Site Location and Site Conditions:

The site is located just outside Muttrah, at the foot of the rocky hills that frame the city, overlooking the Corniche and the Sultan Qaboos Port across the bay. A small public garden lies across Riyam Street, which runs in front of the site. There are plans to transform the site currently occupied by the garden into a mixed-use development incorporating residential, commercial, and cultural functions. In collaboration with the same client, we have also prepared a design proposal for this project, which can be viewed in our portfolio (project Plaza Muttrah Pier). The surrounding area also offers numerous hiking trails leading into the hills, as well as nearby parks and a sandy beach.

Design Intention and Client’s Goals:

The client’s intention was to create high-end luxury residences that are minimally invasive and respectful of the natural environment, while promoting a lifestyle closer to nature. From the outside, the architecture is deliberately understated and unglamorous — almost primitive in appearance — contrasting with the refined living spaces within.

Immersive desert rock hotels and residences are currently experiencing a surge in popularity across the Middle East. The design draws inspiration from the region’s ancient rock-carved and earthen architecture, particularly the secluded cliff villages that once dotted the mountains. One such example is Al Sogara, a remarkable settlement located approximately 200 km south-west of Muscat and the only village of its kind still inhabited today, where people have lived in this way for more than 500 years.

Stone excavated directly from the site will be reused as cladding for the exterior walls, allowing the buildings to blend naturally with their surroundings like a chameleon — using the same colours and minerals. Material craftsmanship is to be expressed throughout the residential units, articulated through hand-carved concrete, sandblasted wood, and bespoke furnishings. The expansive terraces provide generous outdoor living areas, capture multiple view corridors and create a seamless transition between interior and exterior spaces, while also enhancing the property’s market value.

The three identical residential structures are shaped like half-craters, each occupying one of the three naturally formed ravines in the rocky hills and following the contours of the surrounding terrain.

Design Challenges:
One of the principal challenges of the project was to develop a building form with proportions capable of fitting naturally within all three ravines, while maintaining a single architectural solution rather than designing three individual buildings. This approach also helped reduce construction and administrative costs for the client and the building contractors.

For obvious reasons — principally the arid climate and rocky terrain — the common challenges associated with sloped sites, such as, soil stability, erosion, retaining structures, and drainage management, are less crucial for this particular location.

Climate and Environmental Strategy:
Each building is symmetrical in plan and features two separate entrances to the apartments, recessed deep within the structure to reduce the “thermal shock” — the discomfort associated with moving from the outdoor climate, where temperatures can reach 50°C during the hot season, into mechanically air-conditioned interior spaces. In front of the entrances there are small plazas with native vegetation to provide shade and areas for sitting and gathering.

As the sun passes almost directly overhead across the site — particularly during the hottest summer months of the year — the buildings have to be designed to provide comfortable, shaded, and naturally ventilated environments for residents.

The buildings follow the natural topography of the site and are oriented predominantly to the north, which helps reduce direct solar exposure. This is especially effective during the early morning and the critical late afternoon hours, when the steep rocky hills are self-shaded and provide natural shading for the development.

Days in Muttrah are generally hot and often highly humid, while nights remain warm, offering little opportunity for significant night-time cooling. The light-coloured rocky mountains surrounding the city act as reflectors of solar radiation, concentrating heat over the urban area and continuing to release stored heat after nightfall due to the high thermal mass of the rocks. As a result, Muttrah is said to experience temperatures up to 5°C higher than those of the surrounding countryside and therefore relies heavily on local daily land and sea breezes for natural cooling.

Given these high ambient temperatures, one of the principal aims of the façade design is not only to control the significant solar gains typical of the region but also to protect the buildings from conductive heat gain. Muttrah benefits from daytime onshore sea breezes, which provide some cooling during the hottest months as air is drawn inland and up the surrounding slopes. The buildings are designed to facilitate natural ventilation and allow the air movement through the development.