Spasm Design Architects

In a city defined by the feverish pursuit of spectacle—where architecture often becomes an emblem of novelty and scale—the proposition of a private residence in Dubai offered an unexpected provocation: a resilient home, not flamboyance.
An Indian family, familiar with our earlier work in Ahmedabad, approached us not in search of iconicity, but of intimacy. What resonated with them was the quiet strength of the buildings that aspire to be inhabited. Their brief was simple yet profound: to create a home sensorially attuned to the landscape it would inhabit.

Situated in the arid Gulf expanse, the project evolved into a search for comfort in extremity. The comfort here emerges from form, material, and orientation. The desert, often considered an opposition to habitation, was instead seen as a collaborator in shaping a microclimate that embraced shade, airflow, and texture.

Central to this inquiry was the courtyard—not merely as a typological gesture, but as a performative core. It was imagined as a shaded, verdant lung at the heart of the house—both spatially and climatically generative. Flanking this were triple-height liwans, their scale serving dual purposes: spatial drama and environmental function. These deep transitional zones along the southern edge operated as thermal buffers, mediating between interior life and exterior harshness.

The envelope of the house responded with similar deliberation. A layered assembly of Peterson bricks as the key facade material, air cavities, and insulated blockwork coalesced into a silent system of resistance against heat gain. Planted roofs and perforated jaalis in weathering steel filtered light and dust, while water bodies and skylights choreographed an internal atmosphere that remained cool, luminous, and grounded.

Through these gestures, we were able to reduce the dependency on mechanical cooling by over 20%. What was ultimately crafted was a house where the choreography of light, wind, and shadow offered a quiet dignity. A place where the youngest family member’s childhood could unfold with sand underfoot and the sky overhead.

In a city that often builds to impress, this was a home that aspired, instead, to endure.