Al-Khonji Hotel

The design proposal for six floors Al-Khonji hotel aims to combine the traditional local architecture and modern global architecture into an integrated volume. For this goal, 5O7studio explored the local architecture and Muscat’s historic buildings, so as a result three elements include Islamic arches, Islamic patterns and white dense volumes have been selected among many elements. In the other hand, we considered hotel as a modern building that should provide appropriate facilities and comfortable place for guests. Therefore the combinations of these two concepts make a volume that contains two distinct main parts: the modern volume faced to north direction and the traditional volume located in north-west part of the site. Although the hotel building has two separated parts, the façade which made of Islamic patterns connects these two and consequently makes an integrated volume. According to the sunshine in Muscat, the hotel rooms faced to the north to gain less direct sunshine and also the room’s terrace covered with a wooden shelter. Designing green terraces in different levels and making an inner garden on ground floor help to adjust the temperature in hot weather.

Al-Khonji Complex

The design site is located in the main street in Muscat, the capital of Oman. The design proposal for nine floors Al-Khonji complex contains residential and commercial parts. The main challenge in this project is how to make comfortable houses that own privet green yard. After many trials and errors, 5O7studio found out a composition that provides a privet yard for each houses by rotating each floor 90 degree upon the others. This solution inserts various voids into the building’s mass. In addition, we used Islamic patterns as a filter to cut direct view into the houses in order to make HIJAB for each house. In the other hand, the commercial part is located in ground floor that has direct access from the main street and separated from respirational part. This separation enables residents to move in the site without pass through the commercial part.