Famed French architect, Jean Nouvel, has unveiled new designs for the luxury Al Ula resort in Saudi Arabia.
Scheduled for completion in 2023, the Al Ula resort will be located in a valley with Saudi Arabia’s Sharaan Nature Reserve. The resort will consist of a number of guest suites, tented pavilions and resort villas as well as restaurants and a large luxurious spa.
Speaking of his design, Nouvel says that he intends to pay tribute to the stunning natural surroundings of the Saudi Arabia valley. The heart of the design is a hollow sphere that opens to the sky, offering views of the dramatic landscape of cliffs and sand dunes.
Nouvel comments: “We don’t often get conditions like these; it definitely creates something completely unique. I feel that any building that might be built here without a direct connection to the rocky relief or to rock as matter, will disturb something.
“Here, the brief is to disturb, but in a different way, to disturb through emotion, based on a poetic, philosophical, palpable material that’s already there, but that should hopefully be more accessible after interventions like this one.”
