Alhamra Council of the Arts

Alhamra Council of the Arts

The Alhamra Arts Council , Z. Panj. الحمرا آرٹس کونسل ), or Alhamra Hall , Alhamra Cultural Center and Alhamra Art Gallery - a building in Pakistan in Lahore, designed by architect Nayyar Ali Dada in 1992 ^{[ 1]} .

It is located on a street laid during the colonial period, previously known as Mall Road, after it was renamed Shahrah Qaed-i-Azam. The construction of the complex was initiated by a commission led by Nayyar Ali Dada, who designed a room for a thousand seats for the Alhamra Art Council, of which he himself was a member. In the first years after independence, the Government of Pakistan allocated the organization a plot of land in Lahore for the construction of the building. However, for a long time, cultural events took place in the open. The auditorium was completed in 1979 and replaced some temporary buildings ^[2] .

This was followed by another three phases of construction, supervised by a government agency, the Lahore Arts Council, pushing the non-governmental organization, Alhamra Arts Council, out of the project after a dispute over land ownership. In 1984, offices and art galleries were built, housed in four octagonal structures. In 1985, a hexagonal theater with 450 seats was built into the complex. And in 1992, an octagonal object with 250 seats was built here for concerts and lectures. The buildings are located in such a way that they create semi-enclosed courtyards. Various polygonal shapes in their design are designed to enhance acoustics ^[2] .

In architecture, the influence of the Mughal architecture is noticeable. The complex is built using red handmade brick, which is superimposed on a specific shape. Bricks are interconnected by local mortar, which was used in the construction of historic buildings of the city - Fort Lahore and Badshahi Mosque ^[3] .

In 1998, the architectural design received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture . The jury described it as “a rare example of the use of flexible spaces, which provided an opportunity for a number of additions made over a long period of time, each of which, in turn, expanded, but did not detract from the general architectural value of the building” ^[4] .