New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- In the late 1950s, a young man from Lahore, fired by Marxist ideology, landed in London to study architecture and politics. The time of building then was dominated by modernism, concrete factories-offices, cubism, and asbestos-infected, standardised prefab houses.

Now in his 70s, Kamil Khan Mumtaz, one of Pakistan's most celebrated architects, is the subject of a book about his life and works. The Time of Building: Kamil Khan Mumtaz and Architecture in Pakistan was launched earlier this year at Mumtaz's alma mater in London, Architectural Association, one of Britain's oldest architectural institutions, founded in 1847.

Some 50 multinational journalists, alumni, students and researchers, packed the Association's lib...