Client & Owner: Uzma and Turan Quettawala
Design Scope: Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape architecture
Design Team: Saifullah Sami, Bilal Yusuf, Fareed Ansari, Rooshan Zamir, Hasham Ali
Location: Defence Housing Society, Karachi, Pakistan
Consultants: Structural - Nafees Khatri, Mechanical & Electrical - Seljuk Associates, Plumbing - Matrix
Total Area: 10,000 sq ft
Completion Date: May 2025
Photography by: Saifullah Sami, Mohammad Bilal Yusuf
The form of this house came from a search for a sense of prospect and refuge in the Karachi dwelling.
A deep-set double-height void in the front facade opens up to the cool evening breezes from the west - a gift of Karachi - yet retains privacy from the street outside and shading from the low afternoon sun. A terrace inside the void offers prospect and refuge to a first floor lounge which the family of three spends its time together in.
The design of this terrace explores our idea of “cave” - a spatial archetype we feel works well climatically as well as from the point of view of shelter in the hot, dusty, noisy and bustling environment of Karachi.
The idea of cave permeates the house as it offers a variety of points of refuge and rest with views to the outside - some tall and expansive, others narrow and focused. A sky-lit, cascading wood and steel staircase with open risers connects all internal floors and brings light into the basement - itself a cool and restfully lit space to withdraw into.
The roof is designed as a social space as the family regularly entertains friends and relatives. A separate external stair encased in an open tower of brick and terrazzo brings guests to the roof from the rear garden. Solar panels on the roof provide shade for this purpose. Creepers will be planted in a deep planter cast into the concrete roof parapet at the front facade.
This is another project in which we have designed brick screens or “jaali” as an element to provide connection with privacy, light with shade and detail with form. The two major materials used in the house facade are brick and washed terrazzo while interiors feature terrazzo, concrete floors and wood. While the exterior has visual weight, the interiors have a luminous buoyant quality.