Project Description
PROJECT BRIEF:
Architect: Meheroze Al Hassan
Landscape: Meheroze Al Hassan and Sabin Huda
Interior: Meheroze Al Hassan and Sharfin Afroze Structural: Prof. Dr. Khasroo Miah (DUET)
Data, Network and Computer Support: Sabin Huda (DU)
Research Analysis: Prof. Sureya Huda (EUB)
Text and Story: Associate Prof. Meherub Al Hassan (BUP) Photography: Ayan, Azan, Maisur, Rayya and Raiyan. Consultant: Meheroze Al Hassan and PERSPECTA Type: 8 storied Residential Building
Area: 1200 sqm in 7 Apartment Floors, Car Park in Ground floor & Stair-Lift Room at Roof.
Unit Size: roughly 138 sqm/floor in G+7, 8 Storied Residential Apartment Building.
Construction Budget: $ 720,000 Usd (approx.)
Owner: Dr. Mohammad Zainul Abedin Builder: Comprehensive Holdings Ltd.
Materials: Major Local materials including Brick, Concrete, Paint, Sand, Tiles etc. Construction Period: 2014-2017
Location: 9 by 10 Lalmatia Block-D, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
DESIGN BRIEF:
The life in the overly inhabited mega city like Dhaka is something that everyone tries to escape. It is full of cars, noises and things that assault citizen’s senses. By treading out of our comfort zone, we architects plan to gain the ability to try a fresh lifestyle. The project is adjacent to the higher-middle-density residential area of the Lalmatia Housing Society in central western region of the capital with a few minutes walking distance from Master Architect Louis Kahn beautifully crafted National Parliamentary Architecture Compound. In front of the property, there is a T-shaped public 7.62 meter road that takes into account connection and the safety of vehicles entering and exiting. The building is few meters away from the road side green zone from the nearby academic open ground. Meheroze opined, by tilting one of the front side bed rooms with balcony, tries to gain the maximum aperture with the neighboring surrounding with a goal that echoes the greenness & openness of the urbanites Dhaka’s fabric.
DESIGN GOAL:
The goal of the project is the creation at a new artifact intended to set a dialogue with the surrounding context of open space, specifically with what the Play-field from Lalmatia School and college Ground and their Plantations and Trees at the north side of project, represent both in terms of material and function in particular that at the “maximization” of its interior capacity and to ensure an inspired living condition as well.
DESIGN APPROACH:
This desire combined with the program established with the client led to the creation of a building characterized by two important rectangular boxes covered with exposed brick to define the elements making up the conformation of the building. Meheroze said, “The choice of using brick as the main material is also underlined by the use of the same also inside the house as a distinctive element for both levels of the building along which the paths develop.” The tapered rectangular mass tried to connect with the openness of the front side north bound greenish field to ensure the maximization of Micro-climatic effects including Air ventilation, Thermal Coolness for series of trees, Audible Serenity & Visual comfort in a densely urban residential backdrop.
The score of the opening is deliberately in assonance with the elements that characterize the surrounding society of the historic Dhaka city. The two boxes define the north and east elevations, completely separating the perception of the two sides of the house to the south and west which closed onto the property boundary and guarantee a view at the green field and series of trees of school premises.
DESIGN VIEWPOINT:
Yet again Meheroze along with the PERSPECTA Design Team tried to design this single unit residential apartment building Rosetta Royal to craft a distinctive attachment amid societies and architecture, suitable consideration of natural resources and social retorts, through a notable balance between transparency of functions and adequate forms. Sometimes we learn about ourselves from being in relationship with society, and more about our responsibility when working for others, especially getting involved in designing a special featured project in any urban context. One thing that’s clear is that the changes we’re going through anywhere are changes they’re going to everywhere. According to Meheroze, “the Architect’s Design Duties & Responsibilities for Society has been something that is morally shedding a membrane and growing a fresh one and the journey never cease, rather keep on moving.”
Spatial Articulation:
The building on the ground floor is functionally conceived with a main entrance to the north. The vehicular circulation comes with a simple straight drive way provides car parks at both sides. The vertical Circulation spine of Lift and Stair has been easily accessed & viewed from the entry point along with other major services like Electro-mechanical room, Caretaker room, common Toilet at the back side of the building. Few chunks of Green zone & plantations in the ground level have somehow yet tightly been arranged in both the front and back side as well.
The spatial configuration of the top finds its fulcrum in the large organized Family Living cum Dining space with a central island and an enlarged front side visual access to the green, neighbor, openness, sky and tress. This central space connects both the right & left side wing of other functions like Bed rooms, Wash rooms, Living room, Kitchen etc. The eight storied small scaled yet space conscious Residential building has brilliantly been designed in such way, by architect Meheroze Al Hassan & PERSPECTA technical team, “which every single Apartment unit in each floor confirms is having the optimum amenities within and the best value as well.”
Roof Top:
The Roof level of Rosetta Royal has also been exposed to several urban activities & small functions like Greening with Gardens or Planter boxes, sitting arrangements with permanent or temporary benches, Common Multi-purpose hall or community space with washroom, Bar-B-Q setup with grilling facilities, Cloth-drying arrangements, chunks of landscape etc. and few more. Here Rosetta Royal is no exception and we designed to address such urban needs to give value to the dwellers of this little yet prioritized residential project as all possible ways.
Green & Landscape:
With no exception, Meheroze kept continue with Green effort at the very beginning of the project Rosetta Royal. The Entry gateway has to be accessed from road though front Gardens at both sides with several seasonal flower plantations as well as grasses. Back yard has also been arranged with few flower beds in the designated Landscape elements around the green zone in miniature chunks/islands. All the front balconies attached with Bed rooms are intentionally provided green zones to symbolize the continuity of the green zone from the Lalmatia College ground. The idea, as per Architect’s thought, “the green with Flowers, Grasses, Plantations & trees are free to move & access anywhere they like to do and as if they have been showing their solidarity with each other.”
LOST LINKAGE:
The Urban fabric of capital Dhaka city has largely been dependent on & influenced by the rapid growth of residential development in mainly private housing sector with no wonder. It arguably has become one of the part and parcel organs of the millions of city dwellers in & around Dhaka’s urban scenario and also a cherished life style symbol to them. The traditional Bengali houses with vernacular lifestyle have evolved for centuries to suit to the urban living pattern based on many reasons including Ability, Beliefs, Context, Design, Essentiality, Family formation, Generation, Needs & Tastes etc. Meheroze firstly tried to dig out and then started to re-establish the missing link among Aspiration to Architecture, Belief to Building, Context to Concept, Crisis to Completion, Dogma to Design, and Heritage & Hierarchy thru the planning of Rosetta Royal.
SUMMARY:
Any perfect Style of Design and Planning, anywhere across the Earth, is only supposed be conceivable, once Architects consider the apt awareness of Natural features and Sources of Heritage along with the innovation of Building Science, as well. And it should be given the optimal priority when it comes to engage in designing any residential apartment house in the context of overly inhabited mega cities like Dhaka with series of urban issues that often being overlooked. And getting a chance of working with any such residential architecture has always been special to the PERSPECTA team. Meheroze retorted that “we ever could take all such as the scope to contribute to the society and humanity at large, by solving one of the human basic needs-housing, in any extensively critical context of the housing crisis in our South Asian cities.”