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Reminiscing the world of ‘Green Architecture’
– SA Residence, Gulshan
A contemporary architect, Ar. Md. Rafiq Azam is one of the most famous names in the architecture sphere reintroducing “Green Architecture” to its best.One of his most well known works is the SA Residence. It is located in one of Dhaka’s upscale neighborhoods, Gulshan.
The contemporary design has been merged with the urban-rural glimpse. The ghaat is one of the most eye-catching portions of the house. The building envelope of this three-storey residence is a pure square, constructed of a single material, cast-concrete.
The sphere, the universal celestial form, in this case is transformed to its terrestrial expression in the shape of a square. Considering the socio-economic conditions of Dhaka, architectural vocabulary is kept simple, with traditional spaces like the courtyard, pond, ghat (steps to water) and ample green to merge together urban and rural typologies in this urban context. The site is surrounded by multi-storied buildings as on-lookers.
An introverted design strategy was hence adopted, placing a water-court as a swimming pond in the middle of the house to ensure privacy. The South and South-East have been designed to bring in cool breeze during the hot, humid summers and the warmth of the sun during the winters. The central water court acts as a natural exhaust system, allowing hot air to escape and making the middle court a cool sanctuary.
Overlapping the Nature
– Karim Residence, Bashundhara, Dhaka
Karim Residence in Bashundhara covers a land area of 18 katha and built area of 12000 Sq. ft. The site; part of a neighbourhood, where buildings edge shoulder to shoulder, gave the work its internal logic and drew its architecture from its context. The project was designed by Ar. Salaudddin Ahmed, the founder of Atelier Robin Architects
The site, which claimed its stability from once a soft wetland, critically proclaimed its presence in the manifestation of the project and its internal relationships with its external conditions.
Overlapped being the concept, the project pushed its literal and phenomenal boundaries both in plan and in section. Through its spatial configurations, it allows the users to experience the subdued cultural spaces, which are often left out for being too local.
The work attempts to transcribe the temporality of life and living through its material construct. Of many materials to choose from, only a few were chosen for its realization- brick to contain its overlapped spaces, reinforced concrete to give it structural stability and timber to define its openings toward its context.
In doing so, the various parts of the whole, somewhat represent beyond the given and allude to have a conversation of its becoming. With its 134 doors and windows and pulled out verandas from the core to the outer skin and beyond, it only testifies its constant intention to be a part of the collective and be a part of a much larger fabric that all architecture dwell.
In the end, the work represents an interpretation of modern-day living with rich cultural values in the realm of domesticity.
Simplistic and Sensible
– EHL Premium Condominiums – Gulshan 2
One of the beautiful condo designs of architect Kashef Chowdhury is the EHL Premium Condominiums. The architect and his team Urbana, responded with an architecture that employs the most mundane of materials and ordinary finishes but treated in a manner so as to exude a certain sense of luxury. Abundance of greens, daylight and natural ventilation together with careful detailing of the limited palette of materials create an uncluttered yet warm aesthetics.
The necessary shading in the form of cantilevered slabs was taken as a point of departure to gain an additional advantage. While on the ceiling level the projecting planes provide shading, at the floor level the ‘ground plane’ is extended, interspersed with verandahs, green beds or voids. This then provides privacy from the road, while acting as a barrier to noise generated from the streets. All that remains visible are the clouds: a feeling of living in ‘condos in the sky’.
Generous cantilevering slabs running continuously along the perimeter provide more than adequate shading not only from solar heat gain but also from rain. The result is that peripheral walls, and their large apertures, remain fully shaded. And although provision for air-conditioning exists, all rooms and living spaces benefit from good natural ventilation. What is more important in the hot-humid tropical climate is cross-ventilation, which is ensured by placing the four bedrooms in corners, with windows in corner walls.
Living spaces are continuous – running the entire length of the apartment and therefore openings and balconies at either end ensure that these areas benefit from cross-breeze as well. All this help to effect comfortable interior spaces, without direct heat gain and have plenty of fresh air and cross-circulation.
Secluded Container Retreat
– Escape Den, Bashundhara, Dhaka
The ideal approach to a vacation house design is to make your home away from home feel comfortable, practical with a livable atmosphere. For the fashion entrepreneur Tanjim Haque and Asma Sultana, their dream retreat house is the perfect blend of form and space, oozing with sophistication. Taking on a bold move with shipping container architecture, Ar. Kazi Fida Islam and his River & Rain team have succeeded in creating a tranquil setting on the outskirts of the city.
“Apart from the structural execution, the complex procedure of transforming a shipping container in a cozy home was a substantial design constrain. The non-enchanting look of hard core containers needed to be converted into a comfortable and visually pleasing built form. The scale of individual container has been schemed in a way that both internal and external space dialogues with it.
The exposed steel structures thus create a harmonious effect.” explains Architect Fida. The steel frame skeleton transformed four pieces of shipping containers into a light-filled, three-storied house, spanning over an expanse of 134 sq meters approx. Completed within 7 months, the cargotecture structure does not hide its shipping container roots yet manages to make it look unintimidating and livable. The walls, floors and stairs were made from abandoned wooden decks used in ships, contributing to the sustainable approach of the design. The architects wanted to preserve the rustic feel of the materials rather than concealing the stories each container had from the travels by sea. The rustic romanticism the place exudes is impeccably out of the world, rarely a view to be experienced in a concrete jungle like Dhaka.
