How Urban Design Shapes Life in Karachi: Movement, Mood, and Everyday Experience

In a sprawling, vibrant megacity like Karachi, where over 22 million people navigate streets, markets, parks, and sidewalks daily, the role of design is more critical than ever.

1. Road Patterns & Markings: Design That Can Slow Traffic and Improve Safety

One of the clearest examples of design influencing behaviour is the use of road markings and traffic calming patterns. Across global cities, clear lane markings, crosswalks, and surface patterns are used to:

• Slow down vehicles at critical points
• Increase driver awareness at crossings and junctions
• Guide pedestrians safely across streets

In Karachi, major roads like Shahrah-e-Faisal handle over 250,000 vehicles daily, yet often lack comprehensive traffic calming measures and pedestrian crossings that are standard in more walkable cities.

Studies on urban road systems consistently show that better spacing of lanes, signals, and visual cues (including textured pavements and painted buffers) can reduce traffic speeds and improve safety for all users. While Karachi’s traffic congestion is widely recognised, part of the challenge stems from design that prioritises moving vehicles over moving people — a gap urban designers can address.

2. Patterns and Physical Cues: Directing Pedestrian Flow

Patterns on pavements, textures on ground surfaces, and thoughtful layout of streets and walkways can influence how people choose their routes and how fluidly they move through urban space.

Research from other cities has shown that visual and tactile patterns contribute to better pedestrian behaviour and comfort. These design cues help people understand where to walk, where to pause, and how to navigate busy intersections — which becomes especially important in mixed-use streets and commercial zones.

Local studies in Karachi neighbourhoods like Johar Block-13 have also documented how poor sidewalk conditions, lack of crossing amenities, and inadequate lighting detract from walkability, discouraging people from walking even short distances.

Designing with movement in mind — for example, bringing walkable connections closer to residential and business areas — helps shape urban life patterns that are more comfortable, safer, and more active.

3. Public Art & Murals: Mood, Identity, and Placemaking

Urban walls in Karachi aren’t just surfaces — they are social and cultural canvases that shape how people feel about public space.

Recent academic work on Karachi’s graffiti and mural culture shows that these visual elements are not just decorative. They participate in a process of placemaking — the transformation of space into place with identity, meaning, and social context. As murals replace aggressive or political graffiti with creative and cultural imagery, they help transform how users emotionally relate to those environments.

Public art in cities around the world — whether murals in commercial districts or site-specific installations in parks — has been shown to:

• Activate public interest and engagement
• Enhance emotional well-being and space perception
• Encourage walking and social interaction
  …all of which contribute to a stronger sense of belonging and safety in public places.

In Karachi, groups like Vasl Art and I Am Karachi have used murals to reflect heritage, diversity, and community narratives — encouraging residents to see their city as lived space, not just transit routes.

4. Urban Design & Street Life: Towards Placemaking, Not Just Space Making

Underlying these specific interventions — road markings, pedestrian flows, murals — is a larger principle: placemaking. Placemaking is the process of turning public space into something meaningful and valuable for the people who use it.

Good urban design invites people to:

• Walk more and drive less
• Stay longer in public areas
• Feel safer and more comfortable
• Engage socially and culturally

In Karachi, many public spaces remain under-utilised or uncomfortable due to design that prioritises vehicular movement over pedestrian experience. By integrating principles such as:

• Accessible sidewalk networks
• Visual cues that signal safety and priority
• Street art that enriches identity
• Context-specific traffic calming
  …designers and planners can transform how people use, perceive, and enjoy the city.

Conclusion: Design That Understands People, Not Just Plans

Every line drawn, surface chosen, and pattern applied carries more impact than we often recognize. Urban design is not only about organising physical elements — it’s about shaping how people feel, move, and experience their city every day.

Design is behavioural.
Streets teach us how fast to drive, patterns show us where to walk, and colours tell us how a place should feel.

For Karachi to become more livable, safe, and humane, its designers must think in terms of people first — creating streets that slow traffic without sacrificing flow, walkways that invite use, and public art that gives meaning to space. In doing so, we don’t just design better cities — we design better urban lives.

Sources & References

Urban movement & traffic:

• F. Khalid, S. S. Hussain & H. Qureshi, Analysis of Road Infrastructure Problems in Urban City, Karachi, International Journal of Membrane Science and Technology, 2024.
• R. Majid Memon et al., Traffic Congestion Issues, Perceptions, Experience and Satisfaction of Car Drivers/Owners on Urban Roads, Mehran University Research Journal, 2025.

Pedestrian & walkability:

• Urban Walkability in a Megacity Context: Examination of Johar Block-13, Karachi, Global Social Sciences Review, 2024.

Urban art & placemaking:

• S. S. Khan et al., Identity, placemaking and territoriality in Karachi’s graffiti culture, ScienceDirect, 2024.
• R. Tan, Y. Wu & S. Zhang, Walking in Tandem with the City: Exploring the Influence of Public Art on Encouraging Urban Pedestrianism, Sustainability, MDPI, 2024.
• Vasl Art & I Am Karachi wall mural projects, I Am Karachi | Walls of Peace, Vasl Art website.