(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The ancient city of Bhera, now in Pakistan, was once one of the most important cities and a thriving trade center of Punjab. Its location at the intersection of two major trade routes ensured its prosperity economically and culturally. As a result, numerous local crafts, which represented the culture and significance of Bhera, flourished during this time. Bhera’s architecture symbolized its affluence in the form of elaborate décor on building facades. Bhera lost its significance as a city after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the downgrading of town status from tehsil headquarters to a sub-tehsil in 1923. Moreover, after the partition of 1947, the influential Hindu merchants responsible for the city’s prosperity, migrated to India, leaving a cultural, commercial and economic vacuum. It was soon filled by the indigent and distraught refugees, who had enough trouble surviving without aid. Unfortunately, to this day, the majority of Bhera’s population is financially strained. The migrants who occupied the opulent abandoned properties could not form a connection with the spaces they inhabited. Their lives were alienated from their surroundings. Hence, most of these properties started to ruin. Today, multiple rooms are left unused in such properties, gathering dust or sometimes being blocked by rubble from fallen roofs. Furthermore, people associate success with imitating European and American lifestyles. Thereafter, they deliberately detach themselves from their traditions and isolate from places of historical significance. A craft center is proposed at the site of a dilapidated British-period police station in an attempt to develop a connection between people and their heritage. This paper debates the role of architecture in reviving the essence of a city. Does a public space, designed to enable a connection between people and their heritage, provide a strong enough precedent for people to embrace and adopt it in their current lives?