Coastal Institute of the Arabian Gulf

American University of Sharjah, College of Architecture, art and Design, Sharjah

Project idea

The mangroves have proven to be the most efficient coastal guards and natural water purifiers that adjust to harsh marine environments. The large cluster of mangroves located within the site creates a visual juxtaposition from an urban scale and an experiential perspective. Recently, the organic reserve has been at risk of deconstruction for commercial purposes. The proposal intends to preserve that natural element by increasing its importance within the site. The landscape design aims to highlight that live matter by introducing a complementary element that would amplifies the blurry edge of the mangrove reserve. Not only does that increase the importance of the mangroves, It would also highlight the built Landscape proposed. The element of landscape that is introduced would act as a mediator between the sharp edges of the surrounding landscape and the blurry organic edges. That would potentially complete the lacking mediator within the site.

Project description

Passing along from the landscape site design, the project intends to create a contrasting condition be-tween the solid edge and the or-ganic contour. Since the building is relatively far from the park, there must be spatial and experiential qualities that would attract the pub-lic. In response to the landscape de-sign the building. The building be-comes an important element in the urban landscape by settling at the end of a hierarchical procession. It also creates a series of juxtaposing elements in the local region based on the repetition of a specific struc-ture in order to produce such spa-tial qualities. The contrast between the solid and the curving surfaces would then be experienced differ-ently based on procession towards that structure. The close interaction with the juxtaposed elements be-comes a sublime unordain condi-tion, that would create a hierarchical importance of the building within the larger site.

Technical information

In the initial part of the process i began ex-ploring different methods in order to find
a structural order to the project. That order would transcend from drawings that were created based on creating a module that
was then repeated to create this pattern above. The vague drawing created would
then be analysed and deciphered in order
to highlight the major elements the draw-
ing is expressing. The analysis would then transform into a more defined and meas-
ured forms and structures. A concluded
grid was formed with different hierarchical importance. The measured unit were then repeated again and placed as an underline
for a spatial section. Therefore, the concep-tual section begin to appear on the bot-
tom.