C. 6	An Institute of Planning and Management of Human Settlements
	6.1	One of the fields specifically suggested to the Commission for possible inclusion in a future AKU was architecture. We have briefly described the various activities in this field that have been sponsored for many years by the Aga Khan and that make it natural to ask what role AKU could or should take in this field. When the Commission reviewed the field with the help of Harvard-MIT staff and the AKTC General Manager at its Third Meeting in May 1993, it found itself engaged not only with architecture but with other fields that, as the Chairman said, sheltered under the "broad eaves" of architecture. Urban and rural planning, the economic and social processes of urban and rural change, environmental problems and the relations of the built environment to development all came into view. The possibility thus appeared of an approach to development problems through architecture, the environment, both built and natural, and planning.
	6.2	We have recommended above the early establishment in AKU of an Institute of Islamic Civilisations. This Institute will certainly be engaged in important ways with Islamic architecture, it being unthinkable that Islamic culture could be presented without one of its greatest glories. The focus in this Institute will be on education, scholarship and research; we trust that it will grow up in strong relationships with Harvard, MIT, and other leading centres devoted to Islamic art and architecture, ultimately assuming a respected place among them. The Institute, as we conceive it, will not be concerned with the professional practice or training of architects or with much of the set of related planning and development problems that came into our discussions "under the eaves" of architecture. The Commission has therefore asked what it might further propose that AKU undertake on these subjects.
	6.3	Persuasive arguments were heard by the Commission that AKU should not engage in professional, first-degree education of architects. While first-degree architectural education in the Muslim world is mostly not of good quality, it is very abundant and constrained by national rules and regulations that inhibit creative originality. What is needed for the future, the professionals thought, is a series of institutions, rooted in the cultural conditions of different regions of the Muslim world, where leaders of the professions in the regions could seek and find guidance. The idea of a series of institutes of architecture and development crystallised. There should be as many of these as there are distinctive cultural regions in the Muslim world, from North Africa to South East Asia. They would be devoted to research, graduate and advanced professional education. They should be closely related to planning and other concrete development projects in their regions; they consequently need to embrace professionals in urban and rural planning and other fields, as well as architects.
	6.4	This vision of a set of institutes of architecture and development was to meet the needs of the whole Muslim world over the coming generations. It clearly went beyond what AKU itself might attempt to do. litit it seemed possible that AKU might develop one such institute in a particular region such as Central Asia; it might also act as a stimulus to the founding and growth of other institutes and serve as a link and resource for them. In further discussion of these ideas, the Commission has been conscious of needs to relate what AKU might do, not only to the programmes of AKTC, but to other activities in AKDN, such as the Rural Support Programmes of AKF and the Housing Boards. The University itself is already engaged through its community health programmes with the katchi abadis of Karachi and is bound to have general concerns with the environmental and planning problems of the vast metropolis within which most of its present activities lie. Close at hand, in the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, an AKTC-supported programme in urban design has already produced instructive analyses of Karachi's problems and the successes and failures in dealing with them.There are evidently various ways in which AKU may broaden and deepen its concern with the problems of Karachi (and hence with Third World cities generally). It may contribute not only through exemplary projects in the katchi abadis but through providing better understanding of the economic, social, and environmental processes that affect these cities. The planning and management of its enormous cities is now one of the urgent generic problems of the developing world and a worthy subject for AKU's attention. Likewise, the rapid and ill-perceived changes occurring in rural areas beckon for better attention and understanding.
	6.5	As the Commission's discussion of these ideas has evolved, we have wanted to embrace concerns with both the built and the natural environments, and with urban and rural areas. We believe there is a coherent body of subject matter here that is similar to but broader than thit which was originally proposed for institutes of architecture and development in the Muslim world. We now prefer a different title and propose that AKU aim to include in its future an Institute for the Planning and Management of Human Settlements. A suitable mix of architects, planners, and other professionals be needed for the creative research, writing, consulting, and advanced professional training this Institute should provide.
	6.6	The Commission has discussed several approaches AKU might take to the complex subject of development, in addition to the sectoral approaches it already has and will continue to have in health and education. The approach just described through the spatial and communal settings of developing societies is one that would have the attractions of building on the established professional ties and reputation of the Aga Khan lenterprises in architecture and historic 1preservation. We believe it can take an important ;place among AKU's future contributions to the developing world. But recognising that AKU cannot start many new enterprises at the same ,time, we have had to weigh priorities, and in this lease particularly against the claims of the Institute of Economic Growth and Society proposed in C.5 above. Our conclusion has been that the latter should be given priority, and that the Institute we are here proposing should only be started in the later years of the period we are looking ,ahead in proposing developments for AKU. We have, correspondingly, not tried to specify its ,staffing and activities as closely as we have for components of AKU we propose should be added Much more detailed planning will have, of course, to be undertaken at the proper time. We do, however, conceive that this Institute will be roughly comparable in its core staffing and funding with other institutes we are proposing, and we so indicate when we come to financial estimates in Section VIII below. The location of this Institute ought, if possible, to extend the geographic spread of AKU. The Commission has discussed sites as far-flung as Central Asia and South East Asia, but has deferred a clear choice to our successors in shaping AKU's future.
	6.7	As we have indicated earlier, the Commission's efforts to define a future for AKU in architecture and related subjects have been made with particular attention to the current programmes and plans of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. We foresee many opportunities and mutual benefit in close relations between the Trust and the Institute of Islamic Civilisations. The strategic plans for AKTC's future which Professor de Monchaux shared with us include a programmatic concern with architectural education in the Muslim world that will undoubtedly provide much valuable guidance to AKU when the time comes for it to launch the sort of Institute we are here proposing. And we are also confident that the continuing accumulation of experience in the architectural awards and historic preservation programmes will enrich the understanding of planning needs that AKU will have.

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