AlUla Design Gallery
Designed by Samantha Cotterell, detailed by Gioforma and built by Sidra, the Design Gallery is the first cultural asset to be delivered in AlUla.
My desire to develop an Architecture that responds to its context, reinterprets its context, respects its context, but that is also modern and says something of its place in time and in history is synthesised in the AlUla Design Gallery.
In 2021, in my role as Executive Design Director for the The Royal Commission for AlUla, I was mandated by the Governor of AlUla, HH Prince Bader Al Saud, to set up a space in town that could showcase the development of all our projects. I decided that what we really needed was a Design Gallery that would grow to be a protagonist in, and an accomplice of, AlUla’s rapidly developing future as the cultural capital of Saudi Arabia. I pitched the idea to Leadership and the project was met with enthusiastic approval.
I proposed that the Design Gallery should be in the abandoned district of AlJadidah, which was set to become the Art District of AlUla based on the masterplan. Inspired by the vernacular built environment and the UNESCO notion of a ‘cultural landscape’, I conceived the building as a lightweight corten steel structure that would pay homage to the familiar breezeblock used so widely across the abandoned town of AlJadidah. Corten steel s a beautiful raw material that echoes the rocks in colour and in texture. It was chosen for its contemporary aesthetic qualities, its sustainability and its buildability. With the application of an algorithm, 3 breezblock pattern types were chosen and replicated randomly across the facade to form a perforated screen. We worked with architects GioForma and BlackEngineering to transform the concept into detailed design to deliver AlUla’s first contemporary cultural asset.
The building was intended to be a pavilion that would act as an engagement space for the local and international design community and to explore and to support design and its role on the development of a contemporary AlUla.
The building has become a charming and grounding centre for AlJadidha and has become home to the local and international art and design community. It has now been branded as The Design Space and hosts exhibitions, performances, talks, events. It is also home to ATHR Gallery, Saudi Arabia’s leading contemporary art gallery.
