“Within Dunes” is a competition proposal by Almena that reconceives domestic architecture in the UAE desert. Rather than engaging speculative or technological tropes often associated with futuristic housing, the project responds to the deep spatial and cultural legacies of desert life. Through a spatial dialogue between terrain, tradition, and thermodynamics, the design embeds living infrastructure into the land itself.
Within Dunes Technical Information
- Architects1-2: Almena
- Location: Desert Region, United Arab Emirates
- Gross Area: 450 m2 | 4,844 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2023 – Unbuilt
- Images: © Almena
“Within Dunes” envisions the future not as a projection of time, but as an expression of place, a vision we might call the eternal future.
– Almena
Within Dunes Renders
Reframing the Future Through Context
The project challenges dominant readings of futurism in architecture, resisting the usual aestheticization of technological advancement. Instead, it articulates the future through physical and cultural embeddedness. Informed by the Emirati desert’s environmental and socio-cultural dynamics, the proposal positions architecture not as an autonomous object but as a contextual outcome. This reconception seeks continuity with a historical landscape that has long shaped modes of living, mobility, and settlement in the region.
The desert is interpreted not as emptiness but as a space of latent social and spatial complexity. Its open expanses are re-read as arenas of unofficial communal life, where the edges of infrastructure serve as platforms for gathering and temporary dwelling. The proposal understands the desert as a performative and cultural landscape rather than a hostile void to be conquered or merely tolerated. In doing so, it reframes the role of architecture from asserting dominance over terrain to becoming an interlocutor with it.
Redefining Domesticity in the Desert Landscape
The design interlaces two historical typologies: the Emirati courtyard house and the circular oasis. The former provides a formal and climatic logic rooted in privacy, enclosure, and microclimatic control, while the latter introduces ideas of community, collectivity, and life organized around a shared natural resource. Both typologies suggest spatial hierarchies based less on zoning and more on adaptive rituals and seasonality.
Instead of replicating either model, the proposal synthesizes their principles into a dwelling that does not impose domestic norms but reinterprets them for contemporary and future use. The notion of home extends beyond the parcel or structure, reaching into cultural memories of nomadism and territorial negotiation. This perspective animates the domestic realm with relational values between occupants, environment, and tradition, rather than prescriptive architectural elements alone.
Embedding Architecture Within the Terrain
The siting strategy positions the dwelling as embedded rather than extruded, proposing a form generated by and situated within the desert’s topography. This approach rejects the tabula rasa methodology endemic to much of the urban expansion in the UAE, instead aligning architecture with the geomorphology of sand dunes and sub-surface thermal dynamics. By partially burying the building, the design leverages the stability of ground temperatures to reduce energy demands associated with mechanical cooling.
Subterranean organization is used not as a novelty but as a climatic response, simultaneously shielding spaces from extreme heat and anchoring them into the landscape. Rammed-earth retaining walls serve a dual role: structurally stabilizing the encroaching dunes and materially reinforcing the project’s site-specific ethos. These walls articulate a continuity between geology and architecture, where the building feels formed by the land rather than placed upon it.
Modular Construction and Adaptive Sustainability
The construction system utilizes prefabricated compressed earth blocks, enabling on-site assembly with minimal disturbance. This method promotes modularity and adaptability, responding to fluctuating spatial needs or future environmental shifts. By embedding flexibility into the fabrication and aggregation of components, the architecture resists obsolescence and instead supports gradual transformation.
Material intelligence here lies not in synthetics or composites, but in the localized, regenerative potential of earth-based construction. The use of such materials enhances thermal mass, reduces embodied carbon, and supports future deconstruction or reassembly. Sustainability is framed as adaptability over time and alignment with place, rather than dependency on external technologies. The dwelling evolves not in spite of its environment, but in concert with it.
Within Dunes Plans
Within Dunes Image Gallery
About Almena
Almena is an architecture studio based in the United Arab Emirates, founded in 2023. The studio explores architectural imaginaries anchored in regional histories, landscapes, and materials. With a context-driven approach, Almena emphasizes place-based design that engages with environmental and socio-cultural dynamics, blending typological memory with adaptive construction strategies.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Architects: Almena
- Art Direction: BLURRi
