Kuwait and Portugal-based architecture firm AAP Associated Architects Partnership has completed five low-rise residences with white clear-cut volumes in Sabah Alahmed Alsabah Maritime City in the southern part of Kuwait.

Named Areia, the five villas features a series of internal courtyards, private swimming pools, proportionally-arranged open terraces and balconies that create a harmonious variations in their plan layouts. 

Developed to expand the length of available shoreline, the development brings the sea into the desert to create a series of canals that are anchored by several docks and marinas and activated by many other recreational activities. The five plots of the five residences sit on one of the inner canals overlooking the sea.

"From an early stage, the idea was to develop a sense of unity, using the same architectural language of simple plane geometry, as well as the same basic concept and programmatic organization, resulting in a contemporary image of continuity and proportion, where slight harmonious variations guarantee complexity and diversity to this set of houses," said AAP Associated Architects Partnership.

The architects reinterpreted Kuwaiti's way of life and its needs, relating the main daily living areas with the beach, exterior patios, gardens and pool areas. 

Positioned in the ground floor and with a privileged view over the canal, they share the ability to combine their use by its dwellers, in order to maximize the overall flexibility, as well as associate the interior space with the exterior areas in a comfortable way, literally extending to the plot limits. On the opposite edge of the plot, next to the entrance, stands a formal social gathering space for guests, the diwanyia.

"Upper floors are bounded by enveloping walls, partially perforated, that effectively guarantee the privacy requested by the program. It withstands certain programmatic variations without compromising the unity. More contained in itself, is reserved for the family bedrooms, with a wider, protected, view over the city," said the architects. 

Rooftops with its 360^o panoramic view over Khiran create desirable leisure spaces, combining lounge and seating areas for socializing, making it an ideal venue for experiencing the sunset time when the absence of shade is tolerable. Staff quarters, stand in different floors, connecting directly their circle of activities.

The five villas, covering 2,063-square-metre area in total, multiply the same organization concept in its basic. Despite the fact that the schematics are very similar, the volumetric composition present gentle variations that make each house unique its own way. When seen from the road, they look like a simple repetition of the same house, a more heterogeneous facade is experienced from the canal.

The simple and neutral approach, tries to restore use, functions and habitability on a basic, shade and courtyards design options in a natural contradiction with what at this point is the development of this city, where the architectural anarchy of the different residential designs, the lack of criteria in color, dimensions, form, textures and construction options create a complex, heterogeneous image of a place that is yet to be defined.

Site plan

Ground floor plan

First level plan

Elevations

Axonometric drawing

Project facts

Project name: Areia

Architects: AAP Associated Architects Partnership

Principals - Abdulatif Al Mishari, Osvaldo de Sousa,  Rui Vargas.

Collaborators: Telmo Rodrigues, Carla Barroso, Pedro Miranda, Alba Duarte, Lionel Estriga, Carlo Palma, Mohammed Karout, Emanuel Grave, António Brigas, Elvino Domingos, João Costa, Hassan Javed, Duarte Correia, Mariana Neves, Luís Esteves.

Landscape Design

Collaborators - Susana Pinheiro

Interior Design

Collaborators - Leonor Feyo

MEP

Collaborators - Rúben Rodrigues, Vando Beldade, Mohammed Hassan

Graphic Design

Collaborators - Aquilino Sotero

Project location: Al Khiran, Kuwait

Completion Year: 2017

Built up Area: 2063 sqm

Project Management: Asbuilt 

Project Manager: Asbuilt

Collaborators – Vando Beldade 

All images © João Morgado             

> via AAP Associated Architects Partnership