Excerpt: Anukrom by Venna Architects is a residence designed with spaces that foster a deep connection with one’s soul, culture, and tradition over generations. Using brick as a primary material, the house features a rectangular form, creating two courtyards, maximizing prevailing winds, and minimizing sun exposure. These courtyards create meaningful community spaces for the family and neighborhood.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Concept: This project starts with nostalgia. There was grief, dreams, and hope in their client’s voice when the architects heard the story. They tried to translate his emotions through spaces. They got inspiration from the poem by Emily Dickinson –
There is a solitude of space
1695
There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself—
Finite infinity.
At the site, an emotional preponderance of spirit held the ‘solitude of space’, offering moments of introspection. The solitude of space represents the opportunity for one to find a moment of loneliness to reflect on something in different places throughout the world. The poem’s focus on the soul relates to the idea of a unifying component. Thoughtfully designed spaces can create soulful connections from the past for the family over generations which allow people to engage with their souls, culture, and tradition.
Form Generation: The rectangular form creates two courtyards, maximizing prevailing winds and minimizing sun exposure. These courtyards also create meaningful community spaces for the family and neighborhood. The front yard serves as the main entry, with a kachari ghar (guest house) for Ibrahim Chowdhury and a private yard for gatherings.
A stair leads to the upper floor, with an open kitchen and a bridge connecting the family living and dining areas. This circulation spine is particularly defined by apertures on the roof to get sunlight and natural ventilation. The terrace connects the family living activities indoors and outdoors, enhancing the connection between the neighborhood and its surroundings.
At the south, the green compound, contemplated as a ‘solitude of space,’ creates an eternal tie between the husband and wife or between the children and their mother or future generations to the ancestors. The prayer space is reached from the family living to a solid concrete form facing the private yard, where the mother’s grave is visually connected.
It allows family members to see the mother’s grave after turning their heads to the left, offering a Taslim [a concluding portion of the salah, where one recites As-salāmu ʿalaikum wa-raḥmatu-Allah (“Peace and blessings of God be unto you”) once while facing the right, and once while facing the left.
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