Nusserwanjee Building Relocation

Introduction: The Nusserwanjee Building Project is unique in the architectural history of the subcontinent.
The Nusserwanjee Building is a 100 year old Kharadar landmark, named after Karachi philanthropist, Jamshed Nusserwanjee (Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, philanthropist, theosophist, the first mayor, the architect and father of modern Karachi). Today, it has been relocated, stone by stone, to become a part of the IVS campus.

History: The Nusserwanjee Building was originally constructed in 1903 by Jamshed’s father, Nusserwanjee Rustomji Mehta, as warehouse and offices of Nusserwanjee and Co., a very prosperous trading and manufacturing enterprise. An additional wing was constructed in 1919, using R.C.C. for columns, beams and roof, the latest construction technology then prevalent, and plastered rubble stone and coursed stone masonry. The building’s new history, so to speak, begins in 1991 the year Indus Valley was born. That year, 12 prominent architects of the city brainstormed for the evolution of a design for the campus of the new institution. A few weeks later, Shahid Abdullah, one of the founders of the Indus Valley, found the beautiful old Nusserwanjee building, then used as a warehouse and for offices, which was for sale in other words it was to be demolished. What followed was an impossible ambition to buy the building and move it to Clifton. The beautiful structure would be perfect for art and design studios. The underlying motives behind this decision were multiple to save the building from demolition, to introduce a novel method to save architectural heritage and provide a hands-on, once in a lifetime experience to the faculty and students in the area of