The project begins with the exploration of towns and cities of Saudi Arabia, and plays with scale, light, and texture to showcase the country’s culture. The organic forms of traditional Saudi villages are evoked. Visitors enter from an esplanade wit
Foster + Partners has won the competition to design a new terminal for the airport of Abha, the capital of Saudi Arabia’s Asser Region. Taking inspiration from the nearby village of Rijal Almaa, the winning scheme presents a series of interconnected
The firm OMA designed the scenography for the first edition of the Jeddah Biennale, which is being held within the Western Hajj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport, a work of Skidmore, Owings & Meriill (SOM) and winner of the 1983 Aga Kh
Norman Foster’s firm has been announced the winner of the competition to design the King Salman International Airport in the Saudi Arabian capital. It is expected to be one of the biggest airports in the world, covering an area of approximately 57 sq
The museums’ architecture acts as a magnet, drawing people into a promenade that starts at the grand spiral entrance. This spatial journey takes inspiration from stories that shed light on the relationship between the sun and the moon or between wate
This research and visitor center is devoted to the marine environment and the challenges of conserving the hábitats of the Red Sea. Located in the Triple Bay Marina at Amaala, the scheme of coral forms perforated with skylights is wrapped in prefabri
The AlUla territory gathers a unique collection of landscapes. The inland desert plateau, the mountain ranges, and the valleys offer extreme geological conditions and diverse habitats that coexist. The architecture of the place is defined by the acti
The artist Edoardo Tresoldi (Cambiago, 1987) is the founder and creative director of Studio Studio Studio, a new interdisciplinary lab that seeks to create cultural hybdrids. The recently dedicated installation called Gharfa is part of Diriyah Oasis,
KAPSARC (King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre) recently opened in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. A work of the British firm Zaha Hadid Architects, the research institution rises in the desert landscape with a modular structure of
The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is an initiative from the Saudi Aramco Oil Company to promote cultural development, knowledge, and diversity in the Kingdom. Also referred to as Ithra (Arabic for enrichment), the center has provided the lo
The oasis functions as the central element of the project and is covered, to generate a comfortable environment, with a curved layer in a golden finish as a metaphor of the Qur’an, resting on four buildings that house the indoor programs.
The proposal consists of a plaza with a central water crater, covered by a huge torus that ensures the lower open space has adequate comfort conditions through shading, which will change throughout the day thus making the space dynamic.
The proposal consists of a library surrounded by five plazas symbolizing the five pillars of Islam; the main floor and the accesses are burrowed five meters below street level, aiming to keep the complex sheltered from the busy activity of the city.&
The complex includes two gardens – that of access at street level and the interior one on level -5; four ‘tents’ located at the angles, whose geometric repetition gives the whole an overall image; and a bridge pointing towards Madinah.
Aiming to produce different atmospheres, the proposal is a tapestry constituted by a series of volumes and landscapes that converge at the Gold Spiral. Underneath it, the imposing dome of the Acoustic Center is a space to read the Qur’an.
The design focusses on the idea of oasis as landscape and proposes a land art approach: the large three-dimensional roof rests on five columns that contain the vertical communications; their tesselated surfaces evoke the traditional architecture.
With a circular geometry, the project proposed fulfills the objective of buffering noise from the nearby airport by means of elevated roofs and terraced walls with vegetation, which make reference to the Islamic city and to the gardens of Babylon.
For solar protection, a light skin of Teflon clads the glazed facade, producing beautiful light effects captured with precision by the camera of Christian Richters.
The Qasr Al Hokm Downtown Metro Station, at the heart of Riyadh, is designed as an urban plaza with a large curved stainless steel canopy with a dual function: channeling daylight into the subway station and visually connecting – thanks to the polish
The desert kingdom builds on the sand. Like other petrostates, Saudi Arabia diversifies its economy to prepare a future without oil; like most of them, it tackles this transformation from the dirigisme of an autocratic regime; and unlike practically
The Centre Georges Pompidou will be opening a museum in Seoul in 2025, expanding its network of outposts that currently includes branches in Metz, Shanghai, and Málaga. The Paris-based institution has signed an agreement with the Hanwha Culture Found
The Saudi Arabian government has announced plans to build Mukaab, a cube 400 meters tall, around which the 19-square-kilometer urban development New Murabba will rise, northwest of downtown Riyadh. Containing a spiral tower within it, the building w
The Royal Commission for Wadi AlFann, Valley of the Arts in AlUla desert (Saudi Arabia) announced that US artists James Turrell, Agnes Denes, and Michael Heizer will be joined by Saudi creative pioneers Ahmed Mater and Manal Al-Dowayan to produce art
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has made public the kingdom’s plans to build a 170-kilometer linear city for a million inhabitants. Car-less and carbon-free, The Line – as it has been named – is part of a larger project called Neom
The hajj, one of the five pillars or most important practices of Islam and an obligation for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime...
The petrodollar-funded construction of huge cultural complexes is a strategy used by Gulf countries to craft themselves a recognizable and influential image.
A work of the British architectural firm Zaha Hadid Architects, the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (KAPSARC) has opened its doors in Riyadh. It rises in the desert landscape of the Saudi Arabian capital as a modular structure for
It is obligatory for every able Muslim to travel to Mecca at least once in life, granting they have the resources to. This makes the city of Islam’s holiest site one of the most crowded on the planet. To help deal with the serious problem of accommo
En Medina, una de las dos ciudades sagradas del islam, el arquitecto sevillano Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra ha diseñado un conjunto museístico, masivo e introvertido, que evoca en su volumetría a las construcciones históricas musulmanas. El edificio c
El creciente número de peregrinos que acuden cada año a La Meca (alrededor de tres millones) ha llevado al rediseño de la ciudad sagrada, convertida en un hervidero de proyectos con grandes posibilidades inmobiliarias (véase Arquitectura Viva 111). C
Mecca is the holiest spot on earth. At least, it is considered by five percent of the earth’s population who are of Islamic faith and face towards the city in prayer five times a day. They believe that Mecca was founded in the 19th century B.C. by th
The Alhambra of Granada was the backdrop of the awarding of the Aga Khan architectural prizes, which throw an unexpected light on the Islamic world.
