Architecture and the Fold

Project Type: Studio Exercise

Title: Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly  - (6 weeks Exercise)

Student: Fawad Nadir Osman - (3rd year)

College: National College of Arts, Lahore.

To fully integrate the democratic principles into the architecture of the building it was necessary to develop a process which would have democracy in its core. An attempt was made to identify all the dissimilar elements and systems and by reconstructing a continuous architectural language through which those elements were to be combined while still maintaining their integrity within a continuous field of other free elements. 

Area and on-site Circulation mapping

Volume and nodes mapping

 The eventual form had to be 'viscous' a form that could only be made possible with internal motivations with existing factors, as they develop internal stability in direct proportion to the external pressures exerted upon them.

Form generation w.r.t to initial data input (Rhinoceros 3D-Grasshopper plug-in )  

On a more surface level, the parliament building was to provide transparency to the public as they are equal stakeholders and should not be left out. To provide open spaces to the public so they use their right to protest, gather or celebrate right in front of the assembly.

Structural layer overlapping 

Aerial View

Interior: Assembly Hall

Final Form

Final Form

The concept is driven from the notion that two ideologies might have different views on how the country should be run but at the end of the day they would be running for the same thing. This concept is embedded in the building where all the disparate elements working on the site (utility, circulation) are blended in to form one continuous form creating uniformity and celebrating difference at the same time.