Model Town

Model Town
Lahore, Pakistan

Model Town is a garden town in Pakistan.
Garden City Type: Mixed (housing association / municipality / other)
  
Country: Pakistan
City: Lahore
Years of construction:
1921 Start construction
  
Initiator/client: Model Town
Architect or related:
Sir Ganga Ram

Rai Bahadur Sir Ganga Ram (1851-1927) was an Indian civil engineer and architect.
Heritage status: No
General condition of Garden City: Good condition

General description

Not a lot is known about the history of this neighbourhood in Lahore in Pakistan. Apparently it was established by advocate Dewan Khem Chand in 1921, to establish a cooperative housing society. He had proposed his ideas about the layout plan, which became the basic guide on which the layout was later planned. A Design Selection Committee was then formed to select a suitable layout plan and a competition was held. Of the 32 plans received, four were shortlisted. One of winners, N.L. Verma, was then asked to combine all the ideas into the master plan.

Architecture / Urban planning

Model Town is an extremely symmetrical planned neighbourhood. It consists of a square-shaped area with a large circular park in the middle (which was part of the original plan but was only developed in 1990). Roads divide the neighbourhood into ten blocks. Nearly 20% of the area consists of green spaces.

Is the large amount of green area indebted to the original idea of a garden city, in other aspects it clearly deviates from it. The layout is a very symmetrical and the houses were and are definitely not intended for the lower or working class population.

Sources


Legend