MARGAB

No. 137

MSU Villa

ResidentialAl Nakheel, Riyadh630 m²2026Architecture, Interiors, Lighting, Landscape

Stacked masses of stone with palms passing between them, recovering a grove the owner knew as a child.

The street elevation of MSU Villa: stacked stone masses with palms between them
01

Three Layers, One Stone

Three layers of a single stone: a base and boundary wall with a rough, hand-dressed face; a smooth first-floor volume projecting over the front yard; and second-floor volumes that return to the rough face of the base, set among roof gardens. Two textures and two close tones keep the house a single mass whose surfaces change.

Section through MSU Villa: basement, rough base, smooth first floor, rough second floor
Section: three layers of one stone
Under the smooth volume: a stone column, the front yard and palms beyond
The front yard beneath the projecting first floor, palm trunks rising through it
02

Palms Through the Mass

The palms are not planted around the masses; they pass through them. In the front yard, palms pierce the volume overhead, so guests arrive under fronds before they arrive under a roof. On the first floor, the master suite looks onto a courtyard where palms rise from below. The fronds are the first shade in the house.

MSU Villa from above: palms rising through the stone volumes and roof gardens
Palms passing through the mass
A courtyard of gravel and planting, palm trunks against the glass
A palm rising through the courtyard beside the living room
The courtyard at night, the palm lit from below
03

Courtyards, Not Corridors

The guest majlis sits at the front, the family living room at the centre opening onto a rear garden, and services at the back, with no single corridor between them, only courtyards offering a choice of paths. A side light well brings daylight to the basement, with planting reaching down into it.

Ground floor plan: majlis, living room and services joined by courtyards
Ground floor plan: courtyards instead of a corridor
Basement plan with the side light well
First floor plan: the master suite and its palm courtyard
Basement and first floor plans
Second floor plan among the roof gardens
Second floor plan
The family living room facing a stone wall and the garden
The living room under a dark steel stair
A sitting area beside the stair, curtains drawn to the light
From the entrance, through the house to a lit courtyard

A house in a district named for palms, recovering a single grove and living within it.

Facts

Project
MSU Villa
Type
Residential
Scope
Architecture · Interiors · Lighting · Landscape
Year
2026
Location
Al Nakheel, Riyadh
Site area
630 m²
Status
Under construction
Plot
21 × 30 m on Jabal Al Faw Street (20 m wide); no slope, no view
Materials
One natural stone in two textures: rough base and boundary wall, smooth first floor, rough second floor

Drawings

Basement plan
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Second floor plan

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

Frank Lloyd Wright