Contesting smartness in an unequal city / Soha Macktoom and Aqdas Fatima

Who is smart in an unequal city? Discourses on rural/urban dynamics often homogenize “city” experiences, glossing over uneven terrains of liveability, particularly in developing cities of the Global South. Contesting this discourse is pertinent as cities get hotter under impacts of climate change, with variegated ecologies contributing to differentiated lived experience, especially as city aesthetics are driven by ideas of the “World Class City”. In the post-colonial context of Karachi –the largest metropolis in Pakistan– urban experiences of smartification are highly variegated both spatially and temporally. With an unofficial population of 25 million, and 62% of its residents living in informal settlements, the city hosts a diverse range of thermal experiences, as well as “smart” and “unsmart” technologies used to manage them. We combine visual analysis techniques with ethnographic data and use Karachi as a lens to explore and complicate the discourse of smart urban cities in the Global South. By forming a visual landscape using thermal imagery, we examine vernacular cooling practices, materialialities, and technologies, particularly as they interplay with spatial and socio-political inequalities. In our artwork, we portray the unequal city not only through aesthetics of the built environment, but also in the ways in which globally informed ideas of smartification interfere with culturally grounded practices. In doing so, we present multi-scalar perspectives on “smartness” when it comes to cooling.

Bio: Soha Macktoom is an Architect, with a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently working at Karachi Urban Lab, IBA, as a senior research associate and teaches in the capacity of a visiting faculty at NED University and Nazeer Hussain University. Aqdas Fatima is an anthropologist with a Bachelor’s degree in Social and Biological Anthropology from the University of Kent, United Kingdom. She is currently working at Karachi Urban Lab, IBA, as research associate. 

This artwork aims to break down Karachi’s dense old city area into three crucial elements that contribute to on-going conversations on heating cities: the “smart” built environment, the “unsmart” informal space, and mutually disintegrated greening practices. We use thermal imagery to visualize how varying material choices and cooling infrastructures interact with rising temperatures, with sketches superimposed to contextualize the elements explored. In the panel on the left, we collect images of high-rise constructions that utilize materials that are inappropriate in Karachi’s hot, arid environment. For south-facing buildings with glass facades, temperature readings as high as 66.6˚C were recorded, while stone buildings in the same orientation only rose to 24.3˚C. Other “smart” interventions such as solar panels, air conditioning units and cars reflected heat onto surrounding spaces. The panel on the right counters the notion of “smart” by investigating localized practices often labelled as “unsmart. However, practices such as the use of fabric for shade, clay pots for storage of drinking water, and make-shift stalls that can be re-oriented throughout the day, actively mitigate impacts of heat. The final panel in the centre depicts the way greening practices remain isolated from climate management. Imported plantations such as palm trees, roof gardens and seasonal flowers are characteristic of “smart” landscaping, serving little purpose beyond aesthetic greening. Contrastingly, rapidly disappearing native species such as the Banyan tree are routinely occupied by pedestrians and informal workers for its shade. Having visualized the disparities of smartness in the unequal city, we prompt the reimagination the smart city of the future.