ZORAH RISE

AL ZORAH APARTMENT BUILDINGS

The project for the AlZorah buildings is articulated around three central challenges: first, its location on the edge between the AlZorah community and the highway, and the need to address both of these urban scales.
Second, its vantage point towards the mangrove and the challenge of providing a maximum number of units with a view; finally, the large built area required by the program and the capacity of the scheme to reconcile between the density of such an urban development while projecting the identity and communal outdoor quality of a resort, hinged on the creation of an exterior environment that is as pleasant and desirable as the interior of the units.

To achieve this, the project is conceived as a series of masses that are built up around the northern edges of the site, creating a dense edge facing the parkway, that cascades down with lower volumes towards the east and western sides of the plot, effectively forming a secluded and sheltered oasis within the inside of the plot facing the villas and mangrove beyond.

Within this sheltered environment, public spaces for residents form varied areas of interaction or quietude: a pool terrace on one side, a landscape grove on the other.

To complete the enclosure, a fourth low volume housing the gym and multipurpose areas stretches across the southern edges, acting both as an inhabited barrier between the street and the communal gardens and as a backdrop for the pool and public life of the residents.

On the street side, this low building provides retail spaces to the public, and thus mediates programmatically and morphologically between the scale of the buildings and that of the villas facing them.

Sloping up from street level, and accessible by foot from outside the plot, the roof of the multipurpose building rises up to a level slightly higher than the top of the villas, culminating in a public belvedere that allows views towards the scenic landscape of the golf course and mangrove.

To preserve the quality of the ground as a communal space, vehicular entrances and accesses to the buildings are constrained to the northern edge of the site.

Entrance lobbies form deep recesses cutting into the thickness of the buildings, and linking the communal grounds on one side to the surface parking on the parkway side.

The ground level and lobbies are wrapped in a single continuous surface composed of a rhythmic arrangement of white rendered columns melting into fences when needed to separate the parking from the green grounds.

Above the public ground, the three buildings rise, oriented towards the mangrove and view. Their layouts are compact, in an effort to maximize the efficiently of the floor plate, and reduce circulation patterns across the project. Carefully arranged in overlapping patterns of void and mass to preserve the privacy of each, the units again turn towards the view, with large glass windows and balconies extending the views inside, and providing light, shade or sun as required.

Project Size: 47,090 sqm
Date: 2016
Status: In progress
Location: Ajman, UAE

MG Partners: Michèle Chaya, Georges Maria
MG Team: William Wehbé, Yasmina El Chami, Karim Soussa, Maya Mousallem, Aline Sassine, Ismail Bdeiry
Engineering Consultants: Rafik El Khoury & Partners