SKETCHING SCULPTURE Roots School, DHA Campus, Islamabad

Text: Zarminae Ansari
Photography: Zarminae Ansari & Shahid Khan Project: Roots School System, DHA Phase 1 campus, Islamabad
Architect: Mohammad Shahid Khan, Icon Architecture & Design, Islamabad
Contractor: Parthenon Construction
Site Area: 43 Kanals
Built Area: 90,000 sft.

Originally from Quetta, Mohammad Shahid Khan – is popularly known as “Shahidkhan” by friends from the National College of Arts, Lahore from where he graduated in 1990. Shahidkhan or MSK, received the first distinction at NCA then, and after decades seeing the number of distinctions handed out every year nowadays, one wonders if that is a function of talent or a lowering of standards. Whatever the case may be, everyone who saw this unassuming architect’s work lauded the decision unanimously. Still a very low-key person, for the last two decades he has been working steadily as partner and then principal architect in Islamabad, producing some of the most sculptural and sensitively designed buildings.

 

Although he is becoming known for the contemporary and clean lines of his buildings, he admits that he has designed some neo- classical buildings for clients who insisted on it. In his own defense he says that he tried to stay true to the proportions and rules governing classical architecture, and is at a point in his career where he does not take on projects that go against his more contemporary aesthetic.

 

The main criticism leveled against architecture that is “international” or “contemporary” is that it ignores the regional context, and that it is a pastiche picked up from foreign publications. In a sea of some very good copies of “magazine architecture”, MSK’s work stands out, not just because the proportions are testament to the architect’s artistic, even sculptural flourish, but because he is one of the few architects whose work is conscious of its context.