Banjaiga Architectural Magazine

Living in Pakistan, the summers are almost year-round and the heat is often unbearable. As soon as the month of June strikes, we tend to spend our days holed up indoors, closing the windows and curtains first thing in the morning, trying to avoid any traces of the sun. But sadly, just to escape the scorching heat, we most often deprive ourselves of the precious hours of daylight that are so abundantly available to us during the long summer days. This not only results in a much steeper electricity bill for the more artificial lighting we use instead but also leaves the inside of our homes dull and gloomy, resulting is general lethargy during the day.

Today, let’s talk about some ways you can design your home to let in more light, but without the accompanying heat.

The Architect has attempted to maximize the use of meso-spaces, using a verandah against an open courtyard. It works perfectly in the climate. Used bamboo, unpainted plaster. , some bricks.

Conceived as an inclusive public and event space, IO functions in collaboration with its sister space “café sol”. It provides the opportunity for community building and promotion of arts and culture. While café sol has a very warm and cosy ambience, IO offers a contrasting experience with its dark, futuristic and cyberpunk interior with a hint of cosmos. By considering the client’s interest in the cosmos, as they have named their space after sun(sol) and Jupiter’s moon(io), the architects extracted four concepts.

1) infinity
2) stars
3) solar system and platonic solids
4) dimensions and perceptions

The small scale and occupancy load of the space played a major role in developing the aesthetics of the space according to the four concepts without compromising the functionality. The space is divided into three zones, the performance area, bar and the pubic area.

An effective and evolving ecosystem of spaces is accomplished through the intentional combination of spatial zones, designed to accommodate and anticipate changing organizational and employee needs. The places that bring people together need to provide choice and control over where and how they work. They need to respect and reflect who the people are as individuals, teams and organization. Each office space should have their own breakout spaces to connect to the exteriors.

An Architect’s own house is often self-expression of one’s own design ethos and ideas. This house was envisioned as an urban retreat, where the indoors and outdoors become one. The focal point of this house is the courtyard garden, the unbuilt space which is wrapped by the built areas thus offering a private outdoor space.

Before we get into the argument of which window is better, let me first define for you what Aluminum and UPVC windows actually are.

UPVC is the acronym for Un-plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride, which is a rigid and chemically resistant form of PVC. And Aluminum, as the name suggests, are windows made out of the silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal. When the development of UPVC windows was being materialized, local salesmen referred to it as “White Gold” because a vast majority of customers switched from Aluminum windows to UPVC windows, which in turn profited the manufacturers.
However, over time people have come to realize that both types have some good points as well as bad ones.

The project was developed with an insight to give youthful energy to the restaurant by creating pockets of greenery throughout the space with cascading plants; softening the harsh lines and adding pops of colours.

This office building was designed for DG Cement Ltd to manage their 7000-ton/day cement production facility. Placement of the comparatively minuscule building on the 1 square mile site was of critical importance as it needed to be adequately noticeable while overseeing the vastly spread-out production facility & capturing the serene setting of the Salt Range mountains in the background. Considering that the site location was at least 150 km from any major city, the design intention was to create a naturally well-lit, comfortable & conducive work environment while attempting to integrate with the surroundings.