The Aga Khan University Faculty of Arts and Sciences (AKU-FAS) Master Plan establishes a framework for the inception and long-term growth of a new campus on 560 acres of arid scrubland 30 kilometers outside Karachi, Pakistan. AKU-FAS will be the major component of Education City, a regional development of schools and institutes that will eventually cover 8,000 acres.

The proposed campus morphology is based on buildings around courtyards. The Spine and Fingers organizing concept—a sequence of large courtyards intersected by a cross-grain of pedestrian "streets"—provides flexibility to grow into the unknown future. Strategic growth can occur by extending the Spine by one or more major courtyards with flanking building fabric, while tactical growth can occur by extending the building fabric along the cross-grain pedestrian streets, extending the Fingers.

Courtyards and verandas are emphasized as organizers and condensers of human activity. At the core of this project is a commitment to making places for people, a precept that drives the master planning at all scales. The first phase establishes the first two major courtyards—the Convocation Green and the Academic Green—that will be the spaces of memory and identity for the life of the institution.

AKU-FAS will establish a benchmark for responsible development in the region, including social, cultural and economic aspects along with a new model for addressing environmental issues.