Saifullah Sami Architect

20/10/2025

Our housing project for the Bohri Community under construction.

28/09/2025

Design Scope: Architecture, Landscape architecture

Design Team: Saifullah Sami, Raza Aziz, Rooshan Zamir

Location: Hawkes’ Bay, Karachi, Pakistan

Consultants: Structural - Nafees Khatri, Mechanical Electrical & Plumbing - Seljuk Associates

Total Area: 1,800 sqft
Completion Date: February 2025

Photography by: Keen Eye

This beach hut looks out not only towards the Indian Ocean but also towards the mangrove forests - a fast disappearing natural asset of the city. To this effect, the pavilion-like structure offers various vantage points.

To create a sense of prospect and refuge, a cantilevered roof above the ground floor deck affords an unhindered panorama of the ocean. A lighter pergola roof of bamboo spans the first floor to offer a shaded stepped terrace served by a bar and bench.

The interior space is laid out as an architectural promenade towards the sea. A sequence of expanding and contracting spaces - including an interstitial cascading staircase - before the final release at the beach-front.

The environment of Karachi’s coastline is highly corrosive with deteriorated hulks of beach houses littering the beaches. As a protective measure the exposed faces of concrete are encased in white sandstone.

Reminiscent of a beached vessel, the design of the plinth is that of a raised plateau with a tapered face to break the force of the nocturnal high tide.

The form of the house is yet another expression of our search for an architecture of “platforms and plateaus” - to use Jorn Utzon’s phrase. The floor as a dominant architectural element assumes an important place in our work because of its role in creating a place and in creating a grounded human experience (we’re never too far from a horizontal plane………)

Local light quality is also important for the definition of place. At this beach hut the strong Karachi sun plays off of masses and filters through linear elements. The shadows cast bring a sense of repose in an environment of high solar exposure.

The much-maligned tree Conocarpus - itself a type of mangrove - is incorporated into the landscaping of the beach house as this is its true habitat.

06/02/2024

21/10/2023

“Horizon” - a 16,000 sqft space for Habib University Karachi. Featuring expandable classrooms and other creative formats for spaces of collaboration. More images coming soon.

21/10/2023

ROOF GARDEN for a LEED platinum factory: the program required us to design a landscape on the roof of a double basement parking structure in a factory. This became an opportunity to manipulate the section of the roof slab (designed flat but not yet constructed at the time of our induction into the project) for light-catchers that also become planters. In the center of the scheme we continued the sectional idea to make an amphitheater partially covered with a wood pergola. At centers, corners and other critical points we designed planters deep enough for trees. This landscaped roof, when completed, will become a recreational and cultural space for the company. Photo credit:

21/10/2023

Video credits: Bisma Siraj

20/10/2023

Karachi Public School Malir
(In collaboration with Open Door Design Studio)

Counterintuitive though it is in the Pakistani context, the idea of movement is pertinent to a school because it is conducive to active inquiry, curiosity and exchange. This is especially true in the changing worldwide context of primary education becoming freer, explorative and less regimented. The inherited colonial models of symmetrical spaces and facades are being questioned.

Yellow signifies circulation in the building - path as a legible figure symbolizing energetic movement. circulation elements like stairs and bridges are externalised to engender a sense of processional and community.

The main entrance to the North courtyard is defined by a yellow wall that opens a portal off the Badam Tree Court. This is an essential turning point in the promenade as it draws the visitor into the more intimate embrace of the North Courtyard.

The curving white terrazzo steps of North Courtyard - symbolic of Malir Nadi (River) - cascade into the amphitheater within South Courtyard. The steps and the amphitheater are two elements of a hardscape that serves to connect the North and South Courtyards. More importantly perhaps, they welcome students and teachers to sit and enjoy the outdoors.

Two yellow bridges are a key feature of the promenade at the upper levels. While single loaded walkways to the classrooms move people mainly along the building edge, the bridges create an experience of suspension in the middle of the void. Juxtaposed with the multi height window of the library - itself cantilevered outwards into North Courtyard - the bridges are part of a dynamic movement experience not often associated with schools.

The road facing facade also happens to be the north face of the building. Therefore it is arrayed with a sequence of windows and a multi height patio which bring natural light into the internal spaces. However, the idea of the recess with pergola roof is introduced to signify a sheltered refuge giving prospect onto the world outside the school - another orientation still novel to Pakistani schools.

The structuring of the facade is achieved with pier walls that imparts a sense of order which allows play to take place.

The other urban facade is the west facing one with three-storey concrete louvres - a formal strategy that not only relates to the Karachi sun but also establishes an architectural scale to be taken in from the highway approach from Malir River.

The east and south facades open up to create connections with the masterplan of KPS Malir - mainly it’s outdoor spaces.