This development “Holiday Homes Development Project” at Yamaniyyah Heights is located about 10 km south of the City of Aqaba and is envisioned by local authorities as an upscale residential community integrated with the public beach development.

The main objective is to create a “distinguishable residential quarter” with adequate public activities and outdoor amenities such as a club house, swimming pool, entertainment and recreational activities (e.g., public park with an intricate internal pedestrian network). Total Built-up Area = 45500 m2.

Selling Reality: “A Vacation House with a Sea View”

This real-estate development is planned to be different from many others that attempt to sell dwellers a “Fantasy Life Style” expressed through their marketing slogans, newspaper adds, and brochures such as “a new meaning of life” or “buy a house, owe a city” or many others.

On the contrary, this development thrives to “sell reality” to its consumers and reality here centers on the following deliverables:

• A Distinguishable Residential Quarter with a Unique sense of Community.

• A Communal Space with Ample Public Amenities, Open Spaces, and Activities Related to Beach Entertainment and Outdoor Living such as:

Beach Volley Ball,  Basketball, Bike Trails, Walking Trails, Picnic Areas, Swimming Pool, Water Games & Other Children’s Playgrounds Health and Sport Club, Sculpture Garden.

• Guaranteeing a Vacation House with a Sea View from at the Main Living Space (Living Room)

A “Distinguishable Residential Quarter with a High Sense of Community and High Level of Design of Open and Outdoor Spaces & Activities.

The concept of the Belvedere

Metaphorically, dragging the shore line through a creative Promenade Belvedere where strollers, joggers, and people playing sports can enjoy the magnificent view of the Sea and its Shore. The Belvedere enjoys the following functions:

Club House, Swimming Pool, Walking Trail (Promenade Track), Outdoor Seating Areas, Beach Volley Ball, Basketball, Belvedere Tree House Tower, Outdoor Games.

A Distinctive and Skillful Design of Pedestrian Spaces Guaranteeing a Natural Flow of Open Spaces between Public Domains, Semi Public Spaces, and the Vacation Houses.

The different Vacation Houses Courtyards are skillfully connected to the various open & communal spaces providing an intricate web of pedestrian movement within the Site. A thoughtful design of the public space vocabularies and furniture such as light posts, trash cans, seating, and different type of signage.

Creating an Architectural Language with a Contemporary Flavor, thus Avoiding a Kitsch Revivalism of Banal Copying of Traditional Patterns.

Adopting a contemporary architectural language while avoiding some practices by real-estate developers who still insist today to create “an Occident Image of the Orient” or in another words “the Arabian One Thousands and One Night Image.”

In this project, the design is conscious as no to accept any form of revival style or copying traditional patterns and details in old or new materials, thus resulting in a “false neo-Orientalism” and a penal imitation of traditional architecture.

Instead, the design is researching how to regenerate new building types from local Archetypes such as the traditional Aqaba architecture of while slabs and rubble stones walls.