Project story · United Arab Emirates
Travertine, bronze and a canopy of shade
In the UAE, Villa Five gives a family villa a glass ground floor, a deep dark canopy and a long terrace that runs out to a pool.
By byJOOM · Villa Five · Residential
A villa for entertaining
Villa Five is designed to be lived in with others. It is a family villa for entertaining, with a screened front gate, an open living and dining pavilion that runs out to a terrace, a pool and a fire bowl, and bedrooms above with planted balconies. The programme is generous and the plan is clear.
A glass floor under a dark canopy
At the heart of the elevation, travertine piers, a deep dark canopy and timber-lined soffits shade a fully glazed ground floor. In the pictures the canopy is a long, thin plane that sits over the glass like a lid, and its underside is timber, so that it reads as warm rather than heavy. The glass is allowed to be generous because the shade above it is generous too.
A slatted upper floor
The upper floor is slatted. It gives privacy to the bedrooms and a texture of vertical lines to the front, which suits a house that otherwise leans on large planes. The balconies have planting, and they bring a little of the garden up to the sky.
A terrace with water and fire
The living pavilion runs out to a terrace, and the terrace runs to the pool. A fire bowl gives the evening a focus. In the interior view the whole ground floor is a single long room, with seating beneath the soffit and the water close at hand.
Natural stone, bronze and timber in a calm composition that will not date.
A soft garden
Olive trees, planters and low planting keep the garden soft. Against hard, pale stone and dark metal, the green is what makes the house feel inhabited. The trees are mature in the pictures, and they frame the street front too.
A composition that will not date
Natural stone, bronze and timber in a calm composition will not date. Villa Five is a confident house made of a few honest things, and the design trusts them to age.
This article describes design intention. The images are design visualisations, not photographs of a finished building. See the Disclaimers.