A large residence for a different lifestyle
Dubai, UAE
The project began with a clear brief: to design a spacious private residence in Dubai, UAE, nestled within a verdant neighborhood where landscape architecture plays a starring role. The client envisioned a contemporary residence that feels both expansive and connected to the outdoors, while also providing refuge from the region’s intense heat and swirling desert dust.
To bring this vision to life, we crafted apartment units wrapped in generous floor-to-ceiling glass surfaces, allowing uninterrupted views to the lush exterior. Each room opens to a private terrace, blurring the line between inside and out. But in a climate where the sun can roast your coffee before it hits the mug, transparency needs backup. That’s where our second skin comes in.
We designed a perforated secondary façade that envelopes the terraces and softens the harsh environmental conditions. Drawing inspiration from traditional Mashrabiya screens, we introduced grand, arch-shaped openings—because let’s face it, arches are timeless, and they don’t just look good, they perform. This breathable layer promotes natural ventilation and passive cooling while filtering sunlight and blocking dust, creating a shaded microclimate ideal for desert living. Think of it as sunscreen, but for your house.
On the north side, shielded from the most aggressive sun, we curated exterior gathering zones: a pool, a fireplace, and BBQ stations—because even sustainable homes need to grill. These common spaces are designed with semi-privacy in mind, tucked away from direct street views but still open to breeze and conviviality.
The building itself is intentionally compact and efficient—not in a minimalist way, but in a “no-wasted-space, maximum-envelope-use” way. This high volume-to-surface ratio dramatically reduces energy loss, making the building thermally efficient (and less demanding on air conditioning, aka the lifeline of Dubai).
Designing a sustainable large-scale residence is a bit like designing a spaceship in the desert: form, shade, airflow, and orientation all play critical roles. While green architecture is often more straightforward in small-scale housing, we embraced the challenge and proved that size doesn’t have to compromise sustainability—it just makes the puzzle more fun.