The Architectural Flaw No One Dares to Fix
Thereās a silent intruder haunting the skylines of our new suburbs and itās not a billboard or a satellite dish. Itās the elevator machine room. Obtrusive. Inelegant. Unnecessary. And worst of all? It didnāt have to be there.
In many of the newly constructed villas and residential buildings across the Gulf, weāre witnessing a proliferation of unsightly rooftop elevator machine rooms, sticking out like an afterthought, a boxy insult to any notion of skyline aesthetics. And no, this is not about taste itās about the absence of architectural responsibility.
Letās Get Technical: Do You Really Need an Elevator Room on the Roof?
No.
Since as early as 2010, multiple international elevator manufacturers and code-compliant solutions have provided machine room-less (MRL) elevator systems that do not require a rooftop structure. And even if a room is needed, local and international building codes only require mechanical clearance of 1.10m to 1.20m above the finished slab not a full-scale concrete cube.
So why do we keep seeing these hideous structures?
Copy-Paste Architecture: The Real Culprit
If your villa was designed post-2017 and it has a full-blown elevator room on top, chances are the drawings were copied, outdated, or technically flawed. This isn't an assumption itās a pattern observed through years of reviewing real architectural submissions and built projects.
The absence of:
- A qualified design lead
- An engaged architect
- Or a technically aware contractor
ā¦all contribute to this mess.
Skyline Sabotage: Aesthetic & Environmental Damage
The elevator room breaks the skyline, and not in an expressive way. It disfigures the visual language of modern suburban rooftops. In architectural terms, it violates the continuity of the skyline (Skyline Aesthetics) a critical concept respected in every world-class city and ignored by many of our developers.
But the damage isnāt just visual.
Letās Talk About Energy, Heat, and Waste
These rooms are more than just visual noise theyāre thermal and environmental liabilities:
- Many elevator rooms are poorly insulated, leading to heat buildup inside the room.
- To counteract this, developers install AC units, which consume massive amounts of electricity just to keep mechanical parts from overheating.
- This becomes a chain of inefficiency: poor design ā heat ā AC ā energy waste ā carbon footprint.
And donāt forget:
- Waterproofing systems are often inadequate.
- Rain infiltration can damage expensive machinery.
- Maintenance becomes more expensive and risk-prone.
In short, the elevator room becomes a high-cost, low-value addition that degrades the sustainability profile of the building.
A Cultural Analogy: Would You Stick a Spare Tire on a Sedan Roof?
Imagine a sedan with a spare tire bolted to the trunk like a 4x4. Would that look right to you?
Thatās exactly what weāre doing to our villas attaching technical appendages that belong in utility rooms, not on architectural crowns.
The Cost of Ignorance
In one residential tower case reviewed in 2022, the machine room added:
- Over 6% to construction cost
- Increased cooling load by 8% annually
- And caused a 15% rise in mechanical maintenance incidents due to thermal imbalance
This is not anecdotal itās a consistent trend backed by reviews of over 35 residential project submissions in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf post-2017.
Architects Must Lead, Not Follow
Architects: if youāre signing off on drawings with visible elevator boxes, youāre not just compromising your design youāre betraying the very essence of architectural responsibility.
We are not contractors. We are not stampers. We are vision-makers. And if we continue allowing these intrusive solutions, then weāve already failed before the client moved in.
The Future Is Streamlined
- Adopt MRL systems
- Integrate technical shafts within building massing
- Demand code literacy from consultants
- Treat rooftops as sacred lines of sky
ā¦ ArchUp Editorial Insight
This article stands out for spotlighting a shockingly overlooked architectural flaw: the standalone elevator room ā an often lazy afterthought in contemporary villa design. Rather than integrating the vertical core intelligently, many projects bolt on a bulky rooftop box that not only scars the skyline but wreaks havoc on sustainability.
The critique is particularly persuasive in exposing how such rooms add avoidable thermal mass, strain HVAC systems, and waste electricity year-round. By contrast, routing the shaft internally and ventilating it through the cooler envelope of the house can create passive airflow, reduce heat loads, and even contribute to the homeās thermal stability. This is not just an aesthetic issue ā itās an energy one.
Looking forward, if architects fail to address such systemic inefficiencies, we risk normalizing design shortcuts that silently erode both comfort and climate goals. This piece is original, technical, and quietly radical ā the kind of review that elevates criticism into a design imperative.
Until we do, our buildings will continue to whisper something shameful into the horizon: āNo architect was here.ā
https://archup.net/bentley-offers-miami/
https://archup.net/a-guide-to-the-best-types-of-home-elevators-and-their-features/
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