As the city of Riyadh grows both in economy and footprint, demand for housing projects grows alongside it. The "traditional" Saudi house has evolved in the process to adhere to the more contemporary norms of the world. Privacy remains to play a pivotal role in designing any form of accommodation.

To tackle those concerns, our team developed a concept for affordable housing that answers to both high demand and speed of deliverables.

Each unit will be built in a prefab factory using CFS (cold formed steel) for the walls and ceilings and HRS (hot rolled steel) for the main chassis that would carry each part of the building. To be able to control speed and quality, the units have to be manufactured in an assembly factory and delivered to the site on trailers. On average, each unit can be built within an estimated time of 2-3 hours. This includes all windows, doors, finishing, fit-outs and MEP.

Since the units can be modular, design changes prior to manufacturing are possible. However, this method requires precise pre-engineering to ensure the highest quality possible. In addition, following the transport authority rules, no unit to be delivered on a trailer truck can be longer than 15m. Thus, we settled on 3 main sizes that are conveniently named: X (10m), XL (12m) and XXL (15m).

The exterior cladding will be made of EQUITONE cement boards and metal profiles where necessary. The interior will be mainly composed of painted gypsum wall boards, wooden panels and parquet floor.