Mountain Resort Rak Jebel Al Jais in Dubai by OMA

The Rotterdam office of Rema Koolhaas published a project for a tourist village located on the Ras Al Khaimah mountain in the United Arab Emirates on its website. The project consists of many different buildings, among which are also the "inhabited dam," "inhabited bridge," or a vertical settlement embedded into the mountain slope.
From the OMA report, we select: “The previous task of the resort was to provide a fleeting escape from everyday woes; an earthly view of paradise for a short stay ... but in today’s UAE, where recreation has become a ubiquitous condition, the resort itself begins to incite escape. The Ras Al Kaimah mountain resort represents a sensational natural ensemble. Entering the rugged landscape of these mountains is like plowing a fallow field. The wave of new tourism in the form of 'survival' trips, exploratory journeys, and 'eco' expeditions signals a revival of the desire for long-lost dangers; a reassessment of some more unpredictable and now welcome aspects of nature. Rather than domestication of these bare slopes into a standard environment of a traditional resort, this project aims to create a center that would utilize its true natural conditions. The proposed resort consists of a varying number of individual parts that are interconnected like a string of pearls along the new Jebel al Jais road. The complex includes a terraced resort, modern villas, a wedge-shaped building, an excavation, pixel villas, a vertical city, a dam, a bridge, an overhanging building, and houses in the rocky slope. Each part represents a different urban solution for inhabiting the mountains and provides various levels of concentration and density. Each part also offers its own way of preserving the integrity of the landscape.” Link>