Riyad Joucka

One of the few things him and I agree on when it comes to work.

No, but the house really is a reflection of our traditions, but in a contemporary form.

And I keep returning to this traditional wisdom.

The majlis for gathering, the wans for hosting, spaces that extend beyond their functionality to bring people together.

Courtyards that cool in shade, spaces that make the outdoors livable.

barjeels or wind catchers that breathe air through a home, passive design centuries before we used the word sustainability, screens that filter light and create privacy, mashrabiyas, design that shapes atmosphere as much as structure.

And we use a similar vocabulary for our house at Meen.

For house 00, the first house we designed, we designed the house around a courtyard.

with a water body cooling the exterior.

The house is wrapped with this corrugated stone facade, echoing the language of the topography of the mountains surrounding it.

The house sits atop Jebel Jais, and to me, it's a real interpretation of traditional forms, but in a contemporary home.

Cosmos House, we collaborated with artist Giulia Ebini to design these Mashrabiyas.

We used algorithms and fractal geometry to filter light into speckled shadows.

The house is designed to be 3D printed using sand from the surrounding environment.

The ancient wisdom of desert architecture reinterpreted using digital tools.

Beyond practice, I also lead the Adaptive Majlis research project at Zayed University.

We're looking at ways of how 3D-printed modular systems could help us reinterpret these traditions today.

The Majlis, a unique typology of the region, is being rethought through the lens of modern technology, local craftsmanship and contemporary lifestyles.

That same thinking helped shape permutable assemblies, a modular system we developed at MEAN for housing.

We asked ourselves, we need to produce a modular system with a certain goal, and that goal is to design for a modular system that is personal, local and expressive.