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TVS’s newest project offers a contemporary look at traditional Moorish-Arabic vernacular
The Rotana Arjaan Dubai Media City is a new mixed-use development located on Dubai’s Al Sufouh Road, adjacent to Jumeirah Beach and the Palm Island. With a distinctive design aesthetic of clean geometric forms underlying an updated Moorish-Arabic vernacular, the complex provides a new environment for residential, commercial and retail activities.
The primary functions are located in a 167-unit serviced apartment tower and an office tower (32 and 16 storeys, respectively), set perpendicular to each other and linked at the retail podium level by a glass-roofed atrium. Lush courtyards, roof gardens, and shaded terraces provide a welcome respite from the local climate, while carefully designed and detailed wooden trellises, fountains and pools add another layer of organic richness to the project.
Capping each tower are twin domes of steel and stone. The primary structural system is cast-in-place concrete, with an exterior skin of masonry block and pre-cast concrete panels finished with painted stucco. Window surrounds, archways, and other primary exterior details were created out of cast and moulded GFRG (glass fibre-reinforced gypsum).
An innovative ‘component method’ was used in the contract documents to categorise these numerous Moorish-Arabic details and assist overall collaboration between the design team and the local architect.
Perhaps one of the most dramatic spaces in the structure is its two-storey glass-roofed atrium—an expansive column-free space featuring a central linear pool. An exterior lattice of steel tubes spans across the atrium, supporting the glazing by means of a smaller scale secondary frame carried just beneath the primary structure. This steel tube lattice provides a subtle visual connection to the abstracted ‘woven’ details found throughout the building, including the atriums’ arcaded archways and patterned stone floor.
To mitigate the intense Dubai sun and corresponding large solar loads, low-emissivity bronze-tinted glass was selected for the atrium and tower glazing.
On the interior, the selected architectural materials reinforce the underlying design approach of a modern+Arabic vernacular, incorporating wood, ceramic tiles, stonework, and plastered stucco. Lobbies, public area, and residential furnishings were specified by the client.
In addition to the primary programmed areas, the Rotana Arjaan features a number of specialized function spaces, including a full-service conference centre (with six meeting rooms), restaurant, poolside snack bar and fitness centre. Continuing with the overall design philosophy, the retail program is provided in a souk-like cluster. Anchored by a five-outlet food court, the souk’s diversity of tenants currently include a sundry shop, hair salon, travel agency, mobile phone dealer and bank.
The landscape design incorporates plantings of indigenous palms, ferns, and grasses, their calming green tones nicely juxtaposed against brightly coloured ceramic tiles and stone pavers. Interior and exterior water features are used to create focal points and directional pathways, with the primary swimming pool situated above the podium in a rooftop garden.
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With its striking infinity edge facing the beach, the resulting dramatic visual connection seamlessly blends the pool waters with those of the sea, a vista that purposefully expands outwards to the nearby Palm Island.
The secondary ground plane of the rooftop garden serves a dual purpose: first, as an enchanting area for outdoor recreation and relaxation and second, as a carefully patterned plan of greenery, hardscape, and water to be viewed from the towers above.
PROJECT WHO’S WHO
Client Muzoon Holdings
Lead Architect / Designer tvsdesign
Associated/Local Architect SEC (Shadid Engineering Consultants)
Contractor Al Habtoor
Interior Designer HLA/Graeme Anderson
Landscape Al Khatib Cracknell
TALE OF THE TAPE
Parking 650 spaces
Office Tower 16 floors / 89.7 m
Serviced Apartment Tower 32 floors / 145.35 m
Total GSF 96,153m²
Residential Tower 325,011ft²
Office Tower 230,928 ft²
Residential podium/retail 47,460 ft²
Parking 284,087 ft²
Courtyards 24,087 ft²
Pool terrace 8,090 ft²
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