What is a Townhouse?  A more luxurious architecture project

What is a Townhouse?  A more luxurious architecture project is the thirty-two article on projects from practice. A townhouse is a type of residential building. It shares walls with other similar units in a complex or row. Townhomes typically have multiple floors, often including a garage on the ground level, and share some features like a common swimming pool area and external landscape.

The townhouse complex project is located in an old developed and planned residential area called Al Garhoud. The location is at the boundary of the city’s international airport and the area is of resort-type land use in UAE. This area was old villa land use till the authorities classified this area as a hotel and hotel apartment of luxurious type. The area started to develop gradually into hotel buildings due to its close connection to the main airport which gives these land use types an advantage of use. Construction began with the opening of the airport in Dubai in 1960. That area has different characteristics of various architectural design styles and simulating the Arabic, Islamic, European, and mainly modern architecture. The land use of this area is of more commercial use than residential owner use. This is why this project was initiated and assigned to the company for the consultancy work. The allowable densities are of low-density class. The area witnessed the development of low-rise residential buildings of 3 to 4 floors. In some areas, hospitals were permitted for development.

A special feature of this development is that it was in a luxurious area and that gave the building more special architectural features to attract more investors. First, architecture has the opportunity to open up facades to two sides due to the availability of a swimming pool in the backside. Second, having two options car park one inside and one outside allowed by the municipality. Third, the plots are near one of the vital infrastructure points in the city, the airport, which gives it an advantage for selling and renting for foreigners and business owners. fourth the plot is the heart of the city and near most large-scale retail areas and infrastructure of the city. See the Street photo of the townhouse project and the site plan of the complex.

Below is the site plan of the townhouse villas showing all the facilities and external connections to the road network.

The client decided to build the townhouse complex due to the high demand for residential units in this area and the high rents as well. As illustrated in the plan of the ground floor the architecture is a semi-open open-plan system of living and dining area that has access and view to the garden from the main entrance. The plan consists of the main spaces used in a local villa such as a maid room and services and isolated garage. The plan is small in area to respond to client demand for designing as many units as possible. The ground floor in the complex has a common and shared external wall that separates each townhouse from the other. The ground floor level is raised from the datum 0.00 by 45cm for service connections and waterproof protection. The total townhouse unit area is a 200 Sqm built-up area. See the ground floor plan of the townhouses.

The first-floor plan is designed to include all the non-noisy areas in the bedrooms. One bedroom was treated as a master bedroom with a separate bath and dress and a terrace to the swimming pool and garden area. The other three bedrooms have a common bathroom on the same floor which is a slightly different architectural treatment and design than the usual villa design in the country. A common balcony with its Mediterranean-style is attached to one of the first-floor bedrooms.  See the First-floor plan of the townhouse project.

Turning to the external façade and the overall form of architectural design the townhouse villa is a mix of Mediterranean-style and local architectural style. The use of materials stone cladding and clay tiles on shallow pitched roofs with its stunning red color. The balcony design and its railing simulate the style detailing and form. All cornices, projections, niches, and corbels are borrowed from Mediterranean-style architecture. The wooden form pergola is borrowed from the local architectural style of the country. See elevation drawings.

The section shows the internal way of dealing with openings, arches, and projection cornices similar to the Mediterranean-style detailing. See section drawings.

The two elevations give an overall impression of the massing and the architecture of the solid and void of the external façade. The massing created lots of shade and shadows that gave depth to the architecture and a variety of impressions about the texture, color, details, block mass, and the full townhouse complex row façade of continuous lines and projections. The project included 6 townhouses and was completed in 2007.

This project was a successful investment in various terms. The first location of the development is in a high-demand area for locals and foreigners giving it luxury value, the architecture of combined units and its fairly lower construction cost made it price competitive with its surroundings, and the availability of a separate swimming pool for every townhouse made attractive for EU people. the successful market study of the real estate in the area gave a plus full occupant in a very limited time length, and the townhouses could be rented to foreigners these days which is a more profit advantage.