Arif Hasan, is a Pakistani architect, planner, activist, social researcher, and writer. He is a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the country's highest award for its citizens.
Early life and education
Born in 1943, Arif Hasan migrated with his parents to Karachi in 1947. Hasan studied architecture at Oxford Polytechnic, UK from 1960 to 1965. He received his school and college education in Karachi; studied architecture at the Oxford Polytechnic, UK from 1960–1965; worked in architects' offices in the UK, France and Spain for three years, and returned to Karachi in 1968 to establish his independent practice. This practice slowly evolved into dealing with national and International urban planning and development issues.
Career
Architecture
In 1968, he started his own practice in Karachi.
Current selected involvements
Architect and planning consultant in private practice
Documenting Karachi's history and development issues and the process of social change in Pakistan
Member, Sindh Cultural Heritage Technical and Advisory Committees of the Culture Department of the Sindh Government
Member, Governing Body of the Karachi Public Transport Society
Activism
He has been involved with the Orangi Pilot Project, Karachi since 1982. In 1989, he founded the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi of which he is a founder and chairman.
Some previous involvements
As Consultant in the 1970s to the Appropriate Technology Development Organisation of the Government of Pakistan, developed models for sanitation, housing and the conceptual framework for research on low cost building materials and environmental issues
As Principal Consultant of the Orangi Pilot Project, applied and modified the models developed for the ATDO to the self-help philosophy of Akhtar Hameed Khan, documented them and their social and physical impacts and promoted their expansion in different areas of Pakistan and abroad
Promoted the ATDO/OPP concepts with modifications for different urban and rural contexts as consultant and advisor to different multilateral and bilateral development agencies, government institutions and policy issues, national and international NGOs, and the Aga Khan Network. This led to the establishment of a number of development organisations such as Thardeep
Was a member of the Governing Boards of the International Institute for Environment and Development, UK; Karachi Water & Sewerage Board; Karachi Development Authority; National Fund for Mohenjodaro; Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Karachi; Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Karachi; Karachi Metropolitan Transport Authority; Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund; Thardeep Rural Development Project
Member of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal's Task Force 8 ; Drafting Committee of the National Housing Policy of the Government of Pakistan ; Government's 2007 Task Force on Pakistan Vision 2030.
Member of the External Review Committee for the Aga Khan Programme for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard; Senior Fellow of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics; and chairperson of the Federal Government's Task Force on Urbanization; and Member, Academic Committee and of the Architecture Board of Studies at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi
"Understanding Karachi: Planning and reform for the future", Karachi: City Press.
The Unplanned Revolution, Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Planning and Development Options for Karachi, Islamabad: Shehersaaz
The Scale and Causes of Urban Change in Pakistan, Karachi: Ushba Publishing International
Hasan, Arif and Mansoor Raza, Hijrat Aur Pakistan Mein Chotey Shehr, Karachi: Ushba Publishing International
Hasan, Arif and Mansoor Raza, "Migration and Small Towns in Pakistan", Karachi: Ushba Publishing International
Hasan, Arif, Asiya Sadiq Polak and Christophe Polak, The Hawkers of Saddar Bazaar, Karachi: Ushba Publishing International
Hasan, Arif and Mansoor Raza, "From Micro-finance to the Building of Local Institutions: The Evolution of Micro-credit Programme of the OPP's Orangi Charitable Trust, Karachi, Pakistan", Karachi: Oxford University Press
