Showing 3 results

Archival description
Saudi Arabia
Print preview View:

Islamic University of Madinah

File includes 604 drawings, 33 presentation boards, 150 photographs, and 1 model of the entrance gate. The Islamic University of Madinah is distinguished both by its religious location and by the fact that it represents a centre for the collection, preservation, and dissemination of Islamic heritage. It is situated at the Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, an oasis town surrounded by the desert and the rocky mountains. The valleys are the source of its water supply. The 120 hectare site also incorporates existing buildings. The university campus is characterized by the integration of teaching and living spaces organized around a hierarchy of courts. The Mosque and Faculties occupy the centre of the campus. Low buildings, not exceeding four storeys, maintain a human scale. The main gate faces the City of Madinah and the axes of the buildings are aligned to acknowledge the religiously significant Qibla in Makkah. The prominent arrival court is landscaped with water fountains and gardens as a forecourt to the main Mosque. The residential buildings are clustered, as are the Faculty buildings, housing about 2 000 students in nine-person dwelling units. Covered pedestrian walkways link the facilities beyond the campus core, such as the sports facilities, faculty housing, and commercial districts. The architectural style is based on Islamic forms: simple massing, grouping buildings around courtyards, and orientation of individual components within buildings towards courtyards, which are a source of natural light, air, and visual relief. Courtyards, arcades around courtyards, and gateways to individual buildings are the repetitive elements found throughout the campus.

Saudi Arabian Embassy & Ambassador's Residence

Includes 9 drawings: 4 plans, 1 exterior perspective, 2 details: model; 2 combination drawings: 2 section I elevation. The site for the new Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to occupy a prominent triangular corner in Canada's National Capital at Sussex Drive and Boteler St., with views over the Ottawa River and the distant Laurentians. The program called for three diplomatic functions: the Chancery, the Consulate and the Official Residence. Security of the functions was to be of the highest order, but also invisible, allowing the project to speak only of its graceful stately intent. The project developed the concept of perpendicular axes, one parallel to Sussex and the other at right angles to it leading into the complex. The first axis divides the major rooms of both the Chancery and the Residence. They are three storey masses with a two storey residential wing, along the ceremonial Sussex façade. The second axis assembles the entrance, the Ambassador's offices, and the Consulate building, terminating with splendid views over the Ottawa River. Along the Sussex Drive façade, a grand lawn with accompanying gardens is screened from the street by an open yet highly secure screen. The architectural vocabulary sought to create a language reflective both of the Islamic nature of Saudi Arabia and its presence in Canada's Capital. Hence the project was carefully proportioned in the Islamic genre, as well as developed with the mansard roof theme that is prevalent in Ottawa. Utilizing both stone walls and decorative screens, the project was to create harmony between the two nations in symbolic form.

Saudi Arabian National Center for Science and Technology (SANCST Science Halls)

File includes 1 photograph print of mode. The SANCST Science Halls were conceived as a demonstration centre showing the development of science within the Muslim world, and making science accessible to all. The 125 hectare site was 12 km north of the Riyadh centre core. The entry was to be through a large semi-circular plaza from which both the Headquarters Building and the Science Halls could be accessed. The Headquarters Building possesses a strong central axis and the Science Halls are located near the far end of the site. The latter is set on an oblique angle giving it dual orientation. It also uses a strong system of Islamic geometric ordering, superimposition and the rotation of the basic square. The Science Halls have a traditional introverted character and the building mass sits on the Arabic landscape like a finite object, particularly in its use of natural materials. The exterior cladding is a warm colour of horizontally stratified Riyadh limestone with varying band depths. The important features of the Science Halls are the arrival plaza and its orientation, the souk street circulation, the laboratories, the demonstration theatres, the formal gardens, the traditional riverbed gardens, and the medicinal herb gardens.