Yousuf Khalil

Postgraduate Award 

University of Cambridge 

"The judges described this ‘stunning, temple-like’ project as ‘iconic in its approach’ and leaving them ‘wanting to see more’.

They said the student ‘had not taken a single wrong move’ and designated it ‘incredibly memorable’ in how ‘so well considered’ it was."

AJ Student Prize Postgraduate winner Yousuf Khalil

Project description

This project investigates the intersections between British colonialism, bureaucracy and poverty in Pakistan’s railway communities. Inherited colonial bureaucracy and its impact on land management and resources is presented as a persistent factor in consigning working-class communities to live in squalor. A series of interventions is proposed to counter this in Lahore, with stringent zoning to allow the revival of the land. The former British locomotive repair facility Mughalpura Workshops are reimagined, embracing the informality of everyday life and creating the fabric to connect communities.

Tutor citation

Yousuf’s project proposes a series of simply constructed steel structures placed across a vast former railway site in central Lahore, Pakistan. The scheme deftly uses architecture to navigate the politics and bureaucracy of this post-colonial site in a way that releases its potential to support local communities. Aram Mooradian.

All about Yousuf

  • University:

University of Cambridge

  • Course: 

MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design

  • Project:

Urban Canopies 

AJ Student Prize Postgraduate winner Yousuf Khalil
AJ Student Prize Postgraduate winner Yousuf Khalil