Desert Architecture
A Form for the Future of a Historic City: Climate Logic Meets Childhood in Yazd
A daycare complex in Iran's desert heart reinterprets windcatchers, courtyards, and double-shell walls as performance-driven systems for young learners.
Flower of the Desert: Biomimetic Architecture That Breathes in Arid Heat
A petal-shaped public institution translates the survival strategies of a 1,500-year-old desert plant into climate-responsive courtyards and passive coolin
Kids Heaven Daycare: Ancient Qanats Cooling Yazd's Youngest Citizens
A daycare in Iran's desert city buries its most vulnerable occupants underground and threads a qanat through every level of the building.
Muslim Space: A Self-Sustaining Settlement Shaped by Prayer and Desert Logic
Lee Bomin designs a complete Saharan community where compressed earth, vaulted roofs, and Islamic ritual structure every spatial decision.
Cycle: A Klein Bottle Geometry Turned Into a Self-Sustaining Desert Habitat
Subterranean living units inspired by topological geometry create closed-loop water, thermal, and social systems for extreme desert settlement.
Karim+Elias Plants Twelve Rammed-Earth Totems in a UAE Archaeological Reserve
The Desert Relics rises from the sands of Mleiha, a UNESCO site in Sharjah, turning ancient craft into permanent land art.
SkyRoom Community Pavilion Architecture: A Tranquil Space for Gathering and Reflection
The article explores the SkyRoom Community Pavilion, a unique architectural design blending sustainability, functionality, and cultural significance in New Mexico.
INN
The building, which was designed to create a landmark in the middle of the vast desert and attracts the attention of people even from afar, consists of accommodation units and social areas.
SUB-TERRA: CULTURAL OASIS FOR ARTS AND EDUCATION
With the interpretation and adoption of vernacular passive thermal comforts principles, the cultural center is an underground incubator for arts to be created and inspired, a public gathering forum for people to learn, enjoy and expand the rich and unknown culture of the north of Chile.
Oasis Towers
In designing the cultural centre, several factors had to be taken into account in such an unusual location. One of them was, for example, hot climate conditions. The proposal seeks to make use of traditional wind tower technologies, thus reflecting the history and culture of the area, and also ensuring a pleasant indoor environment in buildings. There are three buildings on the site, which form an atrium between them. Each building has its own wind tower.The roofing of atrium and the construction of wind towers creates an interesting interweaving of waves with buildings. The atrium offers view to the lake and surrounding mountains. Wind towers on buildings are based on the principle of air pressure. This is the simplest design principle that is used for the longest time. The opening on the tower is oriented on the side, facing the prevailing wind direction, it can catch it and direct it inside the building. Air flows through the building and is lead away from the other side. This creates drafts and cools the environment in the building. In the largest, main building, which is located on the western plot, there are garages in the basement, designed mainly for employees. On the ground floor there is an entrance hall, from which it is possible to further transition to the theater, library or sanitary core. The second floor is connected to the entrance hall by gallery. On this floor there is also, entrance to the balconies of the theater, musical hall and administration. In a smaller building located in the southwest of the plot called the art house,is located an exhibition gallery and workshop rooms. In the third, smallest, building is the coffee-shop, restaurant and kitchen.
Shade for Culture
The design of the cultural center at the Lalla Takerkoust Dam, forty kilometers from the Moroccan city of Marrakech, was created as part of the Culture Oasis competition. The design concept is based on adaptability to weather conditions and is also based on the efficient use of environmental energy to improve the indoor climate in buildings. The design is based on the principle of desert tents, which people have built in a closed shape to create an internal leeward and more pleasant environment, a cactus that first had to adapt to these conditions to survive in extreme conditions and a ventilation tower typical of architecture in Morocco, but also Africa, and helps to create a better living environment for people in and around buildings. The typical shape of the floor plan of the tent in the desert is a rectangle, the closed arrangement creates a traditional common space and is energetically advantageous, and the shape and angle of the ventilation towers is adapted to the wind direction in the solved area. The mass of the design is the result of analyzes of weather and weather conditions and has been fully adapted to them. The location of the building is adapted to naturally created walking routes, which are also connected to roads. Dispositionally, the mass is divided into smaller units. In the underground spaces there is a technological background, warehouses and toilets. The first floor consists of spaces such as a theater, library, spaces for typical Moroccan crafts - pottery, cafeteria, music room and exhibition space. The second floor unfolds from the one below it. The building is designed from ecological, affordable materials and traditional construction techniques are also used. It is a combination of walls made of hammered clay with reinforced concrete ceiling panels.