Kuwaiti inhabitants have the constant need to leave the cities for the weekends and summertime. Traditionally, entire families have travelled to desert locations to enjoy quality time with the family setting up tents with complete temporary infrastructures. Conceptually this project recreates the same ambience idea of being under a tent, and it symbolizes the family gathering under a lightweight and discrete shelter structure covered with thin fabric, emphasizing the true importance of the shade.
The Tent is a five-house complex residence that shares a common folded concrete white roof. It conceptually recreates a light structure shelter that protects from the sun and the wind. The roof permeates the light during the day and also at night. Strategically perforated, it filters the sunlight to the interior spaces, and views from the sky are revealed through rectangular cuts. Social common areas are located in the ground floor exterior spaces, under the freshness and tranquility of the roof’s shadow. They are conceptually developed as an oasis, with vegetation and gardens around a central water element –the swimming pool. From the covered gardens, with double height elevation, views from the sea enter to the central common spaces. This residence is designed to preserve privacy from the access road and the immediate neighbors while privileging openness and transparency to the private beach with seafront glazed facades and garden terraces.
The Tent residence simultaneously achieves the status of a desert camp, a beach house and, above all, a gathering place.