The Hanging Gardens

Human habit and civilizations will always succumb to the timeless power of nature. Our approach for the residence is to develop proposals that merge human habitat with the natural landscape and to create a scheme that blurs the boundary between the natural world and the world of mankind. As part of our site strategy, we developed several design options for the Governor’s residence, settling on two distinct options placed at the southern end of the site; The Hanging Gardens and The House of Earth.
The Hanging Gardens is a series of terraced gardens and residential spaces that are nestled between natural rock crevasses on the southern boundary of the site. Like the Holy Nabatean mountain passageway of Jebel Ithlib, the scheme is shaded and protected by rocks faces whilst cool air is drawn through gaps between spaces. The scheme is designed as modular spaces that minimize impact on sandstone rocks whilst simplifying construction and assembly.

The scheme is organized in two distinct ravines; the larger ravine to the west will be used as the Governor’s Residence with the Villas placed in the adjacent ravine to east. The Governor’s Residence is organized on several levels interspersed by landscape and porous to air currents for natural cooling. The vertical stacking provides dramatic views over landscape culminating in an open observatory on the mountaintop with panoramic views over of the hinterland.