N+M RESIDENTIAL VILLA

Catholic University of Colombia, Faculty of Architecture, RIBA

Project idea

The N+M Residential Villa complex of 4.758.97 m2 located in Dhurhan. Aiqsur, Saudi Arabia with arid climate, is connected by 3 main roads in a high quality residential context to the north and south a desert landscape. It is thought as a solution to privacy and a new approach to a different and pleasant living experience in Dhurhan, by reflecting on the relationship between natural spaces and public spaces- for community building and fostering life experiences in a creative social environment. It manifests itself in an extroverted architecture, where the void is a crucial part as an element of composition to provide adequate ventilation in the spaces and generate balconies that foster the spirit of community and privacy, that have been of great help in maintaining a dynamic design.

Project description

The volume is fragmented for a spatial production that provides links between the public and the private through spatial sequences that evolve around the human being, adapting to new life experiences. It responds to the context and orientation where additions emerge that contrast with the dynamism of the facades, through repetitions and sequences providing privacy to the interior.

Filters are proposed from the exterior to the interior of the project, by means of transitions on the first floor from the public to the private area through vertical and horizontal circulations connected by spatial sequences, that reflect the identity of the building in having sensory experiences in its journey from the exterior to the building as from the building to the housing units. This way residents can walk around the building through a spatial continuity where new experiences are involved, thus building community without losing privacy in their surroundings.

From public-private spaces of the complex, various daily activities are promoted, interconnected by routes, allowing spatial sequences with multipurpose spaces such as gardening, leisure, walking, sitting and playing. These distinctive spaces offer residents options in their daily lives, as a private part of the complex that reflects the identity of future residents.

Generate a design inspired by geometric modules of a prism which creates multiple compositions and flexible interior designs through assemblies, prioritizing horizontal voids. This composition generates shades for thermal and visual comfort against the arid climate, as well as panoramic windows and balconies. A design born of vacuum, to provide adequate ventilation in spaces while maintaining the privacy of public and private areas, which have been of great help to highlight this extroverted architecture in design.

Technical information

The proposal concludes with a contributed construction system, based on repetitive modules. With this, the use of industrialized systems based on aluminum formwork as a solution to develop the project in less time and with high profitability, since it allows building with an agile and versatile system, as well as the use of CONCRETE as a structural and finish in exterior and tectonic areas.
We can say that the beauty of the building in its entirety is the volumetric formation, with its faces finished with materials almost independently.

The proposal responds to the context and orientation through passive compositional operations from which subtractions emerge on the façade and double-wall elements inside as thermal insulation for energy efficiency.

By creating an adjoining structure, it responds through sustainable passive solutions that are less aggressive with the environment as part of
the building's energy strategy. That said, the project makes a contributiton to minimize the enormous energy expense that the building produces before, during and after its construction.