Sustainable Social, Economic and Environmental Revitalization in Multan City

The city is the synthetic element of a culture because the evocative quality of the urban space recreates a world that, when expresses formal completeness, regards architecture as a research of perfection: research and completeness that the city, particularly the ancient one, reflects in its monuments and even more in its vast, various, and representative totality, also identifiable as monument.

The features of the Indo-Islamic city within urban history are the topic of this essay. Multan, a Pakistani historic city in the Punjab Province, has played, and may still play, a remarkable role as an example of perspectives of development in urban culture. Understanding the reasons for the ancient city's form provides the motivation for conservation and transformation choices. This gives sense and reason in view of the future city, where the ancient parts are destined to play an increasingly decisive role.

The work here presented deals with different fields of activities linked by the polytechnic culture that sees in the city as a great sea toward which flow the rivers of architectural, engineering, and industrial design research. Particularly, as can be seen better in the parts that follow, singular research activities, each directed toward its own distinct disciplinary specificity, proved to be capable of adapting the methods and procedures of knowledge and intervention to the problems and objectives set by the particular social status and economic and cultural conditions of Multan.

The challenges of conducting a project such as the “Sustainable Social Economic and Environmental Revitalization in the Historic Core of Multan City” were unprecedented in the framework of Italian academic institutions. As a matter of fact, such an undertaking meant to perform a multidisciplinary cross-cultural project in a framework characterised by a region such as Punjab in Pakistan, with an important history, strong traditions, many tangible environmental and urban difficulties, low incomes and a rapid demographic growth. To combine so many technical and social objectives, to be achieved working in different continents, needed innovative ways and approaches in order to coordinate research activities, technical approaches and project groups; it was at the same time necessary to find the best way to transfer the obtained results and to have the related applications quickly employed and implemented on the ground.

The activities demanded first of all to design the right mix of actions, to specify the principal options to the preparation of strategies and projects, to offer a way of obtaining a better knowledge of a region and a city with its populations, to understand the ways to operate in a country of particular administrative structure and to cooperate with local stakeholders and representatives.

A special team, operating both in Milan and in Pakistan, has been created with different competencies: urbanism, architecture, buildings, cultural heritage conservation, energy, environmental engineering, economics, industrial design and project and innovation management. The activities of the team have been developed considering the whole context of action outlined by the Pakistani–Italian Development cooperation, balancing the aims of poverty alleviation with the environmentally sustainable resource use. Our efforts aspired to obtain and harmonise actions of socio-economic development, environmental protection (in our case in the priority sectors of health and education) and basic infrastructure renewal, trying to verify the possibility of synergies and triggering further collaborations to guarantee the prosecution of interventions beyond the duration of the specific approved project and the extinction of the corresponding funds up to now allocated.

The results obtained in the first 6-month phase of the project, and the preparation of the plan for the second phase of 30 months, encourage the strategy of the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (FPM) of exploiting the technical and cultural competencies and skills of the Politecnico di Milano in international cooperation projects. Such cooperation projects are very likely to prove themselves excellent opportunities of methodological and educational growth and of sharing fruitful knowledges to support progress and to generate interesting research outcomes and fallouts.

To work with the goal of triggering and achieving a sustainable, social, economic and environmental revitalization of the historical core of an ancient city such as Multan is, in fact one of the oldest cities of the central southerly Asia, asks for a deep and full comprehension, as far as it is possible to attain it, of the territorial and historical conditions of a human community growth. The richness of the multilayered site of Multan, offered us the inspiration towards technical and creative actions, based first of all on profound respect and admiration for such a strong cultural identity. In the following pages are selected and presented basic geographical and socio-economic data as well as fundamental and distinctive facts, all of them considered essential key inputs to a better comprehension of the background and starting points of our interpretations, suggestions and plans for the future of the Walled City of Multan.

Tourism represents a major economic generator and a labor-intensifying industry for the development and for the economic growth of a country. In accordance with this principle, the Government of Pakistan has officially declared tourism as an industry, formulating new tourism policies. Due to the unique richness of its composite landscape, consolidated over the centuries by the passage of innumerable civilizations and cultures, Pakistan is a country with a very high potential for tourist attraction from all over the world. The first part of the study is focused on the analysis of some significant data and aspects related to the tourism evolution during the last years and up to the present. One of them consists in the existence, in Pakistan, of a unique network of specialized visitors, wanting to visit the country for niche reasons: every city and every place then deserves a particular vocation and identity, becoming the main reference for different kinds of tourists. The investigation of the very unique role that Multan merits within the national touristic framework led to identifying, as its main vocations, the religious and sacred dimension of the place, as well as the significant presence and specialized workforce of local handicrafts. Regarding these particular kinds of tourism vocations, the case of Multan has been compared with other examples of tourism development, also in relationship to international examples: even in their differences, these comparisons have been used as strategic tools for the case of Multan, highlighting the weaknesses, as obstacles to any kind of development of tourism in the country, as well as its points of force, to be increased and reinforced. The second part of this work is focused on the identification of urban development strategies and new scenarios, aimed at revitalizing the historic core of Multan and strengthening the main tourist vocation of the place, highlighting the unique structural characteristics of this city and of its landscape.

Poverty is widely considered as the major problem in the socioeconomic development of Pakistan. The main objective is the alleviation of poverty through the start-up of a microcredit system in the Walled City of Multan for the promotion of income-generating activities and the rehabilitation and strengthening of local arts and crafts. A theoretical and practical research methodology is applied to investigate the most suitable microcredit model for the local context. The study briefly analyzes economics of microcredit affecting the efficiency of the market as well as its improvement mechanisms and their applications. Subsequently the conventional microcredit lending methodologies (interest based) and their potentials in Multan were examined. Authors have conducted two levels of analysis to explore the strategic environment and the peculiar aspects of local context. The former is a field research to observe the unsatisfied local needs and the cultural and religious norms influencing the success of the initiative, and the latter is a desk analysis to assess the macroeconomic factors affecting program achievement and its sustainability. The study deepens the Islamic financial principles and related lending methodologies for tailoring the proposal on the cultural, social, and economic characteristics of the potential demand. The study suggests two different models to guarantee not limited access to loans. The first model is the “Poverty Reduction Project” aiming at poverty eradication and social inclusion promotion. This model is oriented at satisfying the needs of the lower market segment including “ultra poor,” poor, and vulnerable people (almost 55 % of Pakistani population) through the adoption of Akhuwat’s model. The “Poverty Reduction Project” has the double aim of preventing vulnerable people to fall into poverty and helping poor people to rise from poverty by providing interest-free loans for the promotion and support of income-generating activities. Proposal products are of two sorts: infrastructure loans and business loans. The second model is the “Handicraft Model,” developed by an interdisciplinary team of work, that has the purpose of financial inclusion of craftsmen. It is oriented at the higher market segment composed by “quasi nonpoor” and provides loans through the adoption of Murabaha model. The clients served by the Handicraft Model are small entrepreneurs. Main objective is supporting, aggregating, and promoting best practices of handicraft production for exporting opportunity. In this case the full cost of loan provision is charged to the borrower. Akhuwat is chosen as local partner for its social innovative business model, based on the vision of interest-free loans to economically poor. Both models are based on individual lending methodologies. By means of family loans, Akhuwat demonstrates that it is possible to reach very poor people through individual loans. Furthermore, individual lending seems to better fit the needs of people working in a productive urban context as the Walled City and allows to reduce inefficiencies nested in group loans historically applied in Pakistan.

The research programme proposed focuses on the territorial dimension as an asset able to act for the preservation, the valorisation and the development of the local culture, supporting and improving them. In the last few years, the importance of the territorial values of a specific region, restricted or intended like a macro-continent, becomes the strategic level for the creation of international and multilateral projects which the university confront itself with.

During the research, the aim was to understand more thoroughly the characteristics of Pakistani crafts, especially inside the Multan area: in this case, through a field research, the staff did a survey to understand which are the typical products sold there; the raw materials used to make them; the shapes, the colours, and the functions that they have; the resources that Pakistani territory has; and where they are sold (markets, handicraft shop, malls, etc.). The results of these activities define a common development strategy for the handicraft field as textile, jewellery, blue pottery, shoes and so on.

Pakistan is a country considered wrongly, in handicraft field, a delocalisation border, since it is possible to find affordable workforce. It is, instead, more interesting to consider the potentialities based on the great tradition and know-how for the creation and production of high-level handicraft products. For example, Multani textile tradition has very ancient roots and its quality enhanced by fancy materials, bright cotton and patterns that show unique visual suggestions. From this analysis, it emerged that from the design point of view, the actions on the handicraft sector together with Pakistani institutions would have involved two paths: the first pertains to the product innovation for its valorisation; the second aim was about the product communication for its promotion with the final goal of connecting the local craftsmen/artisans with the global market through digital and real platforms to build strong relationships with the Western partners.

In some way, research activities should be focused on the development of handicraft products that can preserve the tradition quality, working on performances, on functionality and on process efficiency, with the aim not to propose affordable but high-quality products, following sustainable development models even on the social field.

At the end of the research period, together with microcredit and entrepreneurial relationship teams (see Chap. 6.6), a handicraft system model was elaborated to be activated in the PIRC.

Collaboration is a reference point for both Milan and Multan business environments, as far as they want to achieve a stable growth and competitiveness. A credibly proactive collaboration model means that all local stakeholders have to share a vision of the real possibility to transfer experiences and to implement a growth path, made by innovative steps. Transferring experiences needs a partner who wants to share all the practices that can be adapted to another framework. On the other side, there should be the commitment to provide resources, to involve partners and to motivate people; innovation does not come in a blink of eye and is an inspiration that becomes a transpiration.

Business model is not the business itself but is a way to design and simulate the interaction between main parts of the business. When it comes to transfer our experience into a foreign environment, we must align which are the likenesses, which things are deeply different and which elements must remain unmodified with their specific and brilliant tonality.

The starting point of the reflection proposed in this chapter rests on the idea that Italy and Pakistan and Milan and Multan share a vision: the aim to be the referring centre of the area for old and new businesses, an economic system that needs to change and grow to survive a challenging worldwide arena and, at the same time, keep safe and continue to exploit the traditional ability and creativity of businessmen, entrepreneurs and artisans. How do entrepreneurs imagine their organizations and the corresponding business models, 5 or 10 years from now? Reasonably, Milan and the whole Lombardy region have passed through the necessity of repositioning the entrepreneurship system into an intensely competitive landscape and had to cope with the redesign of firm and institution collaborative model; should this effort fit Multan requests of improvement?

On field experiences, methodologies and technologies can force a resilient traditional economy to move further on this evolutionary pattern; whichever will be the destination point, local institutions should help and orient enterprises, the smaller they are, to undertake the necessary efforts to remain in a continuously changing market.

Satellite remote sensing is the process of collecting information about the Earth surface from the space through the measure of electromagnetic radiation. Nowadays, remote sensing is a mature technology used to extract, analyze, and detect changes of geographic and thematic information over large areas, inaccessible sites, or where only limited knowledge is available. In this chapter, we describe how satellite’s data collected over Multan (Pakistan) have been used for mapping and monitoring the dynamics of the urban area. A multi-scale approach allowed to evaluate the urban growth of the municipality area occurred in the last 2 decades with medium-resolution Landsat-5/TM time series. Urban green plots and infrastructures (buildings and roads) have been mapped at the local scale of the historic Walled City with the state-of-the-art GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 very high-resolution multispectral imagery.

Recording is a key activity in the cultural heritage conservation management. Conservation-related information is usually obtained (certainly in the case of this project) from multidisciplinary research activities. In such teams, geomatics build a framework to connect all members’ contributions both in preliminary studies and in project development and applications.

In this project, the documentation approach used the most sophisticated surveying techniques to properly capture the geometries of the “sample area”: the pilot area, as well as the whole Multan Walled City, is made of very articulated buildings, with façades rich in decorations, and the urban pattern created by these buildings is very intricate. Metrical data acquisition of such a wide, complex, and crowded urban area with traditional survey techniques would request a lot of work, involving many people for a long time.

The rapid rise in new technologies has revolutionized the practice of recording heritage places. The advantage does not rely only on time saving, but mostly on accuracy and management of digital data. Digital tools and media offer many new opportunities for collecting and disseminating information about heritage sites. From a methodological point of view, an integrated survey has been planned combining topographic and laser scanning technology.

In pilot area, two macro-areas were selected and subdivided in six different sites.

A reference frame connecting all sites was created by a topographic survey carried out with total station. In the meantime, detailed survey was carried out using a laser scanner in all sites.

The fieldwork is only the smallest part in this kind of survey. Subsequent activities were carried out in Florence and Milan during the following months producing a digital model to create 2-D drawings and 3-D models. Graphic outputs were used by other work teams for many different tasks: conservation/restoration, structural analysis, architectural and urban planning, mapping, and so on.

The reduction of the energy demand of building stocks is a crucial issue for designers and public administrations, considering the huge effect on population in terms of health related to thermal comfort and to pollution, and in terms of energy costs. However, in common design practice just the effect of climate on buildings is considered, while designers, normally, since they are not provided with the suited tools for this, do not care about the influence of the built environment, which is proved in the literature to be huge. Herein we present the analyses of possible actions for refurbishing and reshaping the energy demand of the Walled City of Multan, focusing on three main aspects: urban scale, building scale, and solar energy exploitation. In detail, we analyzed and modeled the existing condition and possible improvements to mitigate thermal stress in urban areas. Then, we analyzed the energy demand of single buildings, modeling possible actions to improve indoor thermal comfort. Finally, we considered the possible ways to exploit the available solar energy to reduce the energy use in buildings. The aim of this study is then to assess the mitigation of outdoor heat stress conditions, within the urban environment; the thermal comfort conditions indoors; the operational energy need of buildings; and the fraction of energy that is possible to cover with renewable sources.

Urban outdoor air pollution is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to cause 1.3 million deaths worldwide per year. By reducing air pollution levels, it is possible to reduce the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer. Air pollution is a major environmental health problem able to produce serious risks to health from exposure to particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O₃) in many cities, including Multan, Pakistan. At present there are no national inventories that estimate air pollutant emissions in Pakistan, and regular monitoring of environmental air quality is still not systematic in this country. According to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), a major share of the emissions load from motor vehicles, although not quantified, can be attributed to a relatively small number of smoky diesel and two-stroke vehicles found in many Pakistani cities. The high levels of sulfur in automotive diesel (0.5–1 %) and furnace oil (1–3.5 %) are seen as a major contributor PM in ambient air. Emissions from large-scale facilities and a wide range of small-to-medium-scale industries (brick kilns, steel rerolling, steel recycling, plastic molding, etc.) cause a disproportionate share of pollution through their use of dirty “waste” fuels (i.e., old tires, paper, wood, and textile waste) and the use of diesel electric generators in commercial and residential areas.

In Multan, the burning of municipal solid waste is also a significant source of air pollution in the urban area, where almost 48,000 t of solid waste is generated each day, most of which is either dumped in low-lying areas or burned at low temperatures, generating PM, but also producing other carcinogenic pollutants.

The air quality monitoring program presented in this chapter aims at providing information for identifying main pollution sources and analyzing pollutant transport dynamics through the continuous measurements of aerosol, trace gas concentrations, and meteorological variables in Multan. Within this project a monitoring station has been installed at Multan Airport: this represents the first permanent air quality station working in this city. The activities have been carried out in collaboration with the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and the Environmental Sciences Department of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU).

The air quality system performs continuous measurements of meteorological variables, PM 2.5 and PM 10 (atmospheric particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 and 10 μm, respectively) and O₃. Measurement results will allow to improve knowledge in the field of atmospheric sciences and air quality monitoring in order to facilitate sustainable development resource management at local level. Moreover, in collaboration with the PMD, a preliminary “Air Quality Monitoring Plan” has been defined to collect available information on local conditions and to provide suggestion for the implementation of an action plan to improve air quality in Multan City such as the reinforcement of environmental regulations, infrastructural interventions (e.g., roads) to reduce dust emissions, and the organization of awareness campaigns regarding air pollution control at school and university level.

While Pakistan is blessed with adequate surface and groundwater resources, rapid population growth, urbanization, and unsustainable water consumption practices fell out upon the quality and quantity of water resources in the country. Worse water quality and contamination of lakes, rivers, and groundwater aquifers have resulted into increased waterborne diseases and other health impacts. Salinity of groundwater is further increasing. Industrial wastewater polluted with toxic chemicals, organic matter, and heavy metals is discharged directly into public sewers without prior treatment, and leaching of wastes into groundwater results into outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Multan town is among those most stricken by water pollution, and access to safe water is paramount important. In the framework of the Pakistan–Italian Debt for Development Swap Agreement Project: “Sustainable Social Economic and Environmental Revitalization in the historic core of Multan City,” we aim at proposing possible strategies for fulfilling such request under a number of environmental constraints. Chenab River is the main stream of the area and as well the main source of surface water and groundwater recharge. Contamination of water supply has become a critical issue in Multan, since the majority of households use their own wells. Concerning sewerage, the municipal facility is serving at present 55 % of the population. Only one treatment plant is currently available in the north of town. Sewers are currently overexploited, with chronic overflowing, arising from the combined effects of low capacity, silting, and inadequate control of industrial wastewater. We design here a water supply network with tanks and wells for the walled city around the three main bazars that will provide water to the buildings. Meanwhile it is important to make water quality analysis on the water actually used by the people. Regarding sewerage, the goal is to replace the present open drains with a closed sewer system, delivering to the main sewer pipes along the citadel’s perimeter. We propose a combined system (wastewater and storm water), which will significantly improve hygienic conditions in the area. In addition, in the past an improper disposal of industrial wastes from fertilizer plants and tanneries has caused a significant pollution of Hexavalent Chromium, posing with severe threats to human health. This calls for accurate analysis of the groundwater in Multan area. As such, one needs to systematically assess water quality both into wells and into sewer pipes. This may provide pieces of information for efficient and sustainable water management.

The aim of the carried out work is the study and the understanding of the urban structure and of the architectures of the city of Multan and the relationship between the Walled City, with particular attention to the pilot area, object of intervention, and the city as a whole.

Considering as essential an approach that can put individual architectures and the overall design of the city in relation, the task aims, through its components, to reach an analytical framework capable to address and motivate the overall strategies of the project of revitalisation of the historic core of Multan.

Searches have been developed near the offices of Multan development authority: with the only acquisition of the “Multan Town” map (printed at the survey of Pakistan offices, Rawalpindi), 1:2000 scale. This map has been surveyed and drawn during 1993–1994. It was noted that, in the part related to the WCM, the map, although georeferenced, shows hard mistakes that do not permit a reliable use for both road layouts and the identification of building typology or in any case of volumes and internal courts.

According to the historical and contemporary maps, satellite images, materials acquired, the city observation and the deeper knowledge of the pilot area located in the south of the Walled City between Haram Bazaar and Sarafa Bazaar, the following analytical operations were started.

The observations and reflections on the historical city of Multan conducted a series of general considerations that only the availability of iconographic materials of the past could enrich with confirmations and specifications.

The work components are:

In the first component, topographic maps on which to tackle the job of analysis and historical images to understand the origin and development of the urban parts of the entire Walled City, down to the scale of the pilot area, were collected and then summarised in an iconographic collection and in a first series of analytical drawings on the urban structure of the Walled City. In addition to this, the purpose of collecting and analysing cartographic and iconographic information was to identify the relationship between the structure of the city and the main street system where it was possible to recognise the presence of monumental buildings and significant public spaces.

Project proposals described here relate to the area of the Haram Gate, one of the main entrances to the Walled City, and a stretch of the Sarafa Bazaar in which there are significant handicraft activities. Both projects are part of an integrated program of interventions in those areas that relate to the underground infrastructures, conservative restoration and new construction buildings.

The proposals tends to a continuity with the Punjabi architecture tradition. The elements present in this tradition are an expression of a figurative and formal corpus but also are demonstratives of a close relationship with the climate, an inseparable aspect from architecture.

As well as the main rest places and transit are covered by large canvases for protection from the sun, even in the both proposals for Haram Gate Pavilion and for the Sarafa Bazaar Canvases Mobile System, the solar control take on a constitutive role.

In such a reality rich of history and rituals, as Multan Walled City is, a deferential and valid project of renewal has to take in account the delicate and precious dichotomy between the collective world and the private dimension. The project of transformation in keeping with the character of the city, has been guided by the understanding of the main building types from the analysis of the urban structure, that follows the typical Islamic urban aggregation and the shape of the territory.

The Pilot Area chosen for the urban renewal project contains all the main elements of the Islamic city: an historical gate, two important bazaars and the main public buildings represented by the shrines and the mosques. The project linked technical issues to the architectural ones and it represented an indication of renewal whose principles are applicable to the whole city. From an urban analysis of the whole city on its type-morphological characters, and through topographic and geometric surveys, more detailed data of each building were obtained to constitute a GIS document usefull to design the Masterplan. The Plan contained projects of new buildings and new public spaces related to the renewal of the public and worship places and to the restoration of interesting historical buildings. The project focused in particular on the design of the central Musa Pak Complex, placing new public buildings for the redefinition of the urban space, now deprived of some spatial references. A new pilgrim's house, the Musa Pak Pavilion and a new commercial building were designed in continuity to type-morphological characters of the city and according to the principle of improving local materials and traditional techniques of construction.

Urban mobility offers a unique opportunity to ensure development and radical improvement to the quality of urban life in the Multan City center. The traditional approach to transport planning usually aims only at solving technical issues, finding the solutions within its own discipline. On the contrary, we believe that transport planning is an integrated discipline within town planning and aims to promote an approach based on a reasonable and documented assumption. The scientific method aims to quantify the phenomena through the formulation of a hypothesis and the development of forecast scenarios.

The rapid increase in individual income leads to a physiological increase in the use of private vehicle: to curb this phenomenon it is necessary to develop an adequate, effective, modern, and high-quality public transport network and to limit the uncontrolled growth of road infrastructure. Moreover, together with the new public transport network, it is of paramount importance to redefine road sections incorporating lanes for unmotorized mobility, hence enhancing and regenerating public urban space. There are many recent examples, such as Delhi (India) or Bogotá (Colombia), among others, that show the effectiveness of similar interventions.

We propose a plan that consists of three steps: (1) a cognitive and qualitative analysis of the project area, (2) analysis of the existing transportation system, and (3) an implementation strategy divided in different phases (short, medium, and long term); for each scenario numerous design solutions and use constrains of the city’s street network have been developed. Our project also aims to characterize Multan’s roads and squares for achieving “re-balanced urban space”: multifunctional and multidimensional spaces not just only for motorized traffic but also carefully studied for public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists.

The proposed scenario is analyzed with GIS mapping techniques through which it is also possible to reconstruct the isochronous accessibility maps (comparative travel time analysis) and the PTAL (public transport accessibility level); this kind of scientific analysis permits highlighting the level of service and the index of accessibility in the Multan urban area.

A cost/benefit analysis of the proposed interventions (such as shuttle buses and MRTS) has also been developed, in order to verify the potential sustainability of the investment.

The buildings of the Walled City of Multan come from different historical ages with important examples of materials, traditional building types, and construction techniques. This is a great wealth but at the same time it raises several problems for the complex issues involved. In a such complex context, if we want to preserve the past as a foundation for the future, it is important to start a virtuous process through synergistic actions for the improvement of housing conditions. The guidelines don’t consist of individual projects but in a real and operative approach method: a friendly tool but at the same time a technical guidebook addressed to different types of users (owners, specialized workers, and technicians) for different levels of intervention: maintenance, repairs, and restoration.

In the guidelines for maintenance, conservation, and reuse in the Walled City of Multan, there are also the descriptions of the wooden elements, their decay, and structural phenomena, the best practices and bad practices for the preservation, and a technical sheet for interventions for wooden elements.

Throughout the Walled City many wooden elements in the building can be seen. This material is also used in structural elements of the building. It is not unusual to see continuous street facades of pure timber curtain walling with vertically sliding shutters. These shutters are used both externally for climate control and as partitions for interior spaces.

The facades of buildings can be characterized by different and important wooden architectural elements. In the glossary of materials, the wood elements are divided into these categories and the categories are further subdivided to explain the differences and varieties of these elements. The elements present different types of decay or defects, so the guidelines provide a glossary of these phenomena. Every defect or decay is described and illustrated.

The best practices and bad practices for intervention with wooden elements are explained and the rules and method of inspecting wooden structures are described. In addition, the principal interventions are organized and explained in the technical sheet, where problems are identified along with their corresponding solutions. The phases of intervention are described in a step-by-step manner with accompanying drawings and important prescriptions are highlighted.

Finally, the guidelines present a checklist for the inhabitants titled, “Has Your Home a Wood Structure?” This document can help inhabitants to recognize the principal problems of the wooden elements and structures.

The conservation project of Haram Gate represents a great challenge on an important landmark of the Walled City of Multan. For this reason and with the aim to test a method on a concrete pilot project, chosen in agreement with the MWC PMU, the work on Haram Gate has been developed as an executive project. Starting from a careful knowledge of materials and construction techniques, detailed studies on decay phenomena and set of cracks, the goal has been to define proper strategies for the interventions with specific solutions and proposals, always with the aim to preserve the existing building through sustainable, compatible, and noninvasive interventions. The difficulty of transferring the Italian experience to specific needs and problems of the local context as the weather (many products can’t be applied at high temperature), the availability of products normally used in restoration, and the lack of skills for the execution of the works have been the real challenges of the work.

Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, through the Academic Social Responsibility Programme called Polisocial developed in cooperation with Politecnico di Milano, has been called to assist the enhancement of capacity building aspect as a part of the overall programme focused on the Italian Collaboration Programme for Training and Capacity Building.

The production of the final report, related to the capacity building programme that could be promoted between the Politecnico di Milano and the Bahauddin Zakariya University, underlines the empowerment that the programme will generate.

During the Pakistani Mission, made by Lorenzo Maffioli, Project Manager Polisocial Programme, in February 2012, the several meetings made, gave the impression of the potential by creating a strong network between the different stakeholders.

During the mission, many meetings were organized with the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, its Cluster Development Centre for Light Engineering, the Punjab Small Industries Corporation and the principal departments of the BZU University. During the discussion with them, the opportunity to create a model to foster the local excellence and upgrading the youth’s capability were recognised. Those results may be achieved by twinning the education of the University, upgraded with the support of Politecnico di Milano, to the experience of the opportunities created with the engagement of the Chamber of Commerce and his network.

The concept of the approach will be described briefly through the different actions proposed to the Pakistani Boarder of Evaluators after an intense survey made within the departments of the BZU University by submitting questionnaires to the professor, the students and the academic staffs.

Sixteen students and one professor from the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering of the Bahauddin Zakariya University were involved in an on-the-ground preliminary survey of the Walled City of Multan. The purposed of this work was to understand the structure of the city and to develop a cartographic analysis designed to create the basis of metric-type morphology studies of the historical city buildings.

This experiment proved to be helpful in recognizing the historical and architectural heritage of the Walled City of Multan through an urban study that revealed the character of the city as well as its heritage. That task was not easy to implement in a country considered strong in development, where increasing economic pressure is causing numerous replacement operations of ancient artifacts.

The redrawing of urban spaces as a mapping operation was helpful in determining the shapes of the city, a study that had never been carried out previously. The study of the city, not just of its function but also of its morphological qualities, in the absence of reliable documentation, was for the students a path of initiation, observation, and discovery of elements useful to the understanding of the city structure through freehand drawings interpolated with satellite images.

The educational activity prefigured the desire to encourage students, administrators, and civil society in general to protect the unique historical and architectural heritage of this part of the Punjab region.