IN-PERSON London. Section B

Abstract

In Riyadh, there is an extreme disparity between the modern grid of 2km x 2km super blocks since 1972 and UNESCO Heritage town, At-Turaif town in Diriyah built in 18 century. The physiological difference is mitigated with the Diriyah Gate Project and Salmani architecture style. However, there is a collective sense of loss in the massive urban environment laid for speed and scale. The more its effort focuses on imitating the formal features, the more the sense of loss goes deeper. The intangible at At-Turaif unfolds specific realities of time and space residing in the midst of natural climate forces. The memory of the place offering an unprecedented ecological sensibility in the harshest land on earth sustained the wholeness of living structures. Its intangible heritage is not visual rather the visual elements were the tactical instrument to distract strangers in maze-like paths. There have been a series of design investigations to identify the intangible; the ecological sensibility. Serendipitously, the archetypal, the livability of the town is detectable in newly developed projects which are experiential. This paper presents a series of architecture students’ radical projects which were responsive to natural forces to identify the livability. Students experimented with various climate factors tangibly to restore the ecological sensibility of NAJD architecture; the tension field structured and animated by natural forces of environmental flows.This radical design states the communal responsibility that sustained dynamic living structures beyond figure and ground, which didn’t pose to command but brought a sense of belonging to a place.