The Yard at Alserkal Avenue
A little grove in town
Credits @ Alserkal Avenue
Anyone who knows me knows that Alserkal Avenue is a very important place for me in Dubai.
I do not just visit it, go there to eat, or to the theater and cinema. I often organize and lead in-depth contemporary art tours, selecting three or four exhibitions to explain in more detail. Above all, I like to illustrate what Alserkal Avenue is and narrate the significant role it plays in the artistic landscape and for the community of Dubai.
At the center of the district, there is a large courtyard called The Yard, which has changed its appearance many times in recent years. It is a meeting and resting place, often hosting live events such as debates or concerts.
How can The Yard be a more hospitable space? This was the main question posed to two architectural firms commissioned to redesign it.
Studies have been conducted and revealed surprising data on heat, people flows, and air circulation. The recommendation followed by the designers was to cool the common spaces, adding multiple green enclaves while softening the linearity of the alleys at the same time.
Thus, at the end of 2023, the new The Yard was born, hosting a true botanical encyclopedia of native plants. With the expansion of the built environment, the native species that once thrived in the corners and crevices of the Al Quoz district were removed from their habitat. Therefore, little woods called Groove Corners were created, intentionally cultivated or taken from the wild, and replanted.
I quote from the words of the architects:
The grove, a grouping of trees, intentionally cultivated or found growing wild, has a long diverse history entwined with human settlement, rural practices and the culture and politics of cities.
A grove can be a memorial, a place of learning, a site of poetic retreat and philosophy or political encampment, a public park or theatre, a place of hidden pleasures, a symbol of a vanished forest ecology, or a place of gods or other spirits. Groves are both literal and metaphorical manifestations, ways of defining spaces and ecologies in our cultural life. They can add meaning to urban forms and ecologies and contribute meaningfully to the significance of place.
A note about the designers:
T SAKHI is a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio co-founded in 2016 by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tara and Tessa Sakhi.
Studio Zain Masud is a landscape design studio based in Dubai with a particular focus on native and desert species and sustainable, water-conscious approaches.
Credits @ Alserkal Avenue