The Dubai Residenses and Hotel concept is based on the contemporary interpretation of a nomad encampment.
Dubai's rapid urban growth is following two distinct directions. One is the development of a symmetrical urban fabric with rectangular blocks linked with a network of roads intersecting at right-angles, with the aim of creating an "urban" effect where once was the desert. The other is that of enclosed "theme parks", isolated in their context, each one autonomous and decontextualized with entrance gates. You can go from a "Thai" village to a Spanish-style one, or a modernist-futurist one, each one enclosed and totally independent from the next, based on the model of the last development of Las Vegas where large theme parks have been built in the area between the "Strip" and the hotels where once stood the parking lots of the neon-light district of Las Vegas seen through his car window and described by Robert Venturi.
This scheme does not fall within either of these concepts but follows a third direction, that of a design drawn haphazardly, similar to a nomad encampment.
The three residential tower blocks are placed according to the sun's position and exploit the best views of the sea. They rise in a circle in defiance of the Cartesian coordinate system and do not stand at right-angles to the road; a free-standing concept created for vast spaces.
An urban scheme far from the concept of high-density planning, closer to the spontaneous and temporary nature of nomad encampments in the desert.
Fairing is used behind the towers to shield the interiors from the sun and the wind, while the glass fronts are oriented towards the sea and are protected by the wide overhangs of the staggered jutting-out terraces which are bounded by large pots of flowers. Therefore, on one side a vertical succession of hanging gardens overlooking the sea, and covered in vegetation, while on the back side a shell structure composed of a reticular steel frame covered with a translucent PVC membrane containing an open-ceiling foyer with access to the glass elevators. The apartments are reached by means of accessways looking onto this enclosed space shielded from the sun and the wind.
The living-rooms in all the apartments are separated from the terraces with large plate-glass windows. The terraces, paved in teak, are concealed behind a row of plants guaranteeing the privacy of a detached villa.
The towers are divided vertically in three blocks; the first two of 10 floors, the third of 5, separated by two hanging gardens which occupy the entire plane; the first, three storeys high, is found between the 12th and the 15th floor, while the second, two storeys high, is found between the 25th and 27th floor. Overall the towers are 33 storeys each having a heliport on the roof. The first garden on the 12th floor has a panoramic swimming-pool set in a palm grove and a spa with a wellness centre on three floors with a restaurant on the third floor overlooking the swimming-pool and jutting out over the open-ceiling foyer. The second garden has a sky bar and a panoramic restaurant opening onto the palm grove.
The first ten floors of each tower accommodate a hotel with ten rooms per floor for a total of 100 rooms per tower. The next 10 floors are occupied by a couple of two-bedroom apartments of about120 square metreseach, and two three-bedroom apartments of about160 square metreson each floor, for a total of 40 apartments per tower. The upper 5 floors contain 10 penthouse flats of200 square metreseach; two per floor in each tower.