Over the last few years, during a period of great change for the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, there has been an apparent shift by several Gulf-based architects toward designing structures that are both vernacular and community driven. Vernacular is the idea of building with local material to reflect local identity, heritage, and history. This includes references to traditional building styles involving mudbricks and coral stones or geometric patterns or buildings meant to keep dwellers cool under the hot desert sun. Many of these structures and techniques are making a comeback as architects based in the Gulf strive to marry the past with the present to preserve their heritage, promote sustainability amid the rising threats of climate change, and provide options other than the towering, glistening modern skyscrapers more recently representative of the urban environment of the Gulf Arab states.

One example is Attaché, the new permanent venue for Saudi entertainment company MDLBEAST, in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter. Designed by Turki and Abdulrahman Gazzaz, the Saudi brothers behind Bricklab, an award-winning Jeddah-based architectural studio, the 18,000 square meter site was once one of Riyadh’s most prominent equestrian facilities. Constructed in the 1990s, the architectural style drew influences from the wider central Najd region through triangular windows, stepped parapets, and the use of local Riyadh stone ­– many of which are preserved. However, today, after Bricklab’s work, the structure of the former equestrian club is awash in a mix of bright and dimmed yellows, reds, and pinks befitting a venue for electronic music and reflective of work by Mexican architect Luis Barragán. The interior spaces of Attaché are conceived in a continuous architectural language through colors and contrasting materials that lead visitors to roam between the various rooms, halls, and corridors, experiencing both the structure’s past and present layers.

“The architectural approach to the project is a meditation on preservation and renewal,” noted the Gazzaz brothers in a statement on Attaché. “It is an open call to reevaluate the role of architecture as the custodian of progress during a period of rapid new construction and eminent demolition.”

“In our practice we have been trying to redefine this vernacular architecture away from the pre-modern or traditional architecture that can be limiting to modern design,” Turki Gazzaz explained in an interview. “Most attempts at reviving a historic typology are hard to relate to. Since we are from another generation, we have become detached from these historic forms. For me, it is interesting to explore how the vernacular evolved over the period of early modern development in Saudi Arabia through close connections to place derived through materiality, spatial typologies, and a set of social dynamics.”

In the rising new edifices in historic Diriyah, the birthplace of the Saudi state just outside of Riyadh, high-end structures are being built for residences, hotels, and leisure all in traditional Najdi style architecture to reflect the geometric patterns, mud bricks, and coral stones that were used for centuries to build dwellings in pre-modern Arabia. While employing Najdi references on structures in Diriyah is inherently a way to incorporate a traditional vernacular, Gazzaz contested how such architecture connects local Saudis and outside visitors to traditional Saudi culture. Pointing perhaps to the outer limits of vernacular efforts in architecture, in instances that leave behind the community-driven aspects, he noted, “You can dress up a building in all of the mud bricks or coral stones that you want, but if it’s a single-family home with a developer conceived community, what does that say about connecting to the place or our culture?” he asked. He mentioned that such architecture “is more about a rewriting of historical narratives.”

Bricklab has also recently completed projects in JAX, Diriyah’s creative district. In 2022, the Gazzaz brothers completed JAX Public Realm, the contemporary structures that host the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the Saudi Museum of Contemporary Art, and Noor Riyadh, transforming the area into a community-driven meeting place for creatives as well as a celebration of Diriyah’s rich history. Within the vicinity, Bricklab also completed the structure for the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, which required the architects to rehabilitate eight decommissioned warehouses to host world-class exhibitions, art handling facilities, an auditorium, and a multipurpose plaza.

Lebanese Dubai-based architect and co-founder of waiwai architecture studio Wael Al Awar similarly strives to connect modern and contemporary structures with the vernacular building styles and techniques of the Gulf region. For the inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Awar created “Barzakh,” an eye-catching dome pavilion comprising numerous interlocked and intricate modules positioned on Abu Dhabi’s waterfront corniche. The structure is made of brine, a harmful byproduct of the desalination process that is released back into the sea in the Gulf. His incorporation of brine as a natural binder is meant to challenge the idea of it as industrial waste and consider how it can be reclaimed to create a new vernacular for the region. Each interlocking module is made from coral in an ode to the region’s vernacular architecture – a style Awar often aims to incorporate in his work and one that easily lends itself to a sustainable building style ideal for the hot desert climate of the region.

“Why is there an increasing shift to vernacular architecture?” asked Awar. He said during an interview that, to architecture, “sustainability is very important, and the climate crisis is very real, and we need to address it. I think every architect today feels responsible somehow and is making sure they build sensibly, especially architects that consider themselves noncommercial architects.”

Awar explained that his architectural practice involves using bio-based materials that are natural and local to the region in which he is working. When working in Tokyo, where waiwai has an office, he often incorporates timber, bamboo, and even recycled steel – all sustainable building materials. In the United Arab Emirates, cement is largely used, but, because of its damaging properties (it emits dangerous air pollution linked to an array of harmful chemicals when it is being produced), he has been increasingly incorporating salt. “Cement is a cancer to the environment,” noted Awar. “I focus on salt as a principle building material.” His studio developed a prototype structure made from salt-based cement that was exhibited at the UAE Pavilion during the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. “The vernacular architecture of the UAE was built from corals and glued together with salt.” In other parts of the region, salt architecture has also existed, such as in Siwa in Egypt, where buildings that were built from salt continue to stand.

However, while Awar’s building style is often considered vernacular, he suggested that “it is necessary to find other materials and ways of building” because the style “is based on the idea of extraction that will deplete natural resources.”

A preservation of historic architecture and local references is a regular signature element in Awar’s work. For example, the Mosque of Reflection in Dubai is inspired by a mudhif, a traditional reed house in the Mesopotamian marshlands dating back over 5,000 years. Drawing references from the traditional Arabian mosque, where there is a communal element, the Mosque of Reflection reframes the surrounding spaces to encourage a sense of community in a sacred space of worship.

Architects are also using the vernacular style in their designs to foster a sense of community in residential buildings in Dubai. Dubai-based Tariq Khayyat, formerly an architect with Zaha Hadid Architects who now runs his own practice, tariq khayyat design partners, has recently created The Fold, a sculptural housing development in Dubai that features curved facades and aims to create a “communal oasis” behind a main road. Tkdp has also created the design for The H Residence, a mixed-use housing complex in Dubai.

“When we decided to found tkdp, one of our key challenges was determining what difference and impact we could bring to the existing design market,” noted Khayyat. “One of the main elements we wanted to tap into is the sense of community with all its implications for society. Our vision was focused on creating human and community-driven architecture that serves both the end users and the surrounding community, architecture that understands the full synergy between identity, innovation, sustainability, and the social patterns and trends each city has.”

Khayyat noted how they are seeing a greater desire toward creating human-centric projects, specifically in the region. “If you look at the UAE, and Dubai particularly, during the ‘90s and early 2000s, there was a focus on a more decentralized concept of modernization, where all the buildings acted as individual assets within the skyline of the city, lacking a sense of belonging to its urban fabric, history, and environment,” he said. “When you go to Sheikh Zayed Road, you have a silhouette of high-rise towers with disproportionate podiums, and when you go inside the towers and the podiums, you lose the sense of belonging. You shift into a universal world and lose any visual or physical connection with your surroundings. That’s due to the lack of understanding of how buildings’ surroundings (outside and within the plot) should have a seamless connection with the building’s envelope and interior.”

For The H Residence, tkdp translated such ideas into the firm’s first built project in the UAE. The design placed the community experience at the core of the structure. “The project aimed to develop a destination that forms a commercial milestone for the client yet introduces a solid concept of belonging between the building itself and the surrounding community. It was the first residential project to engage the surrounding community. This is a structure that marks a shift in people’s behavior, their social life, and how they look more at human qualities and interactions with others.”

Khayyat believes that architects have a crucial mission and purpose toward shaping not only their clients’ needs but also the needs and vision of cities and communities. Whether community is fostered through more sustainable, vernacular building practices or structures that physically promote bringing people together in a private or public setting, architects working in the Gulf today are pioneering new concepts of bridging the past with the present through buildings that go beyond mere function and act as catalysts for the wellness of the environment and human beings.

“Gradually, we are witnessing a shift in the rise of more community-focused projects in the GCC,” added Khayyat. “We are architects; we design cities, and we design life experiences. For us, architects are service providers and life experience providers, and this is why we believe in fostering a sense of community as one of the most important missions architects should have.”