Sail Island at the Red Sea at Jeddah

Description

Sail Island is a new recreation area on the Corniche at the Red Sea at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The facilities were build on an artificial peninsula adjacent to the edge of a coral reef.
They comprise various single-storey pavilions, which surround a swimming pool and cover various rest and play sections to a large extent.
The name for this complex Sail Island stands as a programme to design ten groups of four-point sails. The sails are shading roofs on the one hand. At the same time they serve as signs visible from the distance. They are thus, on the other hand, a means of advertisement for the facilities.

The sails are grouped in the inner, closed section of the area and around the swimming pool and also cover a children?s playground. In the outer, freely-accessible section they are grouped around the approach areas to the restaurant pavilions.

The individual tent groups comprise three to eight four-point sails, which are arranged with one of their top points each around a mast, and which feature eleven different types of sails of varying size and form.
The arrangement of the sails, which are overlapping and raised in steps, results in a light and playful appearance and permits many different visual experiences of form.
There is a high degree of light and air permeability, and a maximum of protection from direct sun radiation.
Pleasant climatic conditions are achieved under the tents with the aid of sea winds, in the very hot air of the Red Sea with a high degree of humidity.

In addition, the main tent at the pool receives air from several variously arranged displace-ment outlets and thus an area is created in a space open to the outside air that is partly condi-tioned, especially when there is no wind.

The tents cover a total surface of 4,000m². The main masts reach a height of up to 14 - 22m. The membrane material is a PVC-coated polyester fibre with a Fluortop-coating. The edge and suspension cables are stainless steel cables. All steel parts are made of high quality stainless steel, sea climate-resistant, its surfaces being treated especially to protect them from corrosion.

Since the facilities are also being used at night and since high demands were made on the lighting, various studies were made. In the resulting lighting concept the membrane surfaces as well as additional mirror facettes are used to achieve an indirect and largely even illumina-tion of the surfaces under the sails. The translucent membrane makes it possible for the sails to shine at night into great distances.

The whole recreational complex is thus presented also at night in an impressive way.

Description of the environmental conditions