MARGAB

No. 045

MM Villa

ResidentialIrqah, Riyadh674 m²2025Architecture, Interiors, Lighting, Landscape

MM Villa takes the courtyard required by the Wadi Hanifa code down into the basement, making the basement the centre of the house rather than its annex.

The single street front of MM Villa, its openings screened by rawasheen
01

One Frontage

The plot is 12 metres wide and 25 deep, with one frontage and neighbours on both sides. The code requires an internal courtyard, a direct connection to the boundary wall and stepped masses. A strip this narrow cannot hold a full family programme above ground, and light reaches it from one side only.

Basement and ground floor plans of MM Villa on its narrow plot
Basement and ground floor plans
Massing diagram: the volume on the narrow plot
Massing diagram: the masses stepped back as the code requires
Massing diagram: the rawasheen set into the openings
Stepped masses, as the code requires
02

The Descending Courtyard

The courtyard runs from the basement to the second floor, with the family living room, kitchen and pool gathered around its base. The basement covers 77% of the plot. Above it, the floors move from public to private: guests on the ground floor, children's suites on the first, and the parents' suite with its own courtyard on the second.

Looking down into the courtyard from above, the floors around it
Looking down into the courtyard
The basement pool beside the courtyard, lit from above
Dining at the floor of the courtyard, under a tree
The family living room opening onto the courtyard
Living and dining in the basement, the courtyard beyond
First and second floor plans
First and second floor plans: the children, then the parents
03

The Najdi Face

Stepped cubic masses rise to 12.4 metres, finished in textured paint in a deep clay tone. The openings carry walnut rawasheen, a stand-in for traditional tamarisk wood, built from hollow squares framing Najdi triangles. They block the view and admit the light, while Riyadh stone runs from the ground-floor base down into the basement.

MM Villa at night: the rawasheen lit from within

A closed Najdi face, as the code requires, and a family life held in the depth, around the courtyard.

Facts

Project
MM Villa
Type
Residential
Scope
Architecture · Interiors · Lighting · Landscape
Year
2025
Location
Irqah, Riyadh
Site area
300 m²
Built area
674 m²
Status
Under construction
Plot
12 × 25 m, a single southeast front on a 15 m street
Code
Wadi Hanifa urban code: an internal courtyard, attachment to the boundary wall, stepped masses
Programme
Basement: family living room, kitchen, pool · Ground floor: guests · First floor: children's suites · Second floor: parents' suite with its own courtyard
Materials
Textured paint in a deep clay tone · walnut rawasheen · Riyadh stone

Drawings

Basement and ground floor plans
First and second floor plans

“I believe in an emotional architecture.”

Luis Barragán