onwards. Apart from preparing students for life

as an architect in a controlled environment, it also helps prepare architects for the architects licensing

exam.

Architecture education in Pakistan has made considerable progress from where it was 30 years ago.

However the profession in Pakistan is on the precipice of a welcome paradigm shift where younger design

focused architects are destabilizing the central nature of the profession. This has been a direct result of the

improving standards of a local architecture education. I hope that this will lead to the development of an

improved architectural discourse within Pakistan as well as an evolution of what can be called a “Pakistani”

style rather than freezing the vernacular.