Since the onset of the pandemic, many of us have been experiencing what it has been like to live in our homes — to truly inhabit them in every sense of the word — for the first time. Spaces have been transformed — into home gyms, makeshift offices, or mini classrooms for the children.

To a certain extent, most building designs are a response to the sites they are built on, and Slice House could not be a better example. Upon first glance, the shape of the house appears rather dramatic, looking quite literally like a “slice” of cake: triangular in shape, the house progressively gets narrower until you reach the “tip.”

As the year draws to an end, we would like to shine a spotlight on some of our recent and ongoing projects. It has been a busy and productive year for us, and we are excited to see what 2020 has in store.

G House is characterized by a discreet profile and massing. We gently tucked this two-story addition into the existing landscape in a way that minimizes its visual impact.

Located in Abu Dhabi, AD House is to be located on large plot relative to the home's footprint. Because of that, we knew we wanted to place the villa strategically, keeping in mind potential future expansion plans (ie. the client expressed interest in possibly building another house on the same property, or attaching an annex to the existing house)

In a country where, unfortunately, residential areas are lacking in greenery and whose desert climate mandates that most houses be painted a neutral color, we are big proponents of the idea that, instead of opening up to the street, a house should “open internally.”

Home to a family of three, Glory House rests on a 350 sq.m. corner plot. Due to the limited allowable footprint area, we decided to orient each floor independently towards some sort of courtyard condition. Due to the plot’s intimate dimensions, the soft curves of the massing allowed us to soften both the form of the house and, ultimately, how the end user perceives the massing.

As a boutique makeup & beauty store, Apotheca is a fast-growing business that houses some of the world’s premium niche beauty brands. The owners, three Kuwaiti sisters, had initially approached Alhumaidhi Architects to finish designing and building their first location at a local mall. Two years later, they had a new mandate: to build the brand’s first flagship store in Dubai, UAE.

When real estate company Bluebird Properties approached us to take on the Leya Villas project, we knew they were looking toward the future in more ways than one. The client, an owner of a series of rentable houses, felt their portfolio did not cater to local families. As the years had passed, they had found that they wanted to invest in a series of houses that they could not only rent out to tenants but could also eventually move into in the future.

With a deep understanding of the needs of the modern Arab family for most residential projects, one question we always challenge our clients with is this: “How will the way you interact with your home change in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?”

The family, a small family comprised of a husband, wife and their two kids. The client wanted big, high ceilings with a view of the garden from most rooms and spaces within the houses. The challenge? The plot is located in a busy residential area, with neighbors on three sides of the house, and also overlooks a main highway and neighborhood park, making privacy a big concern. The challenge was thus: how could we maximize the entry of light into the house, without sacrificing privacy? How could we minimize heat gain, but not at the expense of having the house feel airy and bright?

At Alhumaidhi Architects, we pride ourselves in offering innovative and resourceful solutions for our client’s most challenging problems, the most common of which is maximizing privacy without sacrificing natural light. With our MT Villa project, we knew we wanted to satisfy our client’s demand of high ceilings that would allow for as much natural light as possible. The challenge? The plot was located in a busy residential area, with neighbors on three sides of the house, and also overlooked a main highway and neighborhood park, which made privacy a big concern.

Because of the way the layout mirrors the concession/ticketing services on both sides, we needed to ensure we incorporated a natural sense of way-finding into the space, with visitors knowing exactly where to go as soon as they entered.

We had the pleasure of working on Inspire Gym’s first-ever location in 2014, helping launch one of the most premiere crossfit-centric gyms in Kuwait. When the client approached us to build their second location, we quickly realized this newer branch would require a completely different theme and feel. For one, we were facing a major time constraint, as our client needed to open quickly. For two, we were building over an existing space that had previously belonged to the neighboring hotel and country club, meaning this project would mostly be driven by cost and realities on the ground.