Applying the Principles of Flexibility in The Design of Saudi Housing: Tag Villa Project in Saudi Arabia

The housing in Saudi Arabia lost flexibility concept that had existed in vernacular Saudi housing together with the introduction of foreign building types. In this context, several projects were executed in Saudi Arabia afterwards that aimed to provide flexible design in Saudi housing. A recent project; TAG Villa (2022) is one of these contemporary projects where flexible design is aimed to be provided considering socio-cultural structure of Saudi Arabian society. In this study, the flexible design practices implemented in TAG Villa and their realization levels according to Raeyd M. Al-Dakheel's flexibility classification that he determined considering the socio-cultural values of Saudi Arabia, are examined. The main aim of this study is to express at what rate the flexible sides of traditional Saudi housing design are adaptable to contemporary housing design and evaluate the instructive aspects of the socio-cultural values of Saudi Arabian society for achieving flexible design. Accordingly, the architectural drawings of TAG Villa are analyzed and an interview with the architect of TAG Villa project is conducted. The findings of the study express that the methods implemented in this project for achieving flexibility have many instructive sides for other studies aiming to achieve flexibility considering socio-cultural values.