their different heights are placed on a shifting grid plan with variations created
by different orientations dictated by the environment. The orientation allows the
volumes a strong visual character from perspectives on the sea, the marina, from
the mainland or walking around in the peninsula itself.
The traditional Mediterranean settlement with its series of solid-void
volumes and the orientation strategies dictating perspectives from points
on the peninsula generates the iconic design. The massive wall on the inner
marina side of the peninsula protects the marina from the prevailing wind
blowing from the north. This wall similar in function to a large wall used by
EAA in another Mediterranean tourism project the Kervansaray Lara Hotel,
Antalya project in the late 1990s, starts from the mainland connection point
(where the road starts) ends with a tower providing a circulation axis. The
curving tower at the of this axis, acting as the landmark in the marina,
was designed partly in response to the Azeri client’s brief referencing a
historical tower on the seaside of Baku but also echoes the form of the round
windmills fou