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Status

Unbuilt

Date

2012

Location

Jeddah, KSA

Team

Fouad Samara
Jad Abi Fadel

Rethinking commercial spaces

Commercial showroom buildings for rent on Jeddah’s Ring Road are plagued by common characteristics such as economic pre-engineered construction, standard signboards that are difficult to read when the cars are travelling at 120 km/h on the Ring Road, and over-sized billboard type signage installed haphazardly on top of the buildings. Our aim was to address all that and still meet the commercial expectations of our client by designing a space efficient building that is economical, flexible, and easy to build.

Efficient planning

The building has an efficient rectangular plan, with six 600 sqm flexible and easily connected rental showrooms. Each of these showrooms has a fully glazed façade to the Ring Road and a mezzanine in the back. There are ample parking areas in the front, and a backyard that allows for delivery, staff parking, and possibly act as a stock yard.

Six steel cranes

The most significant architectural feature of the project are the six steel structures in front of each of the showrooms. Inspired and lined up like the cranes in a port, these iconic elements serve as, a signboard at the scale of the Ring Road while travelling at 120 km/h, a signboard at the scale of the service road seen at 50 km/h, lighting to the parking area, entrance to each showroom, and lighting to the metallic roof of the showrooms that glows at night attracting passersby. They create, in their combination, a truly memorable and iconic building that surely stands out among the more mundane crowd.