A future for the past

Text: Aasim Akhtar
Photography: Sajid Munir. 

Echoing Le Corbusier’s famous dictum that “architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light”, the architect Naeem Pasha describes architecture as “building with light”, thus underlining the close and symbiotic relationship that has existed ever since his practice.

Naeem Pasha holds a distinct place in recent contemporary Pakistani architecture. His signature projects and environments have animated a debate about his methodological process – a combination of heretical doubt about the status quo, research, ingenious experimentation, and exhortatory engagement. It is important to begin sketching in some of the contextual relationships as a way to understand why the issues that stem from broader arenas of social and cultural content, which Pasha’s work has brought to the fore, are timely and critical.

His will to engage his audience and his strategies to do so intrinsically embedded in his method, can be best examined in the architecture of the National Art Gallery in Islamabad. Conceived initially with the then partner, Sohail Abbasi, the NAG for all its experimental look, specific forms, and essential functions, is a livable structure exemplary of the architect’s practice and the enunciation of his guiding principles.