Classical Villa Architectural Design Project

Classical Villa Architectural Design Project is the first article on projects from practice. The villa is located in an Arabian desert country that has the characteristics of desert villa architectural design. The plot is located in a new development completed in the year 2010 called the Arabian Ranches in the UAE of the Middle East Area. At the start of the development, all plots were designed in a typical Mediterranean-style villa architecture. After a couple of years, the developer with the permission of local authorities permitted locals to assign a consultant to design the villa as per his needs and requirements. Many plots were designed in different villa architecture designs and the area comprise nowadays of many styles ranging from classical villa architecture to post-modern architecture.

The development is an organic urban design layout with curved streets and green spaces shoulders and it’s a gated community including residences from different nationalities locals, Arabs, Europeans, Americans, and Asians. Most of the residents are from the top tier level and are business owners.

The classical villa architectural design of this country is characterized by its simplicity of external forms that simulate the desert forms and are compatible with its shapes and forms. The material is from mud and plastered from the same material in the facades. The external windows have a wooden projection forming different elements and details. The villa includes an air tower that is used to bring the airflow to the courtyard of the villa.

The architecture of the plans mainly is inward-looking and has a defensive form. All the rooms are open to a courtyard and connected to a servant block that has a room and services for the made.

My project here was constructed in 2010 in the Arabian ranches for a local person working with a developer. He recommended a modern design that simulates the classical villa architecture design. The project is a two-story 350 Sqm villa.  

As illustrated on the ground floor the villa architecture simulates the classical villa architecture design but with a modern theme, the plan comprises two entrances one for the residents and one for the servants. The plan is divided into two parts the main living area for the owner and his family, and the servant zone connected to the services area the kitchen and outdoor and garage. The plan is designed to respect the local context of high privacy for the owner’s living area and separate it from the services area.

On the first floor as illustrated in the plan the bedrooms have their attached bath and dressing area and the guest bedroom has access from the ground floor staircase to the villa entrance to maintain high privacy for the guest. The covered areas of the entrances are of wooden pergolas that are similar to classical villa architecture design in the desert area of the country.

In the elevation drawings, we can plot the inclined waals from the external outdoors, the use of wooden projections like terraces, balconies, corbels, windows wooden decorations, and roof railings. The forms of the villa blocks are similar to the classical towers used in the villa design of the desert area. The external material is plaster which is similar to mud construction with classical type of paint. The windows are a classical type of windows of wood material and include wooden external shutters.

 Most of the classical villa architectural designs in the design area are of high space due to the increased temperature of the external outdoor spaces. This type of space in a physical manner will keep the hot air at the higher levels and keep the lower level cooler and give way to the air towers to pull the hot air outdoors to make natural ventilation by negative and positive pressure air move. As illustrated in the sections the highest of the space here in modern times considers the central cooling of the villa and the required spaces for the ducting work and its services.  

In the detailed drawings, it is apparent that all the details include the classical type of details especially surrounding the entrance porch, and the windows and external door entrances with classical arches and corbels. The external projections and air towers were designed to give the classical form of the desert area context. Roof railings and caps are similar to the classical wooden details but in a modern theme.