Riyadh Journal – Breaking the sand wave
By Nick Gazanis
November saw me fly to Riyadh on my first visit to KSA on an exciting trip for new work opportunities and to be part of the RIBA delegation at Cityscape Global 2024.
My opportunity to visit Riyadh came from astudio’s newly forged collaboration and partnership with International Hub Real Estate, to provide housing and commercial projects in modular construction. MMC is a technology that the Saudi government is keen to explore and as astudio is at the forefront of DfMA it felt right to explore how we can make a difference abroad as we have been developing & honing our innovative product in the UK for more than 8 years to get it off the ground at scale.
Upon my late-night arrival, the instant heat of the warm weather felt familiar as I was born in a Greece and nostalgia filled my thoughts. However, before long I was quickly back into work mode, despite it being after midnight, as menial logistics of how the Wi-Fi works on my phone and how to buy data so I can order an uber soon took over my mind!
As I arrived at my first hotel of the trip, I was met by our client who took me out for a lovely welcome dinner. Dinner at such a late hour made sense as in such hot climes people are out long after the sun goes down and when the atmosphere cools. I watched as the vibrant night life unfolded as families and children came out together to make the most of their day.
After a 7-hour flight and dinner out I was indeed ready for a good night’s sleep to set me up to begin the rest of my visit. The next 3 days were filled with site visits of the new up and coming areas of development located to the North-East of the city & close to the airport. These trips included a visit to the old Diriya Palace with a light show projection onto the old structure of the buildings, a 3-hour drive to the desert where the new factory owned by our Client will be based in the emerging industrial area past Qiddiya and dinner at traditional Saudi restaurants allowed me to explore the best culinary experience Riyadh has to offer!
My observation through my visit and from talking with peers is that Riyadh has had a young injection of officials and royalty with international educational backgrounds, that are pushing boundaries to change how the world sees Saudi. A vision to create a country which is technologically advanced and leading the way for its future generations to come. Sustainability is at the forefront of what they wish to achieve which is perfectly aligned to astudio’s values.
There has been negative press on all the mega projects taking place in the region so this might sound like greenwashing. However, at an interesting panel discussion I attended at one of the leading multi-disciplinary companies in downtown Riyadh, there was mention of how cities all of the world have grown historically. For example, London became the largest city in the world and that took almost 200 years to build, then as time passed it took 50 years for New York to take the reins and as technology evolves it is expected that the growth rate of cities has substantially reduced in the last 30 years. Cities in China pop-up out of nowhere in a short space of time and by 2050 most of the world’s population will be living in cities and catering for the future is human nature. So these mega projects development somewhat are a continuation of the growing population that wish to live in cities in the future.
The second part of my trip saw me join the RIBA for Cityscape Global 2024. The largest delegation organised by the RIBA took place this year with over 20 practices attending and linking with the RIBA GULF division. A great breakfast briefing with expert talks across the industry was held at the iconic glass globe structure at the top of the Al Faisaliah Tower, where insights as to how new opportunities for young architectural practices can be flourished in Riyadh was insightful and saw us start our day before heading to the opening ceremony at Cityscape, a 2 hour journey form the city out into the desert. The opening day provided the perfect backdrop for astudio and International Hub Real Estate to sign our partnership agreement for future collaborations and our first commission is now underway with designs being shared.
The vast projects and opportunities being showcased and exhibited at Cityscape were overwhelming compared to what is currently happening in London, which seemed insignificant. The first day was all about getting my bearings and walk the Cityscape venue which used to be an airport. The venue was filled with supersize scaled models of all the large development like NEOM, Diriyah and many others, with immersive fly throughs and filled with an abundance of hospitality and excitement.
In preparation for my trip I had learnt that there are certain steps for setting up an architectural presence in Saudi such as being part of the PIF supplier list of the major developers and you are required to have a 50% local workforce which is monitored and scored by the Government on a monthly basis. astudio have been proactive with this and already have a collaboration in place with a practice that has a base in Dubai, so the doors are wide open for exciting new things to come.
Now that I am back in our London studio, with my stories and photographs shared, the team are all looking forward to the opportunities which await and designing schemes to help the country fulfil its vision in a considerate, innovative, and inspiring way so that the needs of the people are met. We have not ignored the challenges the country has experienced, which are well documented in the media, but from my visit I found their vision to be wholly convincing and sensitive towards an evolving culture that is looking to build a more sustainable future founded on real outcomes such as energy, quality of life and technology. This aligns with astudio’s values for social impact that shapes communities and technologically advance future developments.
For me personally, I am already looking forward to my next trip to build upon my knowledge and develop relationships further with the added bonus of the warm sunshine!