Articles by Hana Abdel

We designed an art museum to showcase the ceramic culture in Yixing, known as the “ceramic capital” and renowned for its production of pottery using purple clay. The site was once the center of Yixing’s ceramic culture, with its numerous pottery factories and ateliers. This project aligns with the master plan to redevelop the area and envisions a cultural center for ceramics, incorporating ateliers and workshops while preserving the remnants of decommissioned factories.

Located at the border between Yeonhui-dong in Seodaemun-gu and Namgajwa-dong, the Layered House sits along a relatively quiet and peaceful main road. The building’s scale was determined by the widening of the road at a dead-end and the setback requirements due to sunlight restrictions from the north.

PAON Architects embodies a creative and collaborative work environment within a compact 180-square-meter space, thoughtfully designed to enhance the quality of life for the team. This studio prioritizes functionality while fostering a vibrant, open atmosphere that inspires innovation and teamwork. Given the office’s limited size relative to the number of team members, the layout carefully balances comfort and utility to ensure an organized, efficient workspace.

The proliferation of villas on Tehran’s outskirts reflects more than a desire to escape the city’s clamor and density. These homes embody a spirited pursuit of leisure and conviviality. The dynamic interplay of indoor and outdoor spaces, coupled with a playful exploration of different design eras, creates an atmosphere of intrigue and vitality. These villas are stages for the celebration of life, where residents and guests alike can wander, discover, and immerse themselves in a world of endless fascination. Spaces that offer a heightened incentive to stimulate the taste and curiosity of their subjects, where the unexpected leaves a special sensory quality in the mind of the viewer. The play of solid and void volumes, diverse paths, and stairways, not only strengthens the permeability of spaces but also offers a potential opportunity for viewers to climb over the building and become one with the fluidity of the spaces as their memories evolve.

True to its name Retreat Home by Neogenesis+Studi0261 is a get-away house to escape the frenzied hustle and bustle of city life. A holiday home to a diamond merchant in Surat, this elemental yet contemporary house has been designed to embrace extended families making room for warm interactions as it seamlessly connects the indoor with the outdoor. The idea was to envisage a space where rustic extravagance entwines with comfort, where every detail is meticulously crafted to create lasting memories. In its first appearance, the abode reveals itself as a two-tiered linearly designed structure partly camouflaged in the greens. The house sits there with a picturesque pitched roof, overlooking an abundance of greens waiting to express its narrative.

Home: When does a house become a home? What can a house do more than just provide shelter? Does the feeling of a space rely on tangible elements (furniture, decor, etc)? Or the feeling of a space is defined by the intangible (light, volume, wind, etc)? These fundamental inquiries into the nature of a home; the smallest built component of any society; formed the genesis of this particular project. 

With the heightening of ecological and social crises all around the world, architects have had to re-evaluate their role, impact, and design approach. As the “new needs” of people arise, new architectural processes must be explored to answer them. However, this still comes with much resistance from the standing practices and push for financial gain that often makes it difficult to implement more comprehensive solutions. These notions led the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) to launch their new 3-part film and exhibit series called ” Groundwork“, curated by the associate director, Francesco Garutti. Through this project, the CCA selected and followed three renowned contemporary architects/practices as they developed their concepts and field research, which allowed them to engage respectfully with their site and residing communities. It’s an up close and personal look into what motivates the selected architects to examine alternative ways of designing and the challenges they go through as the three parallel stories unfold.

Located in the serene surroundings of Khao Yai, a renowned suburban tourist destination just a three-hour drive from Bangkok, this site spans six hundred square wah. Surrounded by nature and offering stunning views of towering hills, it serves as an ideal location for a vacation villa to escape the chaos of the city and a wedding venue for intimate celebrations, providing privacy amidst an aesthetic ambiance. Due to the lower elevation of the construction site compared to its surroundings, subterranean stones must be removed to avoid the need for pile driving, with the stones repurposed as a retaining wall for the elevated construction site.