One Hoshang in Karachi is a new residential-led mixed use development that responds to increased international property demand in Pakistan. The brief sought to create a highly sustainable apartment building of international level design and living standards, with a selection of shared spaces to foster a community of residents.

Set on a corner site within the Clifton Karachi cantonment area, where Hoshang Road meets Abdullah Haroon Road, the design retains the façade of a colonial style heritage building to create the ground and first floors of a four storey podium. Two retail spaces at ground level activate the street frontage, and a museum to explain the history of the building with artefacts from the site is located on the first floor. The upper two levels are slightly set back and house staff accommodation, car parking and residents’ storage. Façades of the podium feature bespoke ‘mashrabiya’ screens at the second and third levels, and vertical fins on the fourth, allowing for continuous ventilation of the floors.

A new 34-storey tower rises from the podium, embellished with intricate patterned screens that take inspiration from Mughal and Sindh patterns. Vertical planting softens the transition between the podium and the tower. The fifth-floor roof of the podium and base of the tower houses residents’ amenities including a pool, spa, gym and events space. The tower offers 31 apartments, one per floor, with 3-bedroom residences on the lower levels and 4-bedroom residences on the upper levels. The top two floors connect to create a 5-bedroom duplex penthouse featuring a cut away façade which carves out terraces on each corner, and creates a crown structure to mark the top of the building.

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