Description
About the project
Pixel, an 85,000-square-metre mixed-use development in Abu Dhabi, features 525 apartments, shops, offices, and amenities situated around a lively communal plaza. The design enables a lifestyle based around outdoor living and community spirit – an innovative approach in the Emirates.
Pixel is the first project under construction in Makers District, a new development on Abu Dhabi’s Reem Island that is billed by developer IMKAN as the new heart of Abu Dhabi, providing a creative counterpart to the city’s cultural hub on the nearby Saadiyat Island. Capitalising on the innovative, cosmopolitan spirit of Makers District, Pixel is envisioned as a development which embraces the outdoors and creates a sense of community, deviating from the prevalent typology in the United Arab Emirates of disconnected towers.
The development comprises seven compact mid-rise towers of varying heights for optimized views and shading, which are pushed to the edges of the site to create a central plaza in between. The outward-facing façades of these towers are simple, enriched with a 3D graphic pattern, but it is the façades facing the central plaza that truly bring the development to life; near the base of each tower, these façades “break down” into formations of balconies and bay windows, perfect for engaging with the lively plaza below and for embracing an outdoor lifestyle during the cooler months of the year. These balconies are further shaded by ceramic screens which, in a nod to Abu Dhabi’s pearl diving heritage, are given a shimmering pearlescent finish. These screens also adorn a number of matching pavilions which MVRDV positioned in the central plaza to provide extra shade.