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September 21, 2006
Harmonising elements
Afroza Bhamani visits a house which incorporates personal innovations with modern architectural techniques
If all the dreams you associate with a house could be encased in a 500 yards abode, then the residence of Ambreen and Salman Kureshy, designed by a senior architect, stands as a manifestation of that dream.
The house was conceived as an uncompromisingly modern abode, with an elevation of vertical straight lines. The rectangular massing is completely clean with no overhangs, ledges or extra ornamentation. The austere vertical lines are set off against a sturdy X-shaped motif, repeated throughout the grillwork on windows, doors and balcony.
It is conceived as an ‘inward-looking’ house, as one enters the sandstone-red abode through a car porch partly paved with brick-red ceramic tiles, passing a lovely green garden into a fully paved entrance court with a contrasting white marble cascade fountain.
A 16-feet-high front door opens into a white marble foyer. The wooden railing of the marble staircase rising from the foyer repeats the geometric X-shaped motif of the grillwork.
The white marble of the foyer contrasts with the brick-red ceramic tiles and sandstone-red walls of the central courtyard, into which the foyer gives way. The courtyard, green with the foliage of potted plants and with a white marble fountain at its centre, is the central feature of the house.
Both floors of the house and almost all the rooms take advantage of this courtyard, giving it its ‘inward-looking’ character and simultaneously being the provider of light. The stunning factor of this courtyard is the air circulation planning in which all rules of aerodynamics and airflow mechanics have been applied where warm air tends to rise out of it, thereby setting up a continuous ventilation for the rooms all around.
The entrance leads to the formal drawing room, which is the main hub of the house. Keeping the general contemporary theme in mind the furniture is very welcoming and comfortable. A few Victorian pieces are also thrown around in such a way that each piece complements the other; the ethnic Pakistani motifs echoed in the furniture seem unforced and therefore genuine.
The most striking feature of the interior are the walls. Every inch of the house is covered with paintings by either Ambreen herself or other renowned artists of Pakistan. They are, in fact, an education in usage of colours and lights. There is never a dull moment on these walls.
The furniture is adorned with decoration pieces, curios and artefacts, collected at various times and from various places. There is no central ‘theme’. A piece from an ancient Gandhara statue sits next to a bronze rope vase from Nigeria and a flat ceramic piece by a well-known ceramicist. There are objects d’art and decoration pieces from all parts of Pakistan, from the Far East, Europe and Africa. Of particular note is an antique Swati tapestry, a number of Benin bronzes and elaborate mahogany carvings from Nigeria.
Ambreen and Salman’s house is an abode which is in harmony with its residents and the surroundings give an aura of tranquillity. n
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