Babylon

BABYLON is a very large project on a super-plot in Jeddah, KSA. Jeddah has been planned for cars by North American town planners, which created a very pedestrian unfriendly, identity poor urban spaces. Therefore we proposed a rich outdoor urban experience promoting a pedestrian mall at ground floor level. For this we had to be able to ensure for an extended period of 6 months instead of 3, a natural comfort in outdoors We oriented the master plan towards the prevailing wind (which is constant all year in Jeddah) irreverently of the city's main grid. Then we developed an architecture which spans over the streets and funnels and accelerates the wind in the shaded streets. As GF and First floors are in wind direction, starting 2nd floor: buildings are perpendicular. At the intersection (2nd floor), a garden of mature trees spans the entire project. Viewed from the pedestrian mall, this hoovering forest is an impressive sight and casts long shadows all over the streets.