This lecture explores how regional traditions, cultural habits, and vernacular practices can inform contemporary architecture, enabling buildings and urban interventions to perform more effectively in today’s context. Focusing on Lahore, Pakistan, the session highlights how traditional approaches to climate, spatial planning, and urban form can be reinterpreted to address the challenges of the twenty-first century. Through examples at the scale of the city, participants will examine how historical legacies from Mughal planning to colonial interventions, shape today’s urban experience and how they can inspire strategies for renewal.
Special attention will be given to the Walled City of Lahore and Mall Road, analysing their urban grain, climate-responsive strategies, and ongoing revitalisation projects. The lecture positions these case studies as frameworks for understanding how heritage and tradition can contribute to contemporary urban resilience and livability.
Participating Expert
Attiq Ahmed
Attiq Ahmed is an architect, furniture and urban designer, and academic based in Lahore. He leads AEDL, Turning Tables, and OCCO, practices that merge contemporary design with regional traditions and urban heritage.
