Wadi Palace Re-imagined

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ours is an inherently sustainable architecture/landscape proposal of radical empathy and sympathetic juxtaposition that re-imagines/re-positions/re-inhabits the iconic Tuwaiq Palace (Architect-Engineer Frei Otto) / Tuwaiq Plateau with iconic Diplomatic Quarter Edge Walk (Landscape Architect Richard Bödeker) wherein apparently nothing is changed but everything is fundamentally transformed. Re-imagined as a Palace Event Hotel (in spirit of original commission as a Wedding Gift Palace) replete with Wedding Tent and Marriage Tent either side of outermost Central Tent that concentrates the Head/Heart of Hotel into an Arrival/Living/Dining Tent. This latent axis (heretofore un-utilized) re-orients/re-organizes the Palace Hotel and is extended outwards to most honorific corner of Tuwaiq Plateau (highest most prominent dry plateau at edge of Riyadh Metropolis) as Stepped Terrace/Water Garden that merges with historic Wadi Hanifa. Plateau (DQ) Edge Walk is re-inhabited either side of new Hotel Spine with a Wadi Edge Hotel that preserves mature trees along ‘edge walk’ with a double-stepped plateau edge. From the Palace this is barely evident across the dry plateau ‘moonscape’ except for subtle geologic fissures/faults radiating outwards from Palace taking guests down into their plateau-edge-suites and into the birdsong of Wadi Hanifa, Riyadh’s namesake. (*Riyadh is derived from the Arabic word (‘Rawdah’) meaning ‘a place of gardens and trees’).

Limited Invited Paid International Paid Competition

with Landscape Architect Lara Zureikat

Visualization - 5visual

Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined
Wadi Palace Re-imagined