What is a Townhouse?  A new form of Architecture

What is a Townhouse?  A new form of Architecture is the twenty-eighth 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 a newly developed and planned residential area called Murdif. The location is at the boundary of two adjacent cities of the UAE. This area was open land till the authorities classified this area as a residential area for low-rise villas and townhouses. Construction began in late 2006 and the area was undergoing slow-paced development even in infrastructure and proving services. That area has different characteristics of various architectural design styles and simulating the Arabic, Islamic, European, and Indian architecture. A couple of years from 2006, the local authorities permitted locals who own a street frontage façade to convert the villa to commercial use without changing land densities to protect its low-density character. The area witnessed the development of low-rise residential buildings of 3 to 4 floors. In some areas, shopping centers were permitted for development.

A special feature of this development is that it was at a corner of a plot which gives it various advantages. First, architecture has the opportunity to open up facades to four sides. Second, having two options of plot entries from two streets. Third, providing car parks is easier due to having two entries and a facility for rent. Fourth, to rent these villas there was preference because it has two street views and connection. See Figure, Google Earth site plan of the Essa Al Qassim townhouses project in Mardif. Figure 2 is the site plan of the architectural design of this project.

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 40cm for service connections and waterproof protection. The total townhouse unit area is a 200 Sqm built-up area. Figure 3, ground floor plan of the townhouses.

The first-floor plan is designed to include all the non-noisy areas in the bedrooms. Two bedrooms were treated as a master bedroom with a separate bath and dress. The third bedroom has a common bathroom on the ground floor. The floor plan also has a small pantry which opens to a family living area. A common balcony with its Mediterranean style attached to the family and master bedroom. See Figure 4, the First-floor plan of the townhouse project.

Turning to the external façade and the overall form of architectural design the townhouse complex is of Mediterranean-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 the Mediterranean style architecture as shown in the façade drawings. See Figure 5, Elevations of the townhouses project.

The section shows the internal way of dealing with openings, arches, and projection cornices similar to the Mediterranean style detailing. See Figure 6, the sections of the townhouses project.

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 4 townhouses and was completed in 2012.

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, the successful market study of the real estate in the area gave a plus full occupant in very limited time length, and the townhouses could be rented to foreigners these days and that is a more profit advantage.