ADHA Housing Design Competition
Abu Dhabi (UAE)
2023
Area: VILLA 5 BEDROOMS: 561.5 SQM and VILLA 6 BEDROOMS: 603.5 SQM
Client: ADHA
Performed services: Architectural Concept Design
Status: Design Competition
The plan has been designed based on cultural hierarchies and appropriate privacy levels, to ensure functionality and to implement the modern Emirati Housing needs. The villa layout is conceived to create a play between solid and voids, forming rooms and open spaces as necessary. The Semi-Private rooms (Liwan, Entrance, Majlis, Dining, Service Quarters) are located on the ground floor, with location, entry and orientation considered. An internal void (courtyard) creates a transition between the inside and outside, provides a shaded outdoor area, encouraging outdoor living and creating a microclimate to help regulate the high desert temperatures. The Private rooms (master bedroom, bedrooms, bathrooms, walk-in-closets) are located on the first floor. The moving of architectural shapes and the reduction of floor area on the first floor allow us to create covered terraces for the bedrooms and provide shading for the ground floor window opes and external spaces. The design is a 2-storey villa with generous floor to ceiling clearance height of 4.2m for the ground floor and 4.05m for the first floor. Both exceeding the minimum clearance height of 3.8m for single dwelling. The height ensures the scale and proportion of the villa is appropriate and consistent with the Abu Dhabi building context. The difference in floor heights creates a hierarchy of spaces, with extra height given to the semi-private spaces, with slightly lower ceilings in the private realm on the first floor. The overall Villa height is 9.55m from ground floor level to roof level.