Maj. Saif Jolshiri

Maj. Saif Jolshiri
Simplex & Duplex Apartment · Jolshiri Abashon, Sector 05, Dhaka · 2023

In Dhaka, orientation is destiny. A west-facing plot in a mid-rise residential neighbourhood is, by default, a problem — the afternoon sun striking flat glass and unshaded concrete with an intensity that renders interiors uninhabitable by three in the afternoon. At Jolshiri Abashon, Sector 05, 23/90 Architects chose not to fight this condition but to choreograph it. The result is a multi-storied apartment building of 2,300 square metres across a 5-katha site — a building that performs its climate logic visibly, turning environmental strategy into architectural character.

The most immediate gesture is the facade itself. A deep, layered system of verandas and sky gardens wraps the western elevation, staggered across floors and planted with green — not as decoration, but as a thermal and visual buffer against the harsh afternoon sun. These recessed outdoor spaces function as a second skin: they intercept direct radiation before it reaches interior glass, create pockets of cooler air through shade and evapotranspiration, and establish a degree of privacy from the street below. From the outside, the building reads as a vertical garden — its white concrete frame punctuated by warm terracotta tones and cascading foliage, a facade that breathes.

The plan is equally considered. The building is designed to capture the prevailing south wind and distribute it actively throughout every unit — simplex and duplex alike. Vertical wind-cutter elements are positioned at strategic points on the facade, angled to deflect and redirect incoming airflow laterally across the floor plate. Rather than relying on passive cross-ventilation through aligned openings, this system ensures that air, once caught, is dispersed into the full depth of each apartment. In a city where mechanical cooling has become the default, this is a quiet act of resistance.

The building accommodates both simplex and duplex apartment configurations — a programmatic flexibility that speaks to the range of households within Jolshiri Abashon's growing residential fabric. The duplex units, in particular, benefit from the sky garden terraces, which become private outdoor rooms suspended above the neighbourhood — green thresholds between interior domesticity and the open sky. In its totality, the Maj. Saif apartment building proposes something Dhaka increasingly needs: a high-density residential architecture that earns its comfort not through energy consumption, but through the intelligence of its form.