The project involves the construction of an urban fragment and consists of a paths’ network with smallsquares in the open areas intertwined with the building volumes that host various activities. The location and disposal ofthe individual architectural components are dictated by the natural configuration of the existing site. It is an architecture on human scale, of limited size. The feeling is to be involved in space, to be in an inside. That’s why it defines “margins”, the boundaries within which is contained this urban fragment, in relation with the land and with the historical memory of the place.
The project seek a balanced visual continuity with the features of the surrounding territory, without falling into the cultural trap of a mimetic imitation. With the full respect of the landscape, the complex establishes a visual continuitybetween the masonries and the underlying rocks relief (so that the masonries appearto arise directly from the ground), that can be admired in many portions of the remains of the ancient city, but here are included within the complex urban grids definingempty spaces that provide perspectives that highlights elements of the surrounding countryside.
The continuity sought between the town and the Wadi is both physical and visual: theArt Centre has been conceived as a permeable building complex to provide an opportunity to create a pedestrian link between the two levels (town-Wadi), giving, also, the chance to restore the intense visual relationship with the surrounding countryside that characterized the historic city of Addiriyah.
MATERIALS AND PATTERNS FROM NAJD TRADITION
The forms given to the volumes, which are often slightly skewed or inclined, highlight the solid nature of the masonry, but also, the colour tone, the materials, the rhythm of shades and volumes and the traditional refinements aim to establish a dialogue with the remains of the city of Addiriyah,contemplating not only the horizontal sequence of its defensive walls but also the verticals patterns of its masonry.
CONTEMPORARY ART, INNOVATION AND FUNCTIONALITY
The functional scope of the Art Center is becaming a symbolic place, a point of reference for those, artists, intellectuals and entrepreneurs who are looking with interest to Contemporary Art and intend to promoteit in Saudi Arabia, but also an engine for diversified activities assembled together to interact multiplying their effects. It can be properly described as an Incubator, a laboratory able to train who wants to perform an activity in the Arts and, at the same time, to arrange, assist and support the operators already working in Saudi Arabia (artists, critics, technicians...), facilitating their activities by creating opportunities for interaction and exchanging of experiences and acting, as well, as a show case for their products.
Material Used :
1. Facade cladding: Local Riyadh stone
2. Flooring: Cement and Local stone
