Alber Society Building/

Jeddah - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2020

Client

Alber Society

Gross area

30.200 sqm

Construction cost

N/A

Project status

competition lost

The competition project involves the re-functionalization of a 12,000 sqm lot located in the northern quadrant of the city of Jeddah. The project aims to accommodate in a single area, 30,000 sqm dedicated to commercial spaces, offices, accommodation facilities, green and services, integrating them with the surroundings for the benefit of the city and the community.

This goal is achieved creating a Mixed-use building, able to promote a sense of community, addressing added value to the outdoor quality spaces. 

The project’s concept wants to contrast the setting of the typical closed shopping mall, impermeable to the city and to the beauty of its outdoor spaces. The competition building is, in fact, open to the outside but, at the same time, closed in itself to accommodate the internal courtyard on which overlooks all the significant spaces of the intervention, interconnecting the various functions. The large inner courtyard is an open space but, at the same time, shielded from the sun, in which people can spend pleasant and relaxing moments at any time of the day, interacting with the various shops, cafes and green areas.

This building actively answers the questions posed by the challenges of sustainable design: integrating, already in the concept phase, a perspective of preservation of energy and environmental resources. Multiple strategies are implemented in this sense. There is a large wind tunnel, which allows natural ventilation of all the spaces. Also in a large green wall, based on several levels, is able to reduce the incidence of sunlight on the surfaces of the building, producing, together with the green roof a pleasant and natural landscape whilst purifying air.