Haze - Desert Oasis

Highways play an important role in the gulf context, given the lack of public transit. They tend to offer an easy mode of linkage between cities, and various points of interest. Additionally, there is a true cultural value of the desert landscape, where people tend to experience various activities. These activities happen mostly at night, where the temperature goes down. Many people after sunset start to gather around the highways and create their own spaces using their cars as a marking element to define their own zones.

The United Arab Emirates has an extensive and well-developed road network, principally in the northern coastal area where the main population centers are located. Sheikh Khalifa Road is considered one the newest highways connecting the island of Abu Dhabi to its eastern regions and nearby islands. It is a major highway where services are needed but have not been developed yet.

A Highway Oasis is a rest area, a public facility, located next to a large thoroughfare such as a highway, expressway, or freeway at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. This project involved exploring wide span structures in a new typology for highway service centers that would encourage visitors to interact with space on various levels, indoors and outdoors.

The design concept was to have a main rectangular volume rotated at an angle of 15 degrees with the street, housing most of the functions of the highway oasis and a smaller volume imposed on it, parallel to the street. The volumes are supported by ‘I beam’ trusses with the main volume appearing to rest on berms, on both sides of the street, which also serve as the entrance. The interior incorporates more free flowing spaces acting in contrast with the rectilinear form of the bridge.