Saudi Arabian desalination plant into museum by Heatherwick Studio

British architecture practice Heatherwick Studio designed the Jeddah Central Museum, one part of a 5.7m sqm development in the heart of Jeddah city, in Saudi Arabia, located in a former desalination plant by the Red Sea. The project will have a main role to transform the city with its fossil fuel past into a new economy focused on creativity.

Part of a new waterfront district with a focus on art and craftsmanship, the 257,500-square-metre Jeddah Central Museum, designed by Heatherwick Studio, will rejuvenate the industrial area of the city, converting the desalination plant into a souk – a marketplace – a new centre for craft, making and production.

Jeddah Central Museum by Heatherwick Studio. Rendering by wearenarrativ

Renderings of the museum, designed by Heatherwick Studio, show an elongated building covered in undulating silver cladding alongside a large, semi-covered market. The silver wrap is part of an active and passive low-carbon strategy applied to the main structures on the site.

"Each of them will have high levels of insulation and solar shading, using a metal wrap to reflect the sun and creating an internal jacket to keep them cool inside."

Heatherwick Studio partner and group leader Mat Cash.

Inside, the buildings will be designed to retain the site's industrial feel, where its main turbine hall will be converted into a "dramatic" exhibition space. It will have production spaces such as ateliers and studios and provide a program of public exhibitions and large-scale commissions.

The new Museum is one part of a 5.7m sqm development in the heart of Jeddah, providing tourist, entertainment, sport, cultural, commercial and residential amenities. The project is still at an early stage and has not yet broken ground.

Diagram. Jeddah Central Museum by Heatherwick Studio.

Project description by Heatherwick Studio

This project transforms an old desalination plant into the centrepiece of a new district on the waterfront of Jeddah for the next generation of artists and makers.

The Museum will offer production spaces including studios and ateliers, alongside a program of public exhibitions and large-scale commissions, on a campus dedicated to helping people learn about, experience and feel inspired by the creative process.

The design includes the conversion of the main turbine hall into a dramatic exhibition space and the old desalination plant into a Makers’ souk. It fuses human scale and comfort with the large industrial character of the site.

An incredible mix of making, learning, interaction and exchange will mean there is life and activity throughout the day and night in a place that meaningfully reflects the past, present and future of the city and all of Jeddah’s historic and contemporary cultures.

The new Museum is one part of a 5.7m sqm development in the heart of Jeddah, providing tourist, entertainment, sport, cultural, commercial and residential amenities. It seeks to be a place of inspiration and creation for both residents and visitors, promoting creativity and artistic endeavour in the Kingdom.

Jeddah has been a city of artists and makers for over a thousand years and an engagement programme has already begun with the existing creative community so they can actively help to shape the design.

Site photograph. Jeddah Central Museum by Heatherwick Studio.

Diagram. Jeddah Central Museum by Heatherwick Studio.

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More information

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Architects

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Heatherwick Studio.

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Client

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Jeddah Central Development Company.

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Dates

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2022 - In progress.

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Venue / Adress

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Seawater desalination plant in Jeddah Central. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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Rendering

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We Are Narrativ.

THOMAS HEATHERWICK

Thomas Heatherwick established in 1994, Heatherwick Studio recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. Today a team of 180, including architects, designers and makers, works from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.

At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a working methodology of collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit of curiosity and experimentation.

In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments. Through this experience, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects, with a particular focus on the large scale.

The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.

Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects; a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University of Dundee, University of Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Manchester.

He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010, Thomas was awarded the RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to design.

In 2013 Thomas was awarded a CBE for his services to the design industry.