Designing Microclimates in Hot and Arid Regions — The Villa Hegra Project

Designing for Resilience in Saudi Arabia

Designing in extreme climates requires more than just standard architectural solutions; it demands a deep understanding of microclimatic behavior. In AlUla, Saudi Arabia, where summer temperatures consistently exceed 40°C, creating livable and sustainable outdoor spaces is a critical challenge.

In this expert-led session, Rafael Alonso Candau from Atmos Lab will present the Villa Hegra project—a cross-cultural institution developed in collaboration with Pritzker Prize-winning architects Lacaton & Vassal. You will see how the team utilized advanced microclimatic simulations to bridge the gap between urban density and the cooling power of the traditional oasis. By leveraging the dual concepts of the "Old Winter Town" and "Old Summer Town," the project demonstrates how architecture and landscape can work together to reduce felt temperatures by up to 9°C.

What You’ll Learn:

• The Oasis Effect: How traditional Saudi Arabian "Summer Towns" informed modern microclimatic strategies and how existing agricultural data from Afalula was used to anchor simulation results in reality.
• Architectural Shading & Thermal Inertia: The impact of lifting buildings on pilotis and creating compact courtyard configurations to defend against harsh heat.
• Vegetation as Infrastructure: A detailed look at different oasis typologies—from kitchen gardens to dense combined palm and citrus groves—and their specific impacts on Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT).
• From Concept to Detail: How Atmos Lab transitioned from typological studies in RIBA Stage 1 to a comprehensive ENVI-met site model in Stage 2, coordinating with landscape designers to select specific species from the ENVI-met database.
• Live Q&A Session: Ask Rafael Alonso Candau about the technical workflows and design decisions behind this project.

Who should attend the webinar:

• Architects and Urban Designers working in hot, arid, or Mediterranean climates.
• Environmental Consultants interested in the intersection of heritage sites and sustainable tourism.
• Landscape Architects seeking data-driven evidence for the cooling benefits of specific planting configurations.
• Sustainability Managers looking to integrate microclimate analysis into large-scale master planning.
• Anyone interested in the practical application of ENVI-met within a Rhino/Morpho workflow.