Articles by Hana Abdel

In the context of the post-Covid-19 world, both the mental and physical health of individuals has significantly deteriorated, even though life is gradually returning to normalcy. People still lack the internal spaces that can provide relief from the congestion, enhancing their overall mental well-being. This is particularly true for row houses tightly packed within a dense urban setting.

With the emergence of modern urban life, the historic fabric of Isfahan, like other historical areas in central Iran, has undergone significant transformations. Over the past century, the dominance of cars in cities and the extensive network of streets have fragmented historical neighborhoods, leading to the separation of old houses with central courtyards, making up about 60% of each plot’s northern area, drastically altering the city’s layout. To the extent that only scattered and isolated remnants of interconnected courtyard houses remain in the city.

How to Make New Relationship – WAVE(dot wave) is located in a residential area with densely populated multi-family and multi-household housings. It is larger than the surrounding areas, allowing a larger volume of construction in the town with densely populated small-scale apartment houses. The building owner wanted to secure the maximum permissible floor area ratio and requested a building with a neighborhood living facility and residential facility ratio of 51:49% with a 0% vacancy rate—vacant space. Planning a maximum volume in the area larger than the surrounding means adding extraordinary scale to the existing city and adding another concentration to the already populated city. In response, WAVE created a “gap” in harmony with the existing city scale and used the view of the gap to make a new relationship with neighbors.    

This pavilion was conceived as an exhibition space to showcase the eight North Eastern states of India as part of the 2023 Surajkund Craft Fair- an annual fair that promotes Indian handicrafts and provides a platform to artisans. The site is located in Faridabad near the historic man-made Surajkund Lake and was commissioned in the 10th century by King Suraj Pal of the Tomar dynasty. Today, the lake is inactive, but it is widely known for the Surajkund Mela, which attracts more than a million visitors during its three-week run.

This house for a young married couple is built on a long and thin site with a frontage of 2.9m and a depth of 16m, which was left over as a result of road expansion. By making use of the long depth of the building, a relationship between the interior space and the exterior is intended to be made, which could be possible only with a 2.7m frontage.