Museum of the Built Environment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

July 11, 2011 Category: Cultural, Public Buildings

Designed by FXFOWLE Architects, Museum of the Built Environment is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The museum is sited on a large plaza bisected by a sunken Wadi, a pedestrian park that flows through the KAFD development. Over 340,000 sq ft is dedicated to museum functions, including permanent and temporary galleries, a 150-seat auditorium and a destination restaurant and terrace. The museum serves as a primary transportation hub for the area, housing a monorail station at its +2 level. For pedestrians it includes connections to neighbouring parcels through a site-wide network of public skywalks at the +1 level.

The Saudi Arabian world heritage sites of Madain Saleh and At-Turaif inspired the museum’s formal concepts of erosion and chiseling of a crystal rock. The programmatic distribution is expressed in the massing by creating greater solidity and opacity on the museum’s upper levels while maintaining transparency on the lower public levels.

Museum of the Built Environment Design by FXFOWLE Architects

Museum of the Built Environment Design exerior 1

Tags: Arabia, Asia, Mada'in Saleh, Middle East, Monarchy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, site-wide network, transportation hub, Turaif, Western Asia