Dhahran City, Saudi Arabia
2020
In an effort to qualify myself for this competition, with my entry I tried to answer the question:
“ What could be the new residential typology after the COVID-19 pandemic ?”
The initial idea and objective was to create an “ Individual House “ ambiance/ atmosphere in a multi unit residential building layout. Maximum care was given to optimum use of a restricted area and provision of independent entrances for residents and as for the flats to minimize the physical distance (not the social) and the spread of the virus.
Considering the entrances first, I have tried to manage independent entrance for each flat, having its own welcoming garden to allow the project to be more personalised and private to its user. This way, the projects created a variety of unique garden designs shaped by the inhabitants and creating a physical and aesthetic barrier to the neighbor without restricting socialization.
Beside the welcoming gardens, each flat on the Ground Floor has its own introverted private garden, thanks to the atrium created in the core of the building, taking full advantage of being in and out, which became very important in the special quarantine days. Considering the site features and the climate, the atrium would allow for a powerful natural ventilation for each apartment, minimising the A/C usage and improving the indoor air circulation and quality. Indoor spaces and balconies have been carefully designed with moveable and adjustable features to let the user modify and adjust the privacy level.
Without closed corridors, accessibility to apartments has been totally redefined in the project, to act against the COVID-19 problem. Another positive asset is to offer the inhabitants fresh and open corridors to minimize the concentration of viruses (It has been proved that viruses cannot live long in ventilated open areas).
The Roof Floor has different partitions and functions as required by the program. In addition to the program requirement, I found the opportunity to implement 104 solar panels of 300W, that will produce a total of 94,90 MEGAWATT energy per year, which means the building produces more energy than it consumes (25 apartments consumes aprox. 91,25 MEGAWATT per year). This allows the building to be totally self-sufficient in energy consumption.
