Muraba Veil: Dreams to Reality

At the heart of Muraba is a special, almost sacred bond. A rare union between a builder, and the architects, the relationship between Ibrahim Al Ghurair, Founder of Muraba and RCR Arquitectes, winners of the prestigious 2017 Pritzker Prize. A relationship based on trust and understanding, the rationale and foundation for the success of their projects together. By Sindhu Nair

The two words, Dubai and skyscraper, had me mentally sketching a picture in mind, a glass concoction that could be “taller, larger or most luxurious” than other buildings gracing the Dubai skyline. I could not have been more mistaken in this predisposed judgement. From the moment we set eyes on the site and the Muraba Veil Gallery, we (journalists from around the world) knew this was different, an anomaly to what is considered fashionable and trendy on the Dubai skyline update.

Even before the building and its story sets to captivate, the Muraba Veil Gallery space and its gentle art gallery-like setting reflects the ideals of the building. Covered in a hessian like shroud, the Gallery occupies the same dimensions of the Muraba Veil, at 22.5m x 108 m, a slender template. The Gallery becomes a perfect backdrop for a building that is an art piece than a commercial building.Muraba Veil Gallery space; the showroom is a tent covered in Hessain, or a jute fabric, in the same dimension as the base of the tower at 22.5m x 108m.

As the project is revealed, we realise that this is a work that will elevate the experience of living, a space that will be celebrated for its uniqueness.

“A landscape that emerges from the desert to the air,” says Rafael Aranda Quiles, RCE Arquitectes of the project.

The strength of RCR’s architecture lies in their ability to transcend their roots with a universal language resulting from a profound search for the essential. For its founders, Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta, this essence emerges from the search for emptiness, from a dialogue between place and architecture.

And for the builder, Muraba founder Ibrahim Al Ghurair, “property is not an end in itself, but the means to a greater, more noble end: that of creating breathtaking, life-enhancing works of architecture.”

Can there be a nobler meeting of minds to create architecture that serves humanity and, in the process, uphold the very principles of it?

The Story Behind Muraba

The story has it that the founder of Muraba, Ibrahim Al Ghurair, travelled the world in search of an architect, who would gratify his sensibilities. He conducted interviews with architects based in the United Kingdon and was disappointed to find none that matched his mental picture.

He arrived in Spain and in a small village, he found RCR Arquitectes at their studio, a former bell foundry and fell in love with the setting and what the architects represented. RCR Arquitectes’ studio set in a former industrial foundry in the backstreets of Olot, reflects their poetic approach. In an environment defined by various tones and textures of black and dark steel, light plays an important role within the ascetic domain. The space is akin to a monastery of darkness, intercepted by bursts of morning light.

According to the Emirati businessman, who has a keen eye for detail and a passion for architecture, the first question asked by the architects clinched the deal for him. They asked him, when he presented the site and explained his requirement, “Where is the light coming from?”.

This was a decade ago, now a finished high-rise, Muraba Dia, a state-of-the-art campus that is interactive, fun and engaging while fostering cheerful connections: Dar Al Marefa, and two houses that are under construction later, the relationship borne of that conversation in the dark, mysterious steel-clad foundry-cum-studio in Olot is still going strong and has paved way to the recent reveal, the Muraba Veil.

The Building that is Muraba Veil

The Muraba Veil is neither the tallest nor the most impactful building on an already spectacular Dubai super-charged skyline. It is almost like a slip of a building, slender and understated yet on close scrutiny, a daring, shimmering tower that seems an impossible engineering feat.

“The influences that shaped the Veil have their origins in domestic architecture that is centuries old and is typical to desert architecture and has been practised since ages which meets the basic human needs of refuge, security, privacy and a close connect to nature,” says Carme Pigem.

And like all the work that RCR Arquitectes’ have worked on, the Veil is strongly connected to the characteristics of the location, beginning with the landscape and the natural forces that have shaped it.

RCR have envisaged a tall, slender tower in which each residence would occupy the entire width of the building, with the living spaces screened from direct sunlight by being set back from the building’s edge, screened on both sides by a generous depth of outdoor terrace spaces. This seems almost impossible to achieve from commercial builders who would foresee maximum space utilisation for commercial success. But for Muraba, commercial success does not come at the cost of living comforts and understated elegance.

Through solar analysis, RCR tracked daily sun movements which confirmed the viability of the concept of interiors taken in, with a protected layer outside, thus through-out the day in summer, protected from heat-gain. The building could also be cooled naturally as it would be aligned on a north-west to south-east axis, parallel to the rather than facing the site’s strongest winds, thus harnessing on the cooling effect of natural breezes through the residences.

Seen and Not Seen

RCR and Muraba sought inspiration not from the latest housing developments seen around the world but from forms of habitation that have been in use in the region, for centuries.

“The traditional Middle Eastern home evolved to offer comfortable private refuge from the harsh intense desert climate outside. The heart of the house was the courtyard, an indoor/outdoor space that allowed the family to gather among gardens and water features. Like the diaphanous layers of protective fabric used to create elegant Bedouin houses and tents, this “architecture of the veil” provided a safe haven within that was adapted to the climate,” says Ibrahim Al Ghurair, expanding on how the concept of the veil came to existence for Muraba Veil.

In Muraba Veil, the courtyard house model of concentric layers of shade and protection is transformed into a linear one. On both sides of the residence, hybrid spaces of water and greenery provide a buffer zone between the living area and the outer exposed edge of the space.

And at the heart of the design of Muraba Veil is the shimmering veil in itself, mimicking the effect of the design of the age-old mashrabiya lattice, which when complete would be an engineering marvel borne out of an architectural inspiration by RCR.

When asked if anything that resembles the veil has ever been used before, to be the covering for a high-rise residential building, the developers and architects say that it is a concept in development. And when we ask RCR how they arrived at the material, they reply, “We dream in concepts and Muraba, the entire team with Ibrahim make it happen.”

Without this mutual, seemingly impregnable confidence and respect and the ability to dream beyond set boundaries, the Muraba Veil would never have been more than a sketch. The project is therefore the culmination of a marriage of minds that speaks volumes of courage, that each instils in the other. It is but a relationship almost sacred.

Grounded in Human Scale and yet One with the Sky

As RCR have mentioned The Veil is a landscape that emerges from the desert into the air.

“The foot it places on the ground is almost buried in sand, with all the public spaces and amenities concealed beneath the ground. It is within a giant oasis sheltering in the ground, where there is shade, refreshment and physical restoration. The spaces have been designed with a cave like oasis setting, away from eyes but grounded in luxury,” explains the architects.

At ground level, it’s a landscape of human scale, rooted in the desert and connected to the world while the upper landscape that rises above is an escape from all worldly setting.

“For anyone who owns a piece of this space, The Veil is a floating world, that is almost ethereal and all that is there, besides you and the space called your home, is the sky,” says the builder.

All Images Courtesy Muraba