Wadi Safar is a geographic area and wadi system located to the west of Riyadh and Wadi Hanifah, and near to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed At-Turaif district within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At-Turaif was the first capital of the Saudi dynasty and the birthplace for Riyadh, dating back to the 15th century. The historic settlement is built with mud brick in the Najd architectural style, specific to the central Najd region of Saudi Arabia.

Since the project is placed on top of a cliff, we have taken that as an opportunity to maximize the experience of the location and existing landscape. Rather than focusing on ‘form-making’ we focused on the ‘experience of the space’, we are proposing an un-interrupted, 360-degree panoramic view from the Experience Center overviewing Wadi Safar.

The remote location of the development requires carefully planned experience and journey in order to arrive to the main destination. The introduction of the arrival begins with the Entry statement that represents subtle intervention in the landscape with enhancement of the trees, creating a natural gate and entrance. The road that leads to Experience Centre, has several threshold points, allowing the moments of rest and overview of surrounding landscape. The road leads to drop-off, not enabling the car to reach the outline of the buildings. It is part of the journey to stop, and reflect the landscape and carefully positioned building, which is cantilevering over the main entry ramp, framing the pedestrian only entrance to the Centre.

The variety and richness of the program is expressed in the form and treatment. The main programs of the Visitor Centre are treated as carved spaces from the solidness of the amphitheatre above. Each space has a unique and different experience, geometry, materiality, texture and color compared to the others. The inside is always in dialogue with the wadi in one continuous loop that opens up into carving which serves as a new world with their form, space, materiality, layout and so on. From outside it becomes the highlighted program and accent of the building. It is important in this proposal to express the human scale and its interaction with the environment; intimate scale in reference to programmatic spaces and the sensibility of proportion and synchronization of different geometries and materiality.

The building allows the polyvalence of usage and flexibility of different users, The layout of the proposal and form, offer a series of social activities, each one corresponding to a certain programmatic activity such as: daily use, concert/ screening, fashion, dining, conference, exhibition and etc. The fixed parts of the building stay permanent while the architectural layouts and organization offer programmatic variety. The external centred stage, surrounded with three auditoriums enables adaptability of different social and cultural events maximizing the usage of the building and development.