Breaking the Mould: An Apartment Dissolving the ‘In-between’

 Breaking the Mould: An Apartment Dissolving the ‘In-between’...

Name: Studio Morphogenesis Ltd.

Year: 2016-2019

Location: Road No- 84, Gulshan, Dhaka

Client: Eastern Housing Limited (EHL).

| Notes from the Architect |

The client, namely Eastern Housing Ltd, considered this project as their most premium luxury development. The land was purchased at a very high price and it is situated in the most prestigious and exclusive part of Gulshan. It was emphasized that the project should be one of the landmark projects of EHL‘s new branding as one who undertakes high end luxury developments along with their mid-range and low- range projects. The high cost of the land also demanded that the quality and pricing of the apartments be exceptional to allow the project to be financially viable.

The client did not restrict the building within any particular typology, which allowed us to explore the opportunity to ‘break the mold’ of the typical residential buildings of Dhaka inspired by an unorthodox and innovative idea. However, the narrow, linear parcel of land presented formidable challenges in designing spaces and services.

An essentially modernist approach brought us to design residential units with clearly defined shared spaces and private zones. The ‘extrovert’ and the ‘introvert’ zoning of the plan are translated and reflected into building aesthetic. The building with slender proportion evolved as two definitive shells: one being a glass box at the north hosting the public and entertainment zone, namely the living, dining and TV lounge; and the other the screened box on the south hosting the private zone, namely the bedrooms. Large facades of glass using curtain wall at the north elevation creates dialogue at the urban scale. An ‘island’ of services comprising a store room, kitchenette and powder room separates and screens the private zone from the public.

A single large verandah gives each apartment a generous outdoor space for relaxation and fresh air. The kitchen is at the far western corner creating the only solid mass made of finished concrete.

The base challenge was to introduce curtain glass system in a formidable scale for a residential building in a context like Dhaka. The transition and termination were carefully handled both during design detailing and execution.

The screen façade was another part where cutting-edge technology were introduced. Apart from the basic paneling system a lot of thought was given behind the fixing technic and installation. The pattern was also formed through a parametric design process where the patterns for each panel were set from simulation.

However, constraints were evident with the unconventional dimensions of the site, with a long façade with much lesser depth and apparently very narrow façade with elongated stretch created challenging scenario for achieving standard solutions.

The target was later achieved through simplest solution by dividing the spaces into 2 to 3 zones arranging along the circulations. Instead of having segmented hierarchy of spaces the planning was done through a layered hierarchy. For some parts, the planning might reflect on the living pattern.

Our intention was to build a new image where the contextual pre-requisites of residential building was questioned. We emphasized to the developer to pitch the apartments to the buyers as a choice of lifestyle. In using unorthodox materials and planning we pursued our intention of designing an experimentally innovative residential building.

Project Team

Lead Architect[s]:

Shahla K Kabir

Suvro Sovon Chowdhury

Project Architect[s]:

Saiqa Iqbal Meghna

Shahriar Mannan

Sumaya Hasan

Minhaz Bin Gaffar

Consultant[s]:

Architecture: Studio Morphogenesis Ltd.

Structure: Eastern Housing Limited

Mechanical: Eastern Housing Limited

Electrical: Eastern Housing Limited

Interior Design: Studio Morphogenesis Ltd.

Landscape Design: Studio Morphogenesis Ltd.

Photographer: Noufel Sharif Sojol