Winning proposal for the Desert Eco-Lodges by Ahmad Nouraldeen - Snono Studio
The alumni of our master program Membrane Structures, Ahmed Nouraldeen, won the third place for the ecolodge design competition in the frame of the International Architecture Competition “Mega Dunes Eco Lodges - Abu Dhabi”. He and his team from Lebanon had proposed the project “Desert lens”, which is an orb that is resilient to desert conditions yet adaptive to the views around it. It resembles an eye with its sail-like tensile cover that behaves like an eyelid: the sail is dropped to protect from dusty winds, lowered to shade from the rising sun in different orientations, or raised to view the Sky.
Jury Commentary:
"Desert Lens achieves a high level of flexibility via a reconfigurable tensile structure superimposed on a fixed bamboo shell. The ability of the tensile structure to provide privacy, shelter from elements, and shaded areas in a simple, low-cost, analog manner is effective. The rendering depicting the user interacting with the tensile structure in the windy, sublime context is a poetic depiction of man not alienated from - but part of - the dune ecosystem."