CIn Jeddah, the capital city of an increasingly modernized Saudi Arabia, vernacular architecture based on the ancient desert is shifting and changing. Here, Barcelona-based firm MESURA has designed ‘Villa AM’, an enclosed minimal home premiering on IGNANT that champions light, material, and atmosphere.

“Traditionally, the Arabian home functions both as a private sanctuary and social, semi-public space, which constitutes an interesting paradox still defining most of the local architecture today,” explains the firm to IGNANT. “Villa AM carefully balances its design between preserving the core of this ancient building tradition and manifesting the mindset we find in the community of Jeddah today. The house thus aims to rethink the traditional way of living,” they add. In Jeddah, summers are long, hot, and arid, while winters are short, dry, and windy. With this in mind, the home uses its materials, courtyards, and openings in an eco-efficient manner to provide a cool and comfortable indoor home environment for its residents.

Away from the traditional U-shaped house, the Jeddah House is built around a shared courtyard, with family on one side and guests on the other, the villa features an L-shaped form, creating a tighter relationship between family and guests by blurring spatial constraints to realise.