Vol :37 Issue No.1 2012 - Open House International

pleasant environment for residents and is to be
designed to meet the needs of the people and facilities
close-by and to provide a pleasant environment
for residents. For example, barahaat near
houses may contain a small playground for children
and families, whereas barahaat near
mosques may contain a public majlis or a ‘berza,’
which are found outside mosques, for worshippers
from the same residential tower to meet and greet
each other. Wider groups of local clusters in different
floors within the high-rise development should
have horizontal and/or vertical access to local
shops, a central souk (usually on the ground floor),
a Friday mosque and a women’s center forming
more social pods for residents’ communication and
interaction. The high-rise development can be clustered
around a central shared public space (maydan)
assembling that employed by the Holl’s Linked
Hybrid design.
7.3 Design for security
Besides the conventional security measures represented
in the 24-hour doormen and concierges on
the main entrances of the towers of the residential
development, other design measures are important
in realizing security. The smaller the number of the
families sharing an entry and landing, the more the
control they have over the public spaces. Therefore,
they can more readily recognize residents from
strangers and feel they have a say in determining
accepted behavior (Newman 1996). In coincidence
with this argument, the space hierarchy of
the fareej from the private house courtyard, the
semi-private shared courtyard of the fareej in the
same floor, the semi-public sekkak connecting
houses and services in the same floors and in other
dedicated public amenities floors, the public barahaat
spread over the tower especially in front of
mosques and public nodes, helps increase the residents’
control over their spaces. Providing a space
to talk and interact while the residents are
approaching their units or getting out from them,
the shared pathways surrounding the open courtyard
of the fareej in each floor allow for visual surveillance
over the space. In addition, residents will
share the responsibility for maintaining these intimate
spaces and will need to talk to each other in
order to reach to agreements and thus have a
sense of control, which inevitably will increase the
sense of security among them.
7.4 Design for privacy
Privacy within the residential environment has
proven to be an inherent essential social and cultural
requirement in the Arab communities, including
the UAE (Djebarni, 2000 and Opoku and
Abdul-Muhmin 2010). Consequently, privacy
should be considered on different levels within the
high-rise development. Again, space hierarchy of
the fareej with its spatial configuration from the private
to the public domains is an essential spatial
design tool for realizing privacy. As mentioned earlier,
a careful design of the mixed-use development
that takes into account the privacy of the residents
is vital. Other design elements that can help provide
privacy include, for examples, allocating a
number of elevators for families only and others for
male guests or singles.
7.5 Design for a high quality living environment
Yeang’s approach provides good insights into
viable means for enhancing the quality of the living
environment that can be applied, after adaptation,
in the UAE. The building’s configuration with a
weather-protected central landscaped core is an
essential element that helps enhance this quality. In
addition, the towers should be orientated to maximize
solar gain into the interior spaces in winter,
and to maximize solar shading in the summer
months. Vegetation and landscaping within the private
gardens and sky parks in the buildings will act
as a wind buffer while giving residents a more
humane environment. In summer, vertical landscaping
will act to obstruct, absorb and reflect a
high percentage of solar radiation thus reducing
ambient temperatures. The damp surfaces of grass
and soil will also contribute to a cooler and healthier
building (Yeang 2007).
Furthermore, the idea of the central court
adopted in the Holl’s approach where all towers
are grouped around it sounds also suitable for the
case of the UAE. The buildings in this case will case
shadows over the pedestrian passages. The water
pond will create appropriate conditions for shared
social gathering and activities and will permit evaporative
cooling. The idea of the veil of the Norr’s
approach, which is meant to control weather conditions,
and is covered with PV panels for generat-
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open house international Vol.37 No.1, March 2012 A ‘Fareej-in-the-Sky’: Towards a Community-oriented Design... Khaled Galal Ahmed