a.d.r.p _ Architecture Design, Research, and Practice Lab

The Land Art:

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Returning to the Place: Inspired by the natural topography of the desert climate, the project aims to provide a public environment that is reminiscent of the nature that used to surround Abu Dhabi's everyday life. The dynamic, undulating forms of sand dunes created by only the wind and the movement of the land, itself is an art well beyond any human creation. The endless suspenseful ridge curves generate emotions of longing and the surfaces present deep contrast based on their relationship with the sun. The specific landscape is calm yet powerful offering the most intriguing art form created by nature. Dune Scape proposes a scenario of an outdoor space where people of Abu Dhabi can return to their origins and regain a sense of place. In lieu of placeless shading and green spaces, the kind of public space will reattach the people back with the indigenous nature while letting them comfortably repose and interact.   

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The Pray: Praying, a ritual that is repeated five times a day for many people in Abu Dhabi is considered as the most important activity of the day for many Muslim people. While working, relaxing transferring to different locations, people need to cease to reconnect with the god. Design of our day to day environment should provide spaces where people can effortlessly place themselves in the moment of uniting mind and body, gratitude, recollection. The morphology of the Dune Scape is created orienting towards the Mecca with the intention to provide public spaces where people can seamlessly move from one activity to praying whenever they need to. 

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Sustainable Well-being:

 

Considering the local climate conditions in Abu Dhabi with high outdoor temperatures in summer and zenithal sun positions demand specific strategies for providing comfortable outdoor spaces. Many modern developments including the Masdar City itself the design includes as many passive means to cool spaces and introduce breeze to the daily lives of people. These passive design strategies include narrow streets, gravity cooling, stack effect towers as well as thermal mass to buffer the temperature swings.

 

Dune Scape design also incorporates these passive strategies to create livable microclimate conditions while harvesting energy from nature. The ridges create natural landform where the high and low regions generate natural airflow through the hollow spaces within the structure supplying cooled air to the pedestrian level. Ceramic cladding landform serves as thermal mass reducing the sensible temperature during the day time. The bifurcated pedestrian walkways in between the dunes are intentionally narrowed to receive enough shadow during most of the daytime while the sun is high. The undulating overhead surfaces cladded with the flexible BIPVs will be the main feature creating diverse shapes and patterns of shadows depending on the time of the day.