Developing Tradition: A Case of Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

Abstract

Tradition is commonly conceived as the knowledge, of any subject, that is handed down from generation to generation. In architecture, this inherited knowledge has been considered of great value particularly as a time-tested and efficient response to a community’s culture, living pattern, economy and environment. Consequently, in the field of post-disaster reconstruction, an increasing interest have been observed in the employment of traditional codes for regenerating a familiar as well as efficient built environment. However, methodologies of this employment have majorly been based on copying or referring to the existing traditions as a fixed state of knowledge that doesn’t change with time. Against this backdrop, the paper advocates an approach of perceiving tradition as a continuous process of accumulation of knowledge, and developing it with both modifications and interventions. This approach is examined here through the post-disaster rehabilitation work of Heritage Foundation of Pakistan in the region of Sindh, Pakistan. The work is studied for its methodology of developing vernacular tradition, and it is suggested how such an approach leaves open the possibility of responding to a community’s contemporary needs as well as challenges with cultural, ecological, economical and technical appropriateness.