QANAWAT HQ

THE POST-PANDEMIC OFFICE

Location      Dubai, UAE
Total GFA    6600 sq.m
Status          Under construction
Client           Qanawat

Architecture
Interior Design
Landscape Design

Principle Architect

Mouaz Abouzaid

As sun rays beam down through the Qanawat Headquarters, they power and illuminate the creativity of a new generation filled with entrepreneurial spirit, forging forward for the benefit of humankind in the wake of the global pandemic. Fueled thorugh solar energy, the Qanawat office building is designed with environmental sustainability and innovation at its core. With natural light reaching into both office areas and the interior gardens, the movement and interactions of personnel increase and the offices gain a sense of openness. The architecture of the Qanawat Headquarters call for an invitation to interact with people and the space, safely distanced but connected.

Looking to a post-Covid 19 world, the building is structured to ignite the feeling that personal safety is a paramount factor in any architectural
design. Designed with side corridors and hallways, with expanded lengths of desks to two meters, and the feeling of open natural areas between many other features, these offices are designed to incorporate Covid-19 as the unfortunate but truthful mundane. They show how the current pandemic is not only a health crisis, but one intrinsically connected into people’s lives and in turn their spaces.

Located in Dubai Studio City, the building rises up four floors, with the top two given over for the running of Qanawat. The remaining areas
offer secured working environments for employees, starts-ups, and established companies seeking inspiration through interaction with other
like-minded professionals. The green areas, courtyards, and all Covid-19 measures are there to ensure an updated and safe working environment
for all who work inside the building.

WITH THE RIGHT DECISION SUSTAINABILITY IS NOTHING BUT THE RIGOROUS OF COMMON SENSE

Site

How to Build Sustainable, Healthy, and Profitable Office Buildings

Courtyard

The HQ is a celebration of the sun, using the abundant daylight to create a special ambience within. Reinterpreting the traditional Arabic Courtyard

External Gardens- Option 1

The HQ is a celebration of the sun , using the abundant daylight to create special ambience within, Reinterpreting the traditional  Arabic Courtyard

Blend of The Old & New

CONTEXTUALISM

To express a sense of architecture vocabulary that fuses urbanism
and architecture. Ambitious to dive into a contemporary rational interpretation that achieves the sensibility, variety, limatic sensitivity, scale and geometrical discipline based on the knowledge of
the heritage and culture of the region

CONTEMPORARY REGIONALISM

Is a philosophical approach in architectural theory that refers to the designing of a structure in response to the literal and abstract characteristics of the environment in which it is built

IDENTITY

AUTHENTICITY

SENSE OF COMMUNITY

The workplace meets the garden

Open and community spaces in work environments such as the Qanawat Headquarters, draw people together and provide the ambiance for creative thoughts to flow. Whether it’s under shady vegetation in the interior gardens, or over a coffee at the café or the restaurant sited on the ground floor, ideas can be freely interchanged between professionals due to the openness of these spaces.

Along the exterior of the building, seamlessly lined up trees bring the natural world inside, complementing the interior green spaces which are sited on all levels. Meanwhile, at the apex of the building solar panels draw in the sunlight necessary for the sustainable powering of its technologies and functions. Additionally, careful building orientation mitigates the direct radiation of heat and provides for natural ventilation within the offices and other spaces.

However, at the heart of the design is a reinterpretation of the traditional Arabic courtyard–long established as a meeting place for the exchange of information and the sharing of visions of lessons from the past, what the present holds, and inquiries into what the future might bring. All of these discussion points increasingly vital as humanity is forced to adjust to new realities. In a poetic sense, the abundant daylight of the region shining through the open building spaces ensures the illumination of this area of debate, as well as discussion and imparting of knowledge about it.

Rendering show how the office space meets the garden.

THE ARCHITECTURE DIALOGUE

ARCHITECTURE IS A TOOL TO IMPROVE LIVES

It is more than producing a structure – even if that becomes an iconic landmark. It is the art of creating an inspiring space for human interaction. A place where creativity and livability flourish in tandem.

Our studio spaces function to facilitate collaboration in the creative process

Courtyard

The HQ is a celebration of the sun, using the abundant daylight to create a special ambience within. Reinterpreting the traditional Arabic Courtyard

Blend of The Old & New

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