Ar. Junaid Alam Rana is a distinguished academic and practicing architect whose work spans the intersections of architecture, philosophy, fiction, and urban theory. As an Assistant Professor at the Razia Hassan School of Architecture, Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore, he brings a deeply interdisciplinary and avant-garde approach to architectural education and practice. Currently pursuing his doctorate at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, his academic inquiry is grounded in the belief that architecture transcends functionalism, positioning itself as a philosophical and narrative-driven expression of human experience. He sees the architect not merely as a builder but as a thinker who challenges societal voids and envisions alternative futures, drawing inspiration from thinkers such as Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, and experimental architects like Piranesi, Matta-Clark, and Darden.
At BNU, Junaid Rana leads the Vertical Design Studio, also known as the Fictional Architecture Design Studio, where he cultivates a learning environment that is exploratory, narrative-centric, and provocatively speculative. His teaching philosophy emphasizes process over product, where students engage with architecture through diverse media—ranging from spatial storytelling and abstract drawing to sculptural modeling and digital collaging. He introduces his students to architecture as a medium of intellectual debate and phenomenological inquiry, instilling in them a sense of responsibility to critically shape the built environment. In parallel, his contributions to urban studies at BNU focus on reclaiming intangible urban memory through literature and mapping exercises, addressing the spatial and cultural complexities of cities like Lahore, and confronting the challenges of unplanned urban sprawl.
Ar. Rana's academic responsibilities extend to supervising undergraduate theses that engage critically with the theory and history of architecture. His mentorship has produced award-winning dissertations exploring themes like death and poetics in architecture, archetypes and mythology, and architecture's negotiation between idealism and reality. His own research and published works reflect this same commitment to interrogating space through multi-disciplinary lenses. From urban phenomenology in Stockholm to architectural metaphors in Japanese animation, his scholarship has appeared in numerous international conferences and journals including AMPS-PARADE, University of Kent, and the Estonian Academy of Arts. He also serves as the editor of Know+1, BNU's upcoming journal on architecture and theory, further cementing his role as a thought leader within the academic community.
Outside academia, he maintains an active design practice, consistently testing theoretical ideas through real and hypothetical architectural projects. His designs often emerge from poetic metaphors and sensory experiences, such as his loom factory project inspired by the rhythmic labor of workers or a house modeled on the logic of microchips. He is also an accomplished sculptor, using plaster and mixed media to craft cityscapes that evoke memory, decay, and the passage of time. For him, architecture is as much about the narrative and the emotive as it is about form and function. Through his interdisciplinary curiosity, philosophical grounding, and artistic expression, Ar. Junaid Alam Rana continues to challenge conventional architectural norms, offering his students and peers a profound and experimental vision of the built world.
