The House of Courtyards / Studio VDGA

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Text description provided by the architects.Set in the city of gold,Dubai, this villa was one of the most challenging projects considering the diverse architectural languages that the city follows. Be it the towering skyscrapers, extremely modern boxed structures, or ornate villas, the city sees a lot in spatial expression. Various themes were scrapped, and many ideas were renegotiated till we found a form that very closely mirrors desert architecture.Being our maiden project in UAE, we tried to be very close to vernacular architecture and give full justice to the context. This design combined the principles of Vastu (Indian architectural guidelines) and the contextual relevance of the project. Set on a footprint of 30500 sft, the villa had elaborate user requirements. Balancing the space planning while creating hiatuses of visually pleasing architectural elements was always considered while designing. The house plan is dotted with courtyards that breathe life into the spaces.Massing in the elevations enables the self-shading of the structures while forming overwhelming sciography patterns. Sun path, summer, and winter solstice were elaborately studied to create climatically conducive environments. The courtyards remain shaded when the sun is the harshest, allowing one to freely use them across all seasons. Fenestrations also follow the principles of climatology, with the south façade devoid of any large openings and the North, East, and West being fairly open. High turrets are introduced intermittently in the design, allowing natural light into the interior spaces while cutting off the glare and harshness of the sun.The material palette was restricted to minimal so that we could balance the interior experience as well. The external textures were inspired by the desert mud-plastered look. Corten steel has been used abundantly in interior spaces and the exterior façade. Corten perforated screens cut off the direct heat radiation yet facilitate the flow of breeze. The landscape is kept local with emphasis on succulents, Palms, and Olives. Olive trees adorn all our courtyards, figuratively binding the entire house.This house is all about the overpowering color and texture of adobe and its combination with the hues of Olives. All the courtyards, landscape pathways, walkways, driveways & water bodies are made in a single type of hand-chiseled natural sandstone from the deserts of Rajasthan in India. Water features are kept natural. Ground cover in off-white crushed stones adds to our landscape palette. Natural rocks are used abundantly in the landscaped areas.