FLORENCE RESIDENCE

Florence Residence
Simplex Multi-Apartment · Basundhara R/A, Block-M, Dhaka · 2024

Basundhara R/A's Block-M carries the particular density of a neighbourhood that has been built out quickly, its plots filled and its streets lined with buildings that compete for presence. Plot 4383 on Road 04 sits within this fabric, a 4-katha site from which 23/90 Architects has produced a G+8 building of 1,350 square metres whose most immediate architectural statement is its frame. A tall, narrow concrete portal rises the full height of the building on one side of the facade, its two vertical columns connected at the summit by a horizontal beam that projects beyond the building edge to support an angled canopy. This frame does not contain the building so much as assert its vertical ambition, giving the tower a clear edge and a legible silhouette at a scale that the surrounding Basundhara streetscape can read from a distance.

The facade behind this frame is composed in a layered palette of dark-toned cladding panels and lighter concrete surfaces, with narrow balconies at every floor edged in black steel and planted with trailing vegetation. The contrast between the dark facade surface and the pale concrete frame creates a strong figure-ground reading that gives the building a visual weight disproportionate to its modest footprint. At one of the upper floors, a small accent element in warm amber-gold draws the eye upward along the building's vertical edge, marking the transition between the main building volume and the rooftop level above. The vegetation cascading from the balcony troughs softens this otherwise precise and controlled composition, adding texture and seasonal variation to surfaces that could otherwise read as severe.

The rooftop is the building's most considered space. A generous terrace is detailed as a complete outdoor environment: a timber-decked sitting area with concrete bench seats, a vertical garden wall densely planted with climbing and hanging species that forms a living green backdrop to the terrace, and dark-toned metal louvres screening one edge to provide shade and visual enclosure without closing the space. A concrete canopy structure overhead frames the sky and gives the terrace a sense of architectural completion. The cumulative effect of these elements is of a rooftop that has been designed as a destination rather than a residual, a place where residents will genuinely choose to spend time.