Culturally, we set out to create a high rise building that is derived from ‘Arabic’ low rise precedents. The term ‘village’ hints at a potential spatial arrangement of discernible 'houses' or villas as they are typically termed in the Middle East. For us, the principal characteristic that separates ground living to sky living is the relationship of internal to external space.

The task has been to create an equivalence of ground conditions in the sky. This has been achieved by offering an interpretation of the traditional front garden, courtyard and back garden found in villas. The front garden is now a porch fronting an open sky street. Each sky villa has its own courtyard that is accessible from many rooms and can be fully internalised. There is also a balcony that is large enough to be an outdoor room. By providing a plurality of spaces, multi-directional light effects, cross ventilation flows and the relationship of external to internal in the apartment type becomes complex and stimulating.

We have taken the iconography of Arabic design into the interior finishes with expressed stairs, intricate mashribiya to balustrades and screens, lantern motifs, courtyard plan arrangements, decorative geometric patterns and assembled these elements in a high-rise context.