Heritage at Stake: Discourse Concerning the Causes of Damages Occurred to the Historic Hostel Structures Built in British Era in Karachi

Karachi being the first born city of the colonial architecture in Sindh Pakistan has the honour of housing very important and diverse ornamental architectural master pieces. Along with the commercial nucleus; Karachi emerged as a regional educational hub after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 with several hostel structures and studio apartments. These structures are among the better examples of the pre-colonial and post-colonial architectural influence in the region. Few of them (still surviving) are incorporated in the national list of protected heritage under Sindh Cultural Heritage Preservation Act 1994. This research paper is focused on “the lost importance of the three different hostel (boys’ hostels only) premises in the historic core of the city of Karachi”. Despite possessing similar functions in the past and having the same status of the declared protected heritage at present, each of them has different use and conservation status at present. None of the buildings have endured the original function. This research focuses the reasons of the non-continuation of the original function and the impairments caused to the buildings due to this reason. Methodology followed for the research includes analysis of available archives, physical observation, photographic documentation and interviews with the local inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The results and the findings of this research portray that eroding hostel culture has subjected those structures to slow and painful death of their original purpose. These buildings, once popular in the area, are now fading fast and perhaps will cease to exist in the near future unless the immediate precautionary measures are taken. The main conclusion drawn in this paper is that “it is important to preserve those historic premises as they are of significant historic character that remained associated with a number of key political and social personalities of the region. Moreover, they play a vital role in the general architectural value of the region”.


INTRODUCTION
T he research was initiated with the concern about the dilapidated state of a historic hostel structure situated in the historic city centre of Karachi.
The historic city centre, once a centre for education with various educational and amenity spaces, is now in highly decrepit situation. The area which used to provide a vibrant cultural life now is limited to the wholesale commercial and similar activities.

Core of the Research
The research is divided into two major aspects. The social aspect investigates about the possible reasons for the non-continuation of the original function of the hostels.
It stresses upon the cultural transformation of the historic core of the city and its effects on the above-mentioned hostels.
The technical part of the paper deals with the physical impairments caused to the hostels by the social/cultural change in the area. Also, it deals with the consequences of the damages that buildings acquired while they were vacant and when they were reoccupied. A basic understanding of the reasons for their physical problems is developed, which includes dilapidation of used materials, deformation of structural and other historical elements of the buildings and the causes of decay and alterations, made by people and local users of the heritage buildings, etc.

Methodology
The

LITERATURE REVIEW
Pakistan came into existence on August 14, 1947

Introduction to the Hostel Buidings
The three hostel structures selected for this research are built in the pre-partition era within the same time period. All hostels offered housekeeping services and many of their residents were alumni students pursuing jobs, who went on to live there even after graduation. The hostels also housed reading rooms, where students could read daily newspapers and periodicals.

Mitharam Hostel
The hostel is situated on Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed (Kutchary) Road in Serai Quarter; and is easily accessible from a major artery of the city. The ideal location of this property on a main road allows convenience in terms of accessibility both with private as well as public transport as shown in Fig. 2 There were also independent quarters for the hostel staff and a laundry area for the students.
Architecturally the courtyard of the building acts as the nucleus of the structure, which is bounded by arcaded verandas which provide access to the interior spaces of the building as shown in Fig. 3.

Sevakunj Hostel
Sevakunj, another important hostel in the region was built Plan: A perfect square plan is set around a square courtyard that was meant for the hostel recreational purpose s. There exists a performance stage in the courtyard that was later added at sometime. The building is a G+2 structure having rooms all around the courtyard.

MATERIALS AND METHOD
The The data acquired from other sources is used with due credits and copyrights.

Context of the Area
The to have a printing press which published newspapers and the magazines such as Ismat and Saraswati [9], which were made available to students living within the area, mainly at the hostels.

Changing Demographic Patterns
Karachi They included all kinds of professionals: government officers, entrepreneurs, poets, artists, journalists and the intellectuals. Karachi became a multiclass metropolis with intermingling of education, sports, and culture. In addition, the population increased every year as the average household size increased as shown in Fig. 9.
According to the recent research the city grows at the rate of 50 times more its size every year largely due to strong economic hub which brings significant physical and cultural change to the city on a constant basis.

Urban Blight to the Original Function of the Buildings in City Core
The

Erosion of Culture
The city centre when deprived of all cultural activities, Courts. However, the turn of events show that this desire never materialized and nothing could be done to revive the culture in the city centre.

Conservation Status of Heritage Properties within the Area
The said hostels along with the immediate historic

Current State of the Structures
The

Mitharam Hostel Building 1901-2017
The The grill iron parapets of the corridor have been replaced with masonry blocks, creating a huge solid wall. A window is being fixed into each room. The original flooring on the ground floor corridor is done with beautiful mosaic of Belgian tiles of 6" by 6" size. Besides being highly dilapidated the tiled flooring on the ground floor is in fairly better preserved state only requires little cleaning and polishing. It is damaged at the areas where corridor is being subdivided with masonry walls; the rest of flooring is in good shape and is just covered with dirt and soil. Flooring on the above floor is wooden, which is in a highly dilapidated state having huge holes. Many other such modifications have turned the building into a poor state of maintenance and it is in need of extensive restoration measures [9].

Jinnah Court's Building 1932-2017
Due to Jinnah Court's location on major artery of the city, environmental pollution has affected the building exterior however in general the condition of building's is much better than Mitharam. The reason is probably the placement of headquarter of the rangers within the building. Yet the façade of the building shows signs of soiling, apparent by a slight change in colour of the stone, due to dirt and soot accumulation.
As the Mitharam, the layout of Jinnah Courts also included only hostel for accommodation of students along with the support facilities of mess/ canteen and the warden residence. But due to the change of the function and the increased number of people to cater, extensions on the site occurred in form of the addition of new blocks. However, unlike Mitharam these later added masses are kept in well maintained state, which distinguishes it in terms of the better maintained structure.
The barriers in front of the building as shown in Fig. 12 create traffic congestion during peak hours. The pedestrian paths are encroached by those barriers which cause a hurdle for pedestrians. Internal access to the building was not granted therefore analysis based on the internal planning of the building is missing at this stage.
The building is under surveillance 24 hours therefore even the photography of the building from outside (from road) is prohibited.

Sevakunj Hostel Building 2017
Sevakunj Hostel has remained vacant since decades and this has had a negative impact on the structure. Its present