Latest news with #AlMusallaPrize
Saudi Gazette
09-05-2025
- General
- Saudi Gazette
‘Rooted Transience' exhibition brings Saudi AlMusalla Prize to Venice Architecture Biennale
VENICE — The Diriyah Biennale Foundation presented Rooted Transience, an architectural exhibition showcasing the winning project of the inaugural AlMusalla Prize 2025, as an official Collateral Event of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition opens May 10 and runs through November 23, 2025, at the historic Abbazia di San Gregorio in Venice, Italy. Curated by architect and researcher Faysal Tabbarah, Rooted Transience explores the architectural typology of the musalla — a temporary, adaptable space for prayer — and its potential to inspire new architectural solutions grounded in sustainability, impermanence, and flexibility. The exhibition situates musalla design within historical, material, and contemporary contexts, examining how such spaces have evolved and continue to influence Islamic spatial practices. The exhibition features full-scale fragments of the winning design by EAST Architecture Studio, in collaboration with artist Rayyane Tabet and engineering firm AKT II. It also showcases the shortlisted entries by AAU Anastas, Asif Khan, Dabbagh Architects, and Office of Sahel AlHiyari for Architecture. Alongside these contemporary projects, archival documents and imagery trace the historical lineage of musalla architecture in Islamic societies. The AlMusalla Prize, launched by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and first unveiled at the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in January 2025, recognizes architectural innovation in temporary sacred spaces. The winning entry, titled On Weaving, employs Saudi date palm waste materials to reinterpret traditional forms. Palm fronds are repurposed into a structural alternative to conventional columns and beams, while woven palm fibers form a façade that evokes heritage techniques and offers a contemporary environmental approach. Vice Chairman of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Rakan Al-Touq, described the prize as a landmark moment for both Saudi cultural policy and the broader field of Islamic arts, stating: 'It represents, as the wider Islamic Arts Biennale does, a return to the plurality of Islamic arts — presenting the many forms it includes, in the context in which they were conceived.' Prince Nawaf bin Ayyaf, Chair of the AlMusalla Prize jury, noted the significance of presenting the project in Venice. 'Venice has long been a crossroads of cultural exchange, making it the perfect setting to explore how the untapped typology of a musalla can contribute to contemporary architectural discourse,' he said. 'By bringing fragments of the AlMusalla Prize from Jeddah to Venice, we aim to demonstrate how traditional architectural practices rooted in sustainability and adaptability can inspire new solutions.' A companion publication, co-edited by Prince Nawaf bin Ayyaf and Faysal Tabbarah, will be released during the exhibition. Published by KAPH, the book will expand on the themes of transience and place-making in Islamic architecture. — SG
Asharq Al-Awsat
07-05-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi Culture Ministry to Feature at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
The Saudi Ministry of Culture is set to host a comprehensive program of cultural events at the Abbazia building in Venice, Italy, from May 10 to November 23. This initiative is part of Saudi Arabia's participation in the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. Through a curated cultural program, the ministry will highlight the diversity of Saudi culture and its contemporary creative renaissance, while contributing to global discourse on key issues such as the preservation of cultural heritage and artistic innovation. According to a statement issued by the ministry, the events will spotlight several cultural sectors, including architecture and design, heritage, visual arts, fashion, and culinary arts. The program will also feature panel discussions and workshops in traditional crafts and other fields, providing the international community with insights into the defining features of Saudi culture, its uniqueness, and its deep historical and civilizational roots. The cultural activities will be held within the two-story Abbazia building. The ground floor will be dedicated to an exhibition titled "Rooted Transience", which forms part of the official collateral event in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and showcases the winning design of the AlMusalla Prize 2025. The statement added that the upper floor of the venue will include a fully equipped conference hall, designated for the presentation of distinguished cultural programming throughout the Biennale period. These events will underscore Saudi Arabia's artistic and cultural excellence through collaborations with leading cultural and artistic institutions in Venice and across Italy. A cultural retail space will also be available, featuring a curated selection of artisanal products representing Saudi heritage and premium culinary offerings such as traditional Saudi coffee and dates. The cultural events organized by the Ministry of Culture as part of the 2025 Venice Biennale represent a key aspect of its ongoing efforts to strengthen Saudi culture's presence on international platforms and introduce the global community to the diversity of the Kingdom's cultural heritage and the aesthetic and creative vitality of its artistic scene, reflecting the cultural renaissance taking place in the Kingdom.
Arab News
20-02-2025
- General
- Arab News
Diriyah Islamic Arts Biennale: The making of ‘On Weaving' — winner of the inaugural AlMusalla Prize
JEDDAH: Currently situated under the expansive canopies outside Jeddah's Western Hajj Terminal is 'On Weaving,' the winning design of the inaugural AlMusalla Prize — an international award for the design of a musalla, a place for prayer and contemplation that is open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The winners of the inaugural edition of the award — which is part of the Diriyah Islamic Arts Biennale — are a collective including Dubai and Beirut-based EAST Architecture Studio, structural engineer Christopher Blust from AKT II, and Beirut- and San Francisco-based artist Rayyane Tabet. They designed a modular structure inspired by regional weaving traditions and constructed from sustainable local materials such as date palm waste and palm fronds and fibers. The space was immediately popular with visitors during the opening days of the biennale, with many heading inside to one of the smaller rooms to pray. A summary of 'On Weaving' on the biennale website states: 'The double-sided pedestal is staggering in its ascent and thinning out as it reaches towards the sky. Its form resembles a loom, paying homage to tangible and intangible cultural heritage of weaving traditions and craftsmanship. It is autonomous, but also modular to suggest multiple uses — acting as structure, function, and ornament. The earthy colors that make up the musalla's exterior are energized with color within the structure's interior, where natural dyes made from local and regional plants are used to create bright reds, blues, greens and yellows. The musalla's open courtyard invites visitors to sit, gather or pray, individually or communally.' 'The brief for the competition called for a collaborative team that brings together an architect, an artist, and a structural engineer and fabrication expert,' Nicolas Fayad, co-founder of EAST Architecture Studio, told Arab News. 'From the very first moment, we worked together conceptually and philosophically on what it means to build a musalla today — knowing that musallas, unlike mosques, are largely nomadic in nature; they were built by Bedouins in the desert (and could be) moved from one place to another.' So Fayad and his collaborators set out to create a structure that could easily be assembled, disassembled and rebuilt elsewhere (indeed, after the biennale ends on May 25, it will be moved to another location). It features an open central courtyard and prayer spaces and somewhat resembles a loom, addressing ideas of togetherness and proximity — core tenets of prayer in Islam. The façades were created by weaving together palm fronds and fibers, and the gaps let in natural light, as well as allowing the musalla to be incorporated into its surroundings. 'Our musalla looks at the legacy of cultural typologies in spaces of worship, coupled with weaving as a craft,' Fayad explained. '(It also serves) as a structural performance that uses local material — most importantly, waste that comes from a natural material. We have identified throughout our research that there's a lot of waste that comes from palm trees in Saudi Arabia.' The modular structure used engineered, glue-laminated palm-wood composite, which is the product of the waste of 150 palm trees — proof of the ability to use local, sustainable materials to create lasting architectural structures. What is so striking about the structure is not just the materials used to make it and the way in which it was created, but the literal and metaphorical tribute the structure pays to weaving. 'On Weaving,' Fayad explained, is a metaphor for creativity and a reference to a material culture long dominant in the region,' adding that the design of the space readapts the narrative of woven textile as both an art and a functional design element. Weaving is itself a meditative ritual, of course, so here it serves as both an important part of the design process while also reflecting spirituality and the cultural heritage of the Kingdom and the wider Gulf region. '(We are presenting) the idea of weaving not only as a craft or as a way of making, but also as a way of holding art, architecture and engineering together as part of a continuous tradition,' said Fayad.
