Villas in Muscat
- Sultanate of Oman -
I designed these villas while I was working with Huckle & Partners in Oman. In both cases two of the most important design considerations were to minimise the glare of the sun which is intense in this part of the world and shines most of the time, and to reduce the need for air conditioning by considering air circulation, insulation and shading (the external air temperature often exceeds 110° Fahrenheit).
The scheme in the first illustration consists of a pair of identical "semi-detached" 3-bedroom villas built on a small urban plot in Medina Qaboos. The climatic constraints and the need for privacy from the nearby neighbours combined to result in a design where the outside spaces and the openings were concentrated in the shaded areas. The arrangement of the internal spaces and the proportions of the elevations were controlled by an overall geometric formula which instils order and harmony to the whole.
Similar principles were applied to the design of the villa in the second illustration, except that in this case the building stands alone on a much bigger plot. The design is also harmonised by the application of controlling lines, but in this case greater use is made of the potential of the building materials for moulding of the forms and softening of the edges.
