Dormitory Design - Semester 8 - IBA Campus Karachi

Husnain Lotia Residence, Karachi, Pakistan

KPT Tower Karachi

The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has announced that Aedas is the winner of an international architectural competition for the design of a new landmark waterfront development in Karachi, Pakistan.The mixed-use project will be the first such landmark building built in Karachi Port.

The scheme has two aims: to act as catalyst to some major regeneration initiatives planned for the port by KPT as it develops its land bank; and to provide a new landmark for this new Commercial Business District by the waterfront.

Endorsed by Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf, designs also include residential, retail and conference facility space in addition to its core commercial facility.The distinct form will be an instantly recognisable symbol. It responds to ecological concerns to reduce carbon footprint, setting a precedent in Pakistan for environmental building standards though the use of passive design principles and techniques of environmental control.At the centre of the development is an 80 storey helical tower with glazed outer skin.

This will house 102,000 sq m of office accommodation, on top of which will sit a 250-bed 5* hotel across the top 21 storeys. The hotel will also include 30 luxury serviced apartments and a swimming pool, and give immaculate views over the Indian Ocean.Three further towers echo the design, each of varying heights, arranged around a lake.

These will each include 280 serviced apartments with a further 70 apartments above 10,000sq m of high-end retail development. The scheme also features a 1,200-seat convention centre and exhibition hall and an underground 2,500 space car-park.

David Kingdom, project director comments:“Over the last six months we have worked to develop a concept design that satisfies an international demand for BCO standard office space and answer an extreme shortfall in 5* hotel and high class residential facilities identified by the Karachi Port Trust.

This is the first step in developing a large swath of reclaimed land at Karachi Port, a promising area of prime commercial and residential development.”

Aedas is being assisted by MM Pakistan and Mott MacDonald UK & Dubai. The project is due to start on site in April 2007.

Source: Aedas

Hright: ~300m

Floors: 80

Developed by: Karachi Port Trust (KPT)

Designed by: Aedas

Roses From Him

Roses from him
perhaps the best short story i have ever written.

With every passing moment I gazed down at the wristwatch and uttered prayers to see him here and soon. We had been married last year and were so very happy. Only last year, the news of our child arriving made us as happy as horses in a hayfield or maybe more. He was supposed to come back three hours earlier but there was no sign of him yet. I knew he was a man of his words and knew what he said and so very punctual, this increased my worries. I gasped in the cold air of early January and gripped my fingers so tightly that the wedding ring on my finger begin to hurt my hand. That made me even more desperate, now my eyes were searching for him in every direction. I was out on the doorsteps for a while now and the frost had made my face quiet numb. I touched my face and spotted tears rolling down my cheeks. The winter had made them so cold. And so was he, a mile away lying on the cold streets of Karachi, people surrounding the body of my beloved, my honey. Someone had knocked him down as he was buying flowers from a hawker. They were roses and I was allergic to them. Only if I could ever know whom these roses were meant for.