Urban Resource Center

The Urban Resource Centre (URC) was set up in early 1989 at the Department of Architecture and Planning of the Dawood College in Karachi. The objective of the Centre was to collect all available material on Karachi and update it through newspaper clipping and analysis. After a few months of its setting up, the URC became an independent registered organization and its governing body expanded to include urban planning related professionals, representatives of NGOs and community organizations from low and lower income areas, and activists from the Orangi Pilot Project-Research & Training Institute (OPP-RTI). The direction of the Centre also changed. The new members felt that Karachis official development plans ignored the larger socio-economic reality of the city and as such were unworkable and environmentally disastrous. They further felt that workable alternatives were required and these were possible only with the involvement of informed communities and interest groups. To promote ...