The Harbour Row is a GFH project consisting of mid to high-end apartments along with a retail and F&B offerings on the ground level along the water. GFH asked us to create a Customer Relations Centre (CRC) for the Harbour Row at the Bahrain Financial Harbour.
The broad concept for the CRC is based around creating a Glass Cube-like structure 20×20 meter square, on the water by the Harbour House, to promote and showcase the project to customers.
The CRC will house all supportive facilities inclusive of product exhibitions, displays and audio visuals.

THE GOLDEN CUBE
A fully glazed cube building, (as suggested by the Client’s brief) can be attractive in a temperate climate, but can be unliveable in a very hot climate, such as Bahrein.
Glass insulation to REACH the values of stone or brick wall can be extremely expensive.
Facades could accommodate solar panels to provide insulation and energy generation, but it would also have been a very expensive solution, for a temporary Pavilion.

To fulfill the request of the Client, keeping the structure cost to a reasonable level and at the same time creating a landmark on the harbour waters, we picked from the old Arabian Architecture, and enveloped the glazed cube into another cube, with a Masharabian pattern.
This outer perforated skin, provides shelter and good insulation from the heat, as well as creating a striking effect. The buffer space between the the two cubes, gives access to the CRC, through gently sloping walkways; the air is cooled before reaching the interior spaces. The interior cube is not visible from the exterior during daytime, but when light at night it will show up through the Masharabia.