Keith Williams Architects in Final Two to Design New City in Pakistan
Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012
Keith Williams Architects supported by EPR Architects and Pakistan based engineering group ESS-I-AAR, is heading a consortium which has made the final cut to design a vast new city to the south-east of Karachi. KWA’s group, which also includes engineers Atkins, Malachy Walsh and SLMJR Management Consultants, is now one of just two teams still in the running for the new city which will eventually house 10 million inhabitants.
Keith Williams Architects is best known for its award-winning cultural and civic projects, for example in Ireland the Wexford Opera House and Athlone Civic Offices, and in the UK the Unicorn Theatre, London and Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. He has also been involved with urban planning for many years.
KWA’s project will establish a conceptual vision and a long term strategy leading to the ultimate creation of the new city of Zulfurikabad. Located in Sindh Province, historically the land of the saints and Sufis (Islamic mystics), within a 400 square mile area of the country adjacent the flood delta of the Indus, KWA’s vision for the project embraces major environmental issues in defining a new low carbon based urban morphology, whilst relieving overcrowding in Karachi itself. Keith Williams commented ..“Clearly this is an extraordinary opportunity, and with now more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities many in very difficult conditions in the developing world, this project gives us the opportunity to explore a new blueprint for the way we might develop our cities over the decades to come.”
Categories: Architecture | Practice
