The story behind MPX

Introduction :

Have you ever thought how many gamers there are in the Middle East? you may know minimum of 3 or 4 gamers who’s part of our family or friends, moreover there are more than 100 million gamers in cities of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia-according to the competition’s brief, thus since the UAE has a large gaming market a site in Dubai was proposed to be used for a gaming center and arena.

Site analysis :

After visiting the site that is located near Dubai sport city and studying/analysis it by knowing the different factors that may affect our design like:

• The surrounding buildings are residential towers , many sports academies and an office building.
• The wind direction is North and North-West and the move from the East to West.

All these factors help us to know how to orient the building and place the functions, for example all the spaces that need a daylight was places in the North direction and all the closed spaces in the South direction.

Concept explanation :

Whenever you look at a screen such as a tv, mobile phone or video games. Images you see in your electronic devices, are actually creatied by pixels, These millions of tiny dot are what make up any image in the world. 

Moreover our eyes have a resolution of 576 megapixel equivalent to 576 million pixels, but you know that we don’t see objects in pixels but the scientists got the number 576 million pixels because that’s the amount of pixels it will take so that our entire field of view would be covered.

In reference to the previous information, our concept represents how pixels assemble to create an image using the eyes’ retinal veins as a metaphor to emphasize the connection humans have with the digital world, furthermore, our design shows how a composition of 3D pixels, flowing volumes/ masses that give the futuristic impression are set a part, fused and linked by “connective tissues” as a vertical elements. Moreover, a “curvilinear passageways” are used as horizontal circulation to give the design a flexibility to adopt any future extension since the gaming community growing up rabidly.

Why cubic design ?

To emphases the juxtaposition between sports and e-sports since all the sports buildings around the site has a curvilinear design.

To achieve the objectives of the competition (Flexibility and upgradability).

To maintain the integrity of the design since the linear design can be easily adapted any changes on the other hand it’s hard to achieve that in the curvilinear design.

Architectural Plans:

4 main spaces were required for this gaming center which are:

Spaces to watch - (Esports competition arena for 100 spectators).

Spaces to relax- (Lounge, Food court)..

Spaces to play - (Private rooms for small tournaments, Gaming arcade).

Spaces to learn - Offices for startups (content creators), esports academy.

So depending on that we decided our program which includes:

For the functions distribution there are some important point that we put into consideration while doing the zoning:

• Placing the most public spaces in the Ground floor and for the upper floors it become more private.
• Since the pixel has a fixed size so we decided to make our 3D pixel as 0.5*0.5*0.5 m3 then we start combining number of pixels to have bigger size (3*3*3 m3) where most of our internal spaces are divided according to that module that is a reflection to the exterior massing. Moreover we used different modulus in order to suit different functions  (1*1*1 m3), (2*2*2 m3), (3.5*3.5*3.5 m3) and (4*4*4 m3).

•  The entrance is facing Dubai sport city which is a significant landmark due to this the building will be more defined to the visitors who are coming from that side.
• All the spaces that need a daylight and ventilation are in the North direction to minimize the heat gain.
• To maximize the number of players in the Public Playing Area we added 2 mezzanines below it so now it can host more than 160 player and create a full community of gamers.
• The arena with all the functions related to it are placed in the underground floor to have its own space. Hence,  it will be better in terms of controlling the sound and the noise coming from it whenever there is a competition or event there .
• The interior of the arena is a reflection of the concept in terms of the furniture provides , absorbing and lights. Moreover there are a 140 seats in the proposed design and it is flexible in order to fit more than 140 spectator in huge events.  
• There are 6 Private rooms “content creator room “with different areas for different number of players so the clients have variety of options to select the one that suits them the most.

Structural system:

To maintain the feeling of the flouting pixels and the flexibility in the interior we decided not to have any columns and replace it with different structure elements for instance:

• Reinforced concrete shear walls with a thickness of 0.5 m.
• Reinforced concrete load bearing walls with a thickness of  0.3 m.
• Reinforced concrete slabs with a thickness of 0.3 m.
• Raft foundation with a thickness of 1 m.
• Retaining walls with a thickness of 0.5 m.
• The AESS connective tissues will help to transfer the load from one floor to another till it reach the foundation.

As a result of that, we will have a large amount of the reinforced concrete So we came up with a solution in-order to reduce the amount of concrete used and protect the UAE’s environment from a dangerous tree could Prosopis juliflora. Al-Guif or Prosopis juliflora is an exotic tree that is widely spread in many places around the UAE. It withdraws the underground water, produce allelochemicals that kills most of the native plants and causes several allergies for sensitive people. Hence, getting rid of this tree will be by burning it and producing an ash that will partial replace cement.

SUGGESTED SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION FOR THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT.

Interior walls:

 light-based installation was permanently installed In the gaming center to illuminates the dynamism of the lobby space and encourages a sense of discovery in the visitors. These dynamic walls that has a thickness of 0.1 m are designed with the idea of welcoming visitors and give them the feeling of entering the digital world

3D views:

After deciding the concept, modules, program and the plans we started sketching and experimenting with 3d masses before we reached to our final design and here is some of the trials:

Then we start trying to have more futuristic shape and we thought that we can achieve that by reducing the glass in the elevation and choosing the aluminum panels.

Why aluminum panels ?

• It’s one of the most economical materials available.
• It’s very durable, strong and light weight at the same time which will be the best cladding for our structure since it’s already heavy because of the reinforced concrete. 
• It’s sustainable material since it can be fully recycled.

Final result demonstrates the digital world that have been created by the gamers to the gamers. Exterior flowing 3d pixels attract the visitors to feel and experience the digital world. Their journey inside the digital world starts by entering the building and deeply involved in every detail within the building.