Sometimes small offices remind me of Franz Kafka and I imagine a great writer of the future stuck in these suffocating structures, submerged in a world of his own. Or an artist living in a rundown housing complex, busy working in his tiny studio, yet includes a vast arena in his imagery. Or a singer and actor, who has spent his childhood and adolescence in crowded and congested houses of an old city where he has observed people and learnt his first lesson in how to imitate them or copy other singers.

In a sense, one admires big, monumental buildings but at the same time one is aware of these small structures, which have produced brilliant minds of literary, artistic, and intellectual circles. It is in this context that one questions the divide between large-scale (designed) public buildings and ordinary houses, which are erected without any planning or precision.

There is also another point to ponder about these spaces. What is the purpose of huge structures? Is it to provide comfort for people living there or to flaunt creative genius of the architects? These are queries which cannot be answered, since one notices that if buildings affect people, the inhabitants also transform these places. It is usually observed that a building is designed and constructed in pristine scheme, almost replicating its model presented for project’s approval; but as soon as the structure is complete, it is transformed in accordance to its residents’ routine.

Often, you see freshly-washed laundry put on strings suspended between walls, planters covering niches and windows, creeper vines concealing facades and banners hiding architectural details and significant sections of the original design.

Sometimes, these temporary interventions are not enough, and the structure is modified, too, as was the case with Cordoba Mosque at Mozang Chungi, Lahore in which the actual building created by Nayyar Ali Dada was amended to include shops that could support and sustain the income of in-charge of the mosque’s affairs.

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