Mosquito Nets in Arabian Ranches

Arabian Ranches was built in series. Al Reem, Saheel, Palmera, Mirador and Alvorada in the first phase, the Spanish quarters in the second, townhouses in the third: within each series the layouts repeat from house to house. For screens that is convenient. We have a fair idea what we will see on site before setting out, and the phone conversation becomes concrete.

The main opening in a villa like that is nearly always the same. The living room opens to the garden through a wide sliding door of two or three leaves. That is closed first, because in summer it is held open all evening. Second in importance comes the kitchen door to the back yard, where the grill stands and the laundry dries; there people usually ask for a hinged construction with a closer, so their hands can stay full of dishes.

The surroundings are desert. Open desert and Al Qudra lie to the south, the wind carries fine sand, and it settles on both the glass and the fabric. A dense aperture holds it better, but screens here will need cleaning more often than in enclosed city building.

Inside the community, meanwhile, everything is green: lawns, hedging, the golf course, and water in the central park of the second phase. Irrigation runs daily, and the evening flies breed in that greenery rather than flying in from the desert. Hence the typical picture: more mosquitoes in the garden than on the road outside the community wall.