Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja was born in Nairobi, East Africa, in 1922. He was preparing to sit for his Matriculation examination in 1936, but discovered to his disappointment that he was, at the time, under the prescribed age limit of sixteen years. Then, tragically, his Miler was assassinated in an Arab riot on the island of Zanzibar where he was employed as a Police officer. As a result, the family had to migrate to Bombay, where he had to spend an extra year and a half as there was no facility for taking up the London Matriculation examination. He sat for the Senior Cambridge Examination from the St. Mary’s “Euro-pean” High School, Bombay.
It is interesting to note that in the interior of Africa where his family was originally living, the medium of instruction was Gujarati in the school available there, presumably because of the predominance of Gujratis in the local population. Consequently, he had to study Gujarati.
However, when he came over to India, he was told me he could take up either Hindi or Urdu as the second language. He found Hindi comparatively easier as it was much closer to Gujrati, and its script was also Devnagri. He soon managed to have a command over it and ultimately got a distinction in the final examination.
In the year .1939, Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja joined the Sir J.J. School of Arts, Bombay, which was then a well-established school for the training of Architects. People from Burma, Sri Lanka, and even as far as Armenia were studying there. After about ten years, he qualified for the Royal Institute of British Architects external examination, which was held in Bombay.
At the J.J. School of Arts, he had a wonderful time. The Principal of the school, Prof. Claude Batley, was a father figure. Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja learned a lot from him about the basics of architecture. He always used to emphasize the practicality of the subject. Whilst at the School, he was not particularly good at drawing and drafting, but he decided, very early, that he would not draw a line unless he knew its significance. In 1945, he passed his final R.I.B.A. examination and soon afterward was awarded a Post-war Re-construction Scholarship.
In 1946 he was admitted to the University of Liverpool for a 2-year Postgraduate Diploma course in “Civic Design”, which was the highest level one could obtain in Town Planning at the time. After completing his architecture and civic design studies in Liverpool, Khwaja Zahir-ud Deen returned in 1948 as an assistant architect in East Pakistan where he was responsible for the Chittagong Master Plan. In 1951 he became chief architect and town planner in the Thal Development Authority, working on one of the largest regional planning projects for the irrigation of six million acres of desert, five new towns. three thousand villages, etc.
In 1958 Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja moved to Karachi as the Senior Architect in the Pakistan Public Works Department, later becoming the Chief Town Planner and Architect at the Karachi Development Authority where he was involved – among other things – with the Korangi Township Project to oversee the completion of 14,000 housing units within six months.
He was then appointed a member of the Experts Committee advising the Federal Capital Commission on the selection of a site for the new capital of Pakistan. In 1961, he became the first Director of Planning at the Capital Development Authority, where he coordinated the work of some eminent international architects and aid planners designing the new capital of Islamabad – Constantine Doxiadis, Sir. Robert Matthew, Gio PontLand Alberto Rosselli among them. During his tenure at the CDA, Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja also met Marcel Breuer, Arne Jacobsen, Louis Kahn, Keno Tange, and Edward Stone.
After seventeen years of working with the government, Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja eventually did what every architect dreams of and set up his own architectural practice in 1964. Since then he has carried out a diversity of major projects including the Master Planning of New Towns and Cantonments, Industrial Estates, and Educational and residential buildings. 1973 – 1978 Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja was Chairman of Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants (PEPAC).
Besides running a thriving practice, Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja has been actively involved with architectural education and professional development in Pakistan. He has represented Pakistan at numerous international conferences and presented papers. Both as an architect and as a man of culture he has, by all accounts, had a successful professional career. Last year he published his memoirs, a mixture of professional and personal reminiscences. Immensely readable and interesting, these memoirs chronicle a fascinating story that serves not only as a valuable record behind some of our major projects but also of half a century of development architecture and planning in Pakistan.
Discussion with Zaheer-ud Deen Khwaja
Archi Times (AT): How did Edward Stone get to design so many buildings in Islamabad?
Khwaja Zaheer-ud Deen (KZ): Edward Durrell Stone was entrusted with five prominent buildings in the Capital, including the President’s House. The Parliament Building, The Islamabad University, etc. by the then Chairman. Mr. N.A.Farooqi supposedly on the grounds that his picture had appeared on the front cover of Time magazine for having designed the American Embassy in New Delhi. I was invited by the Pakistan Government to proceed to America with Mr. Farooqi to examine and approve the detailed plans of the President House Complex in Mr. Stone’s office. Mr. Stone made his presentation, which showed the President House which was supposed to be located on a prominent hill but was a 3 to 5-storeyed building. I was quick to point out to the Architect that his plans indicated that except the main reception areas of the President House which were located on grade as the top-most storey, all the lower floors had been excavated into the sides of the hill, which left no possibility of any light or natural ventilation on one side of a double-loaded corridor! He was suddenly taken aback at my remarks and readily accepted that his office had “slipped up”. and consequently, he would make another presentation on the next day. I could not imagine that such an elementary mistake could have been made in the office of a prominent American architect.
AT: For the last four decades you have been actively involved with the development of the architectural profession in Pakistan. Are you satisfied with the way our regional architecture has been re-interpreted in the last decade in Pakistan?
KZ: In the early years the majority of our teachers in architecture had received their training in the West. Consequently, the curriculum introduced by them was based on a Western model. Generally, foreign-qualified architects do not care to consider the local climatic conditions, etc., and seem to follow Western patterns with glass and concrete. A typical example that can be quoted is a prominent building in Islamabad with two sides of the building facing east and west having completely glass facades. As a result, the building has to be heavily air-conditioned owing to its orientation. However, I fully appreciate the design efforts being made by people like Nayyar Ali Dada who is a completely home-grown product of Pakistan. Likewise, architects such as Kamil Khan Mumtaz, Pervez Vandal, and others seem to be working in the right direction.
AT: A word about the way architectural education is imparted in Pakistan?
KZ: I have been associated directly or indirectly with all the schools of architecture within the country, starting with the Government School of Architecture set up by Mehdi Ali Mirza, in Karachi, and subsequently in Lahore when I initiated the first architectural draftsmen’s classes in what was then the Mayo School of Arts. Finally as a member of the Governing Board of the National College of Arts for nearly two decades. we were able to not only upgrade the Architectural Diploma course to the degree level but also to persuade the Government to give the NCA the status of an independent degree-awarding institution without being, affiliated with any existing University. Similarly, I have been associated with the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, as an external examiner in its Post-graduate architectural courses.
I am somewhat disappointed at the quality of education that is being imparted in our architectural institutions. What we need is a practical approach to the subject, a deeper study of our traditional values and Islamic architecture. but this needs great dedication on the part of the teachers and greater enthusiasm amongst the students. Our dilemma seems to be that what is being taught in our schools has now become obsolete and discarded. in the West. Moreover, there is hardly any element of practical training within the school curriculum and there is no independent research being carried out by the Departments.
AT: You are a Founder Member of the IAP and PCATP. Are you satisfied with the way these two bodies have functioned so far?
KZ: If I take IAP at first, I would say that the original enthusiasm of the small group of Founders has, over the years, been dissipated and has almost vanished, except for the keenness of the office-bearers to attend Inter-national Professional Conferences. The same can be said about the PCATP, which is primarily a Statutory body for registration purposes. Instead of concentrating on its principal task, it has wasted its efforts on other matters such as establishing a PCATP Housing Society, and in the process, creating one of the biggest scandals, which is a slur on the profession.
AT: You have worked with world-renowned foreign as well as Pakistani architects. What is the essential difference in their approach?
KZ: As I have already said, it was a pleasure and privilege working with world-renowned architects which including persons like Arne Jacobsen who had the courage to refuse to accept such bureaucratic amendments in the basic design of the Parliament House which would have mutilated his total concept. He walked away without even bothering to collect his fees up to the Preliminary Design stage. In contrast to this, I am afraid that some of our prominent Pakistani architects do not have the courage. to say “no” to their clients, even though they are convinced that the suggestions being made are quite frivolous. What is needed is to educate our “nouveau-riche” clients so that. over, the years. we may have an enlightened clientele.
AT: You no longer practice. How do you spend your time?
KZ: Believe that, throughout my life, I have been working for myself, but now I dedicate most of my time for communal welfare projects for the benefit of the general public and deprived sections of our society. For more than two decades I have been helping organizations such as the Family Welfare Association in the setting up of a free Dispensary and Maternity Home, Vocational School, and in the building of Working Women’s Hostel. Similarly, a Convalescent Home for poor women has been built for the Behbood Association. and finally a School for the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped Children in Jauhar Town, for another dedicated group of workers.
AT: What are your other interests?
KZ: I enjoy reading and, over the years, I have built up a substantial private library mostly composed of second-hand books. Moreover, a large part of last year was spent in completing my Memoirs and their publication. Recently I was also invited by the Saudi Government to participate in an International Symposium on Mosque Architecture as a part of their Centenary celebrations. I read a paper on “The Importance of Mosque Architecture in the Urban Design of Islamabad – Pakistan’s Capital”. Subsequently. I proceeded to London, primarily to meet my old architectural friends with whom I had lost contact for many decades. These included Sir William Whitfield who had worked with Mirza in Karachi when the new Capital was being considered to be built there, Lady Matthew, widow of Sir Robert Matthew, and Vernon Newcombe, a United Nations expert who had worked with me in Karachi in 1959 when I was Chief Town Planner and Architect in the KDA. It was a wonderful reunion, for nostalgic reasons.
But the greatest surprise for me was meeting a number of Pakistani architects in London who had been my friends or students. They expressed a desire to meet me at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, London, to talk about my recently published, ” Memoirs”. The meeting was organized by my old friend Ayub Malik, who is now a partner in the British architectural firm of Chapman and Taylor, and has been responsible for the design of a number of buildings near the Parliament House, some of which are owned by the Queen. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn how many other Pakistani architects are making a significant contribution to the Urban scene of London. Unfortunately, this positive role of Pakistani architects in London is hardly known within Pakistan. I feel greater publicity should be given to this fact.
AT: Your favorite Project?
KZ: One of the Projects closest to my Heart is the rehabilitation center for Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped Children which I designed and built in Lahore. To see the joy and happiness in the eyes of these children is in itself worth all the fees in the world! In addition, I have done a lame number of prestigious Town Planning Projects such as Hayatabad Town, Peshawar, Defence Housing Society, Lahore a number of WAPDA Townships, and finally, the Army Cantonment at Gujranwala.
AT: Would you have any message for the younger generation of our architects?
KZ: I feel that the younger generation of our architects should avoid being carried away and copying facades from architectural magazines. They should have an independent, practical approach based firmly on architectural principles and the history of our cultural heritage, so as to have sympathy and empathy wills our regional architecture. This can only be done by extensive reading and research.
Finally, I would like to repeat the advice given to me by a British Architect, Mr. Frederick Mcknight for whom I worked for one year as a part of my practical training. “Young man, when you go into independent practice, do not run after too many clients. Have a few, but satisfied ones!”
