Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Type: Hospitality
Surface: 540 SF per Lodge [25 lodges + Hub Building]
Honors:
2020 Bees Breeders - Mega Dunes Ecolodges - Honorable Mention Award
Featured in Design Boom Magazine
In Association with Alejandro Mendoza
Abu Dhabi, located on the southeastern Arabian Peninsula along the Persian Gulf, has a hot climate and desert landscapes that are home to rich biodiversity. The native fauna includes a number of desert-dwelling species that can be found nowhere else on earth. The competition seek sustainable, innovative and creative solutions to design 25 eco-lodges and hub building.
The main focus of the lodges is to provide views of the natural desert scenery. A circular scheme allows the visitors to enjoy panoramic views of the dunes and the Arabian Oryx. At night, the panoramic curved window system in combination with the circular skylight located at the center of the lodges will provide the ultimate stargazing experience.
The structures consist of a series of vertical brise-solei feature elements that follow the shape of the lodge’s radial scheme. Using renewable sustainable cross laminated timber (CLT) technology, the structure members are meant to be built on site and to be removed and relocated. To ease the assembly even further, the roof system is proposed as a tensile membrane structure, making it light and easy to transport and install.
As part of the active sustainable strategies, each lodge and the hub building is supplied with an array of micro-crystal flexible solar panel technology integrated into the roof membrane structure. Also, a portable geothermal unit will be provided for cooling and heating each lodge. In addition to the portable geothermal unit, the hub will also capture wind energy through the use of small-scaled wind turbines in the central “Oasis” garden area.
The lodges and hub present an all-around covered deck design that gives the opportunity for visitors to enjoy the exterior views and also act as a passive sustainable design feature that provide shading at opening locations. In combination with the triple glazed, argon filled & low-e window system, the vertical brise-solei system and covered deck buffer will provide enough solar projection protection to better control heat transmission during the day.
