Located at the edge of the Dubai waterfront, the Maritime City Residential Development is a study in façade design for the Omniyat Company. Using the traditional construction as a stepping off point, the study worked to create three distinctly modern structures from the same skeleton. The result is as dramatic as the remarkable differences between the three studies: Using a “House of Cards” approach, the first study mixes solids and voids, projected balconies and recesses to create a dynamic interplay of lightness. The mixing of projections and recesses reinforces the sense that the structure has been assembled with intersecting modular construction rather than a solid traditional form.

The second study uses a sleek, machined finish with dominant horizontal banding. The regularity of the form is enhanced by careful, graceful sculpting of the form creating sensual curves in the otherwise straightforward façade. Finally, the third study treats the floor levels as a series of stacked plates, turned and ‘fanned’ at irregular intervals to create a truly dramatic interplay of solid and void.