Where are we today?

The city of Lahore is urbanizing at an alarming rate, having grown almost 30% in the past 5 years, the city has layers of problems, one beneath the other, ready to manifest themselves. The politics of China and foreign investment has created conditions of dependencies and debt in the pursuit of endless economic growth. The research proposal stems from queries such as the factors which contribute to patterns of fragmented, unequal development in Lahore. How has urban renewal/development projects/policy impacted growth? What are the large urban transformations that have happened because of the urban renewal developments? The spatial and temporal dynamics of infrastructure development has instigated continued disparity and is highly distanced from the socio-spatial realities of the citizens. Some of the recurring thematic veiled in the urban fabric of Lahore, is erasure of image and memory of the locals through continued displacement, whether by Land mafia or “organized” by the government. There have been major legal encroachments in the form of private development over Public Squalor. Brand urbanism enfolded in the form of heritage conservation in the historic part of the city. The continued imposition of infrastructure projects resulted in displacement of people, loss of neighborhood character and street culture. All this stemming back to the root cause, the absence of a coherent National or Provincial urban policy, transforming Lahore into a fragmented city with a contested future.The urban renewal attempts, infrastructure development projects and the absence of a coherent urban policy has transformed Lahore into a fragmented city with a contested future. The spatial and temporal dynamics of transit- infrastructure development has instigated continued disparity, displacement, inequality and is highly distanced from the socio-spatial realities of the citizens. Generally, in Pakistan, the process of urban planning and decision making about communities, lacks citizen participation, which is why most of the government development plans are detached from what’s going on.

Given the contested socio-spatial reality of the city, and the role of International agencies in its urban transformation, how can the Actors (citizens and community organizations) be recuperated, Prepared and synergized in the city-making process.

In the overarching narrative of the design proposal, this project intends to fight the imposed urban imaginary birthed by the foreign and national agents and seeks to replace it with a deliberate one, instigated at the community level. The idea of the intermediary platform between the citizens and the governments, will hold them accountable publicy and initiate the need and gaps in the way urban practices are conducted. It is about the need to re-imagine the city with the common man's perspective. How to fight the constant displacement, reinvestment and disinvestment, which come at much powerful scale then we anticipate? additive, interactive and participatory mapping platform, which brings together a data repository of all the transit - infrastructure projects, past, current and proposed, spatializes them and preserves a citizen’s narrative of them. Events, such as protests, public hearings, townhalls, or court hearings held in opposition to an infrastructure project are documented and will be added to continuously. Actors such as the government and organizations implementing these projects or mobilizing against them are also mapped out so citizens can form connections with them. Through the “resources tab”, it aims to informs the local citizens of the laws and the legal rights that they have to contribute input in the city-making process and fight any form of uninformed displacement and land acquisition.