Design · Construction · Real Estate

We design and build places
that belong where they stand.

Saraye — Muzaffarabad, Kashmir

The Practice

Ardium is a design and construction practice. We take a project from the first sketch to the finished building, and we stay close to the place, the people and the materials it is made from.

Every project starts with listening: to the site, to how a space will be used, and to what is already there. We would rather reuse what stands and source what grows nearby than impose something that could be anywhere. The result is architecture that feels considered, durable and quietly of its place.

Design

Architecture and interiors shaped around the site, the program and the people who will use them.

Architecture
Interior design
Adaptive reuse
Spatial & brand identity

Construction

Hands-on delivery on site, with local trades and materials, from groundwork to the last detail.

Site execution
Material sourcing
Craft & local trades
Project management

Real Estate

Property that is planned, built and finished with the same care as the spaces we design.

Development
Feasibility & planning
Renovation
Turnkey delivery

Selected Work

Saraye at night, its long bamboo veranda lit with string lights — Saraye

A roadside inn and community hub

Location: Muzaffarabad, Kashmir
Type: Roadside inn & community hub
Scope: Concept, architecture, interiors, identity
Opened: 1 June 2024

The Brief

To create a physical space that carries the feeling of a saraye — a musafir khana, the traveller’s rest house.

Saraye was conceived as a roadside inn and community hub: a temporary stop for travellers, or for anyone who needs a break from the everyday hustle. The intent was to build something that embodies the essence of its surroundings, introduces sustainable and indigenous building practice, and gives the traditional a modern touch.

The site before: a row of roadside shops and a small tea stall — Before A building unit of shops and a small dhaba (tea stall).

Saraye after: the same roadside, now a lit veranda under the hills — After Reduced first to fit the program, then built up only with what the ambience needed.

Design Language

Three words anchored every decision on the project, from the floor plan to the cutlery.

Desi
Kashmir’s culture and indigenous ways of living, expressed through how space is used and through traditional practice.
Natural
A building in harmony with its surroundings, with nature brought into every part of the design.
Modern
The traditional, made contemporary through shape, colour and atmosphere.

Materials

Local, affordable and organic. Almost everything in Saraye came from within reach of the site.

A stone-strewn mountain slope near the site — Stone
Gathered from riverbanks and mountain slides. Used for pavements, walls and hand-cut washbasins — durable, and full of character.

A craftsman applying a mud coating to a wall by hand — Mud
A natural skin for the walls, applied by hand. The same clay shaped the cutlery and the decorative pieces.

A stand of bamboo growing near the site — Bamboo
Sourced for very little from a resident nearby. Its tensile strength carries the structure, and it shapes the furniture.

Reed mats
Roofing and window coverings
Fabric
Curtains, carpets, cushions, dastarkhwan, jute stools
Existing structure
The original RCC frame and metal, kept and reused

Open to the community since June 2024 — a place of good memories, connection and warmth.

Film: Arqam Naqash

Selected Work

Desi’s

A Pakistani restaurant

A dining room drawn from the streets of Pakistan, warmed with rattan, brick and brass.

Location: Bahria Town, Rawalpindi
Type: Restaurant
Scope: Interior design & fit-out
Opened: March 2023

The Idea

A restaurant serving true Pakistani cuisine, in a room that feels as local as its food.

The walls carry hand-drawn line art of the city’s streets — rickshaws, tangas and crowded bazaars — set against flat blocks of yellow, blue and teal. Around them sit exposed brick, deep olive green, cane-backed chairs and woven rattan pendants, while full-height windows open the dining room to the city outside.