AKU receives planning award for land use

KARACHI: The Aga Khan University (AKU) has been presented with an international award for an innovative land use plan for a university village for its new Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Pakistan.

The Merit Award for Excellence in Planning for District or Campus Component was given by the Society for College and University Planning to AKU and Goody Clancy, the planning consultants, during a ceremony at its annual conference in Minneapolis, US on Monday.

The university village will be adjacent to a liberal arts undergraduate and graduate professional schools campus being established by AKU at Education City, a collective of education and health institutions that will be set up by the provincial government 50kms outside Karachi.

As the first university village in Pakistan, it will create 500-plus acres of residential neighbourhoods, retail, service and entertainment facilities to support students, faculty and staff and their families from the university academic campus community.

Neighbourhood centres will be linked by a pedestrian-oriented network of streets and lanes that encourage community life and outdoor spaces that serve recreational and social functions.

Strategic use of the limited water supply, energy conservation through building form and natural cooling as well as landscaping using native plants requiring minimal water have all been integrated into the design.

“We want to enrich our campus life by offering high quality places for its community to live, work, study and play. A community where open inquiry, interactive learning and dialogue supported by a broad-based education are promoted,” says Karim Nurmohamed, Director-general, Planning and Development of Campuses.

This is the second award for the FAS. In 2008, AKU and Payette Associates won an honour award for excellence in planning for a new campus for the master plan for FAS, also from SCUP.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.