Each of the 22 buildings splits (into 2 or 3 volumes) to offer a semi-outdoor shaded lobby at its heart with open-air circulation and a landscaped triple height atrium offering the buildings their unique resort feel. The stepped form provides a terrace for every apartment and breaks the massing.

The cluster buildings within phase 1 are designed to have protruding frames with random louvered screens for shading and privacy giving an “Arabesque” flavour to the contemporary form.

The apartments interiors are open plan with a warm materials palette following the earthy tones of the building. They are carefully designed to achieve an efficient compact layout. The apartment modules are recurrent in different grouping arrangements between the various building modules, achieving economies of scale without apparent repetition.

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The villa side façades are solid to eliminate overlooking and screens are utilised for privacy and solar protection. The screens dissolve from the solid sides and gradually open up towards the views, blending the envelope of the building with its surroundings. Different villa types have distinct contemporary patterns abstracted from traditional architecture, further differentiating the modules and offering variation and choice for the individual residents.
The landscape follows the minimal rectilinear language of the architecture and blurs the boundary between the inside and outside by allowing clear open views, utilising a consistent materials palette and bringing the greenery into the house. Each villa has ample garden space, with a private overflow pool, a water feature and amenities such as a bar and BBQ area, and a sunken seating area with an outdoor fireplace under the self-shading iconic floating mass of the building. The wooden sundeck leads to a pontoon where the residents can moor their own yachts.

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The masterplan differentiates between its various zones to avoid the repetitiveness ubiquitous in large scale developments. Its distinct neighbourhoods offer diverse public landscapes giving each its unique characteristics including features such as a white-sand beach, Historic Ruins within landscaped gardens, parks, playgrounds, sports and leisure facilities.

The 77 villas are designed using a variable modular strategy; each villa consists of two wings that adapt to the different plot shapes creating different forms, reducing apparent repetition, offering choice and distinction for its individual residents whilst maintaining a coherent project identity and a sense of place. The villas are positioned to utilize the full potential of their plots, offering ease of access whilst maintaining their privacy and exclusivity, and maximizing the views towards their magnificent surroundings.

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Phase 1 (completed January 2019) comprised of 178 apartments.

The masterplan is enriched by a mixture of typologies; on the Golf side, the buildings are arranged around gardens, swimming pools and amenities in a series of sweeping crescents to maximise views from all apartments. Each green pocket has different characteristics and is flanked by a cluster of buildings arranged in a traditional Arabic medina typology, with shaded courtyards, creating distinct neighbourhoods and heightening the sense of discovery for its visitors.

The Avenue apartment buildings are positioned at the gateway of the Ayla development, forming its public front and interface to the city, portraying Ayla’s unique vision and projecting it onto the forward-looking city of Aqaba whilst maintaining sensitivity to its context.

A central mixed-use complex with panoramic views of the golf course boasts an open air covered souk lined with shops, cafes and restaurants at its base, and office and residential buildings on top.

The development offers a variety of building types with highly efficient space planning optimised for the needs of a wider demographic. The masterplan creates a balance between density and open space; increasing affordability to integrate people from various social backgrounds and age groups into the Ayla community.

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Three residential blocks of three stories each are arranged around a landscaped central courtyard that forms the heart of the development and increases daylight, greenery and communal garden space to the apartments. The blocks contain 21 apartments, in a mix of one, two and three bedrooms units to satisfy the London Plan requirements of maximising the potential of land to increase London’s housing stock and provide a variety of accommodation types for its diverse demographic. Each apartment is designed to maximize open plan living, with ground floor terraces and recessed upper balconies providing private amenity space. A large, landscaped communal garden to the rear provides quiet spaces for contemplation as well as social spaces for entertainment and leisure such as an outdoor dining area and children’s play facilities.

To allow for suitable density while creating a coherent scale of development with the adjacent two storey buildings, the building mass is carefully sculpted to reduce its bulk. An oblique folded roofscape corresponds to the neighbouring rhythm of pitched gables, concealing the third floor. The elevations are periodically recessed allowing the protruding brickwork sections to correspond in widths to the bay windows dominating the local architecture. These recesses form sheltered entrances to the blocks and are lined in a contrasting bronze coloured material, in homage to the plethora of contrasting light and dark materials used within the conservation areas. The proposal ends the streetscape appropriately whilst creating a dynamic folded volume that responds to shifting daylight, offering a unique characteristic to the neighbourhood.

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