Royal Palaces of King Abdullahziz

The Al Saqqaf Palace spreads over a 42,000m2 site comprising a series of historic buildings constructed over an extended period, to be transformed from a private place to a public place.

Location
Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Invited Competition
2022

Client
Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture

Galmstrup Architects was invited to develop a strategic masterplan for three royal palaces of the late King Abdulaziz; Al Saqqaf in Makkah, Al Badiah in Ryadh and Al Misrif in Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Galmstrup was then selected to take forward detailed planning for the Al Saqqaf Royal Palace in its extremely culturally sensitive location. Galmstrup Architects was lead consultant of a wider team compromising conservation, engineering, landscape, lighting, wayfinding, interpretation etc.

Context

Our first priority was to ‘de-clutter’ the many ad-hoc non-significant additions and emphasise the magnificent features, spaces, materials, and craftsmanship of the historic palace itself.

Our proposal created three masterplan zones for the site – The Palace, The Yards and The Gardens. The latter will be flanked by a new edge building which contains fully climate controlled spaces, shelters the restored palace gardens and creates a new public square.

History

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Process

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