As this year’s media partner, Arab News hosted a panel discussion at the 11th Real Estate Development Summit — Saudi Arabia/ Europe Edition in Barcelona, spotlighting the Kingdom’s heritage, sustainable development, and Vision 2030.
Arab News journalist Lama Alhamawi hosted the panel discussion, titled “Post-modern Architecture — Hijazi & Salmani Architecture,” during the second day of the summit, held at the Hotel Barceló Sants.
Joining the panel as speakers were Dr. Christopher Drew, director of sustainability at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture; Dipesh Patel, principal at BDP Pattern; and Pallavi Dean, founder and creative director at Roar.
Speakers discussed the traditional architectural styles visible in the Kingdom, including the Hijazi and Salmani architecture, and ways to preserve the cultural integrity of the heritage while also creating modern and livable cities.
“Salmani architecture was created by the crown prince’s father King Salman and its overall intent is to preserve the architecture in the region,” Patel said.
He shared that he is working with ROSHN, the Kingdom’s national real estate developer, to create projects that fall under the Salmani architecture styles.
“Salmani architecture has a series of values such as its authenticity, human-centric livability, innovation, and sustainability,” Patel said. He explained that the initial step is deep research and gathering guidelines for the Salmani code.
“We try to tell a story and narrative based on a sort of memory trace of Salmani and historic buildings but something modern,” Patel explained.
Dean, who has been working in the Gulf region for more than 20 years, highlighted the uniqueness of the Hijazi architectural style and the factors that set it apart.
“In contrast with Najdi, in Hijazi architecture, there are a lot more elements with Persian and Egyptian influences; they are vertical structures that are predominantly in light tones,” she said. “We have to be sensitive and sensible when we are designing communities,” she added.
The panel also discussed some of the giga-projects led by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiatives.
Dean highlighted her experience in AlUla and the many sustainable development initiatives she witnessed there. She raised the question of human intervention and asked the panel members if a natural landscape such as AlUla requires any architectural intrusion.
Drew stressed the need for management but minimal human intervention. “You need to manage human intervention in a way for it to not be noticed,” he said.
Alhamawi said that human intervention is required to preserve historical sites and landscapes and accommodate the growing tourism industry in an organic and minimally intrusive way.
“There are certain areas that require that level of development for architects to come in; for example, the Starbucks outlet in AlUla is natural, it’s made to look like a traditional village and does not look like a Starbucks at all,” she said.
“Another example is the open-air library (Jabal Ikmah) in AlUla; there are ancient carvings there and if you look closely, you will see modern Arabic letters there, so you can see some modern influences.
“This is where development and architecture need to come in, to create that barrier and protect that site; if we leave it untouched it’s not always the best,” Alhamawi said.
Panel members also discussed ways to contribute to one of the main goals of Vision 2030 — developing human capital to compete globally.
Dean, who is working with the Public Investment Fund to develop a training academy in Riyadh, said: “With the PIF, the training academy that we are working on, it is all about unleashing the human capital and potential that is found in Saudi nationals.”
“There is some amazing talent here, like anywhere else in the world; we need to incubate and cultivate that talent,” she said
The session came to a close with questions from audience members regarding sustainable development and the Kingdom’s architectural initiatives.
