Kettle Collective

Designed in response to the Saudi Arabian topography in Abha, this masterplan positions villages and town centres across hilltops, hillsides, wadis, and valley floors to create a series of distinct places within the landscape. Four town centres are located within the flatter valleys, while three civic hubs, a retail hub, and two school hubs mark key points of arrival across the site.

The planning approach draws on the logic of historic settlements in the region, exploring how their spatial organisation can evolve to support contemporary life. Homes are grouped into clusters, with clusters forming villages that respond to scale, slope, and landscape.

Traditional vernacular housing typologies are reinterpreted across a range of forms, townhouses, villas, duplexes, and apartment buildings, retaining the vertical character of the original architecture while adapting to new ways of living.

A masterplan shaped by land, memory, and continuity.

Happy Monday from Kettle Collective ☀️

As we start a new week, fresh and ready to bring ideas to life, we stay connected to the people who will experience each space, including that sense of play we sometimes forget.

Wishing you a week filled with moments of joy.

As part of Earth Day, we spoke with Anthony Tappe, Group Design Director and LEED AP BD+C, about sustainability in practice.

From early design decisions to long-term impact, the conversation reflects a simple idea: sustainability is not a checklist, but something embedded in the way we think, design, and build.

Full interview on kettle.co

As we begin reflecting on Earth Day a little earlier this year, we find ourselves revisiting the projects that have shaped not just what we build, but how we think about design more broadly.

For us, sustainability has never been something applied at the end of a project, but something that is considered from the very first sketch, guiding decisions from the outset. Whether through passive strategies that respond to climate, data-driven modelling, or ongoing material exploration, each choice becomes an opportunity to reduce impact and create work that is more responsible, more resilient, and ultimately more meaningful.