Interiors defining corporate cultures

Text: Ar. Maliha Vahla
Photography: Hassan Gardezi

Today, with increasing western influence banks in our country are becoming more and more sophisticated and service oriented, providing its customer the peace of mind, secrecy levels, protocol and the utmost luxury of a corporate environment which he enjoys fully in the few minutes that he spends in the bank. Moreover, the building façade and interior of such corporate buildings need to be more and more eye-catching and unusual in order to gain publicity. You may also call it an urge to be different, very commonly found in this part of the world. Well, the architect of Dubai Islamic Bank, Flagship Branch has taken good care of such aspirations of the client.

Dubai Islamic Bank’s, Flagship Branch in Lahore is another glitzy building designed by Kalim Siddiqui and Associates. It is a true representation of the era of its construction where there is a boom in high rise buildings and the use of aluminum cladding, stainless steel and glazing on external façade and in interiors. These, being relatively new materials, very few examples of a successful and innovative use of them have been seen. However, like other recent examples of KSA, Dubai Islamic Bank stood out on the Boulevard in its use of materials, experimentation and construction details.