Union Coop Residential Building proposal
The site is located at Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Rd. Therefore, its highly visible location on this vibrant road has become a major focus for the project to create an elegant contemporary housing apartments with an open view to the green buffers around the main road. In response to the planning concept of the area, it is required to provide a large amount of open space. Two towers will be surrounding a spacious pool, outdoor recreation areas and greenery on the top of the parking podiums. The landscape design explores the questions of the ownership, appropriation and livability of the site. It plays with the architectural themes used throughout the site, a marriage of vertical rhythms and horizontal continuity. The landscaping creates a further layer uniting all of the open spaces in the heart of the lot. The top view illustrates the logo of union coop. The project is grounded by a retail shops on the ground floor, topped with a distinct volume which comprises three floors of parking podium, and on the top of that sits two residential towers. The first one is 12 typical stories and the other is 10 typical stories. Both of the towers has the same module which gives a very high level of flexibility to reconfigure the apartment sizes and types. We aim to de-unify a predicable architectural expression therefore different layout options has been made for both towers to show that flexibility. The structural module along with the architectural fabric plays the role of getting the maximum car parking on the podium levels. We add the texture of integrating with the environment and the visual extension. A large number of windows and grills create the openness and layers of the space, which makes even broader visual effect to the surroundings. The sun-shading system on the façade is preferred due to the exposure of the west sunlight. With the sun-block needs without interference the view from inside, the glass sun-shading system become our choice. Vertical louvers randomly sits on the curtain wall and eventually reflects the sky onto the façade in different shading areas. Different weather condition changes the façade expression simultaneously. We try to offset and receded the balconies and walls on the façade, and also using the horizontal linear sun shading system to realize the de-unified effect. The horizontal grills enhance another layer of this regard.The grand canopy on the roof of both towers also plays a huge role of shading the façade as well as defining an outstanding identity for the project. Sustainability is a cornerstone of the project, which seeks to be adaptable to.
