The
Design

The project comprised over 100,000 sf of gallery spaces distributed across eight distinct galleries. It included the consolidation of collections from a wide array of small and regional museums in order to be able to present a consolidated history of Saudi Arabia. Themed experiential galleries, integrating innovative and traditional exhibit and information technologies trace the dynamics of the “living earth” through the ages of civilizations to the birth of Islam and the role of modern-day Saudi Arabia as the guardian of its holy places. The design is a mix of thematic set piece reconstructions and classic object displays. The results are a distinctively Saudi Arabian museum with state-of-the-art interactive technologies to enhance the visitor experience.

Large, colorful fabric banners identify the entrances to the nine galleries and provide interpretive overviews for each area. Color-coded metal cubes, their forms quietly evoking the cube-shaped Ka’aba holy site in Mecca, also mark significant waypoints. Comprehensive bilingual wayfinding and an environmental program was implemented using identities based on historical text and symbols within a series of landmark architectural spaces.