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Bristol Hotel is one of Karachi’s most iconic hotels of the pre-partition era. I was very excited when my client approached me proposing a drawing of Bristol Hotel. This building holds a special place in his heart, as this hotel now houses offices some very old law and accounts practices. My clients visit to one of these offices is quite frequent, and so was his father’s since the inception of their business practice, hence Bristol holds quite a nostalgic value for him.
Located in Bizerta lines, the site offers quite a lot of maintained natural vegetation, such as neem, champa and palm trees. Hence, it was a treat for me to capture all of that along with the architecture. The 51 window arches offered an opportunity for me to populate this building with the presence of people, which you won’t find in actuality. Hence it allowed me to bring back some life into this 100 year old building.
Amidst the relentless decay of architectural heritage, a splash of color to play with the multidimensionality of the city’s urban landscape.
An upcoming series of the poles and wires scattered all over Karachi. These guys define not only the character of our city, but they also define the architecture of Karachi. They have to be incorporated in our designs due to their omnipresence on site. These are more than just poles and wires, they represent the intertwined lives of the people of Karachi.
Located in Civil Lines area, designed by Architect Moses Somake in 1910, and named after his son, Ellis Edward.
It’s populalry known to host Cafe Grand, which was quite visited by elites, such as Ms. Fatima Jinnah, and the Quaid himself. It is such a well maintained heritage site, thankfully. Do visit this building around 6.00 am and notice the details, the stone work, the wooden doors and windows. It’s quite unfortunate that during the preservation of the building in 2012, some of the bricks were heavily chiseled in order to remove the patina. What a shame.
It was quite an amazing experience drawing this for the client. Throughout the entire process, the client was quite involved. This building was surely special to her.
This was one of my very first commissions for a private residence. Private residences are not regular works of architecture, they have a very strong sense of place, there are numerous markers which evoke strong sensorial experiences which trigger nostalgia. Sometimes our homes are vessels of memories we create from childhood to adolesence to adulthood. The Gill House is one of those home.
This was drawn for a family who relocated from Multan to Islamabad, they left their house, but took with themselves a mere visual documentation of their home.