OMANI SOUQ - AN ODE TO COMMUNAL ARCHITECTURE

School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada

Project idea

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

“To create a built space that leaves a footprint of our existence instead of an everlasting scar.”
Primitive cities possess this quality, they were built from earth and went back to Earth seamlessly.

Project description

DESIGN PROPOSAL
SITE SELECTION:
Strategically located near the airport for an inflow of tourists and at a place where there is a need for a local market.

FACTORS CONSIDERED FOR SITE PLAN EVOLUTION:
NEED FOR 2 SPINES
In a full-fledged souq the shopping activities happen around 2 prominent timings. One in the morning by everyday necessity users, two in the evening used by buyers coming for recreational shopping. The everyday/week users need not go through the entire souq to get their household chores done. Thus this division can facilitate the bifurcation of activities
NEED FOR NODES
A continuous stretch of shops will need a space of release; the nodes act as that element of release along with accessibility to various clusters.
NEED FOR SHOP CLUSTERS
A shop cluster is created to allow a certain compactness, use less space and lesser material. This intern leads to shops of various proportions.
NEED FOR COMMUNAL CLUSTERS
These shops have always replicated the sense of community that withholds in the Omani culture. Shops with the same items are thus clustered to create a communal pocket.
ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS – COMMUNAL ARCHITECTURE
Features of Arab cities:
• Streets ran like raindrops on a window pane.
• Unit architecture does not necessarily bring monotony with slight variations from standard measurements striking a balance between unity and diversity.
• Highly compact clusters observed just to share a common wall and save material and space
INSPIRATION – COMMUNAL ARCHITECTURE FROM NATURE
Patterns on sand formed by waves depositing sand in different directions. I perceived this as communal architecture by nature.

USER CENTRIC DESIGN
HUMAN SCALE OF THE ALLEYS
The configuration for these alleys should be half the height of the buildings in order to create
narrow shaded pathways called sikkas.
This allows a human to relate to the space and also allows comfortable pedestrian movement
since the entire souq is pedestrianised.
LANDMARKS WITHIN AND LANDMARK AS A SELF
The souq has got many landmarks within itself to give its users a sense of direction and location
Each market cluster has its entries defined by its gateways. A spine can be identified via its
domed nodes. The entry node is bigger than all and thus serves as one of the essential
landmarks.
As a whole the souq itself acts as a landmark with its massive domes and verno architecture
making it a reference point for the area.

PLACE MAKING
PARTICIPATORY NATURE OF THE OPEN SPACES
The purpose of the open plaza at the end of the souq is to be used as a celebration spot during the time of Eid with singing, dancing and enjoying evening kava since the clusters enhancing these activities fall in the vicinity. This location proves to be the apt space for the celebration.
At the starting, open spaces are left near the drop off where the basket weaver community or any other artistic community can showcase and teach their craft with different raw materials that can become a part of the design by creating a pavilion.
A COMMUNAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STREET AND THE CLUSTER
Each level of the unit interacts differently with the street or the public area. The ground floor being majorly shops is naturally a public driven space and thus physically engages with the street. Whereas the first floor is more of a private community space yet engages visually and behaves like a muse to the street.
Thus this community oriented design creates an extended relationship to the street.
INTEGRATION OF TRADITION AND CULTURE
A lot of traditional and cultural spaces were used from bedouin tents, majlis area, traditional ancillary spaces etc.
Also native trees are used on the basis of their purpose.

Technical information

LIMITED ENERGY USE-BIOCLIMATIC ASPECTS
VENTILATION
The souq enhances passive cooling systems. The grid of secondary and tertiary allies to the main spines allowed cross ventilation.
The courtyards and openings in upper levels helped in stack effect and enhanced the air circulation.
THERMAL INSULATION
The thermally insulating 400mm sun dried brick walls maintain a drastically cooler temperature within the shops this helps in avoiding modern cooling units like in those of ultramodern shopping complexes.
LEVEL OF SHADING AND NATURAL DAYLIGHT
The pedestrian pathways were partially shaded. The variation in the roof heights creates a combination of shaded and shadowed pathways.

LIMITED USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY MATERIALS
SPATIAL TYPOLOGY
The layout is compact in nature.
The shops are aligned back-to-back with common sharing walls.
There is a balance in the solid void ratio
SELF SUSTAINED STRUCTURE
The clustering and multilevel shading enabled a self shading structure thus no extra material was used for shading the facade of a unit and therefore as a whole.
DESIGN INVENTIONS COINCIDE WITH NATIVE ARCHITECTURE
Since the design coincided with functional characteristics so the use of native materials retained the verno-arabic aesthetics.