The British design studio of Thomas Heatherwick‘s is designing the new Jeddah Central Museum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to be located in a former desalination plant by the Red Sea. Hard to believe that we’ve come so far in desalination technologies that old plants are being retired. The decision is so steampunk of Saudi Arabia, which has also slated that an old unused oil platform be upcycled into a theme park, The Rig.
Luckily sustainable travellers or business people coming to the Kingdom won’t have to be stuck in the The Mukaab or The Line. The Jeddah Central Museum will form a new waterfront district with a focus on art and craftsmanship. The main turbine hall will be converted into an exhibition space where guests can experience crafts and art of the Saudi past, and hopefully these crafts will remain into the present and future.
What are the main crafts and arts in the Saudi culture?
- Al Khaws involves crafting products from palm trees – an important symbol of Saudi Arabia.
- Tanak and copper crafts
- Garageer and making fishing nets
- Crafting incense burners
- Textiles
- Jewelry
- Shipbuilding
- Coffee pots
Renders of the museum show the long building covered in silver cladding along covered market resembling an Arab souq. The silver wrapping is made to be part of the low-carbon retrofit strategy and it will reflect the sun. Passive and active low carbon strategies are built into the new design.
The massive 2,771,706 square foot project will rejuvenate the industrial area of Jeddah and will provide production spaces such as ateliers and studios for would-be crafts people and artists. Exhibition spaces will be a draw for international artists.
Inside, the buildings will be keep an industrial feel.
Heatherwick is the latest foreign studio to work in Saudi Arabia, which is facing criticism for its human rights record connected to Neom.
According to local media the Jeddah museum will open in 2028 and will be part of a $20 billion USD rejuvenation plan for the city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea.
The company Al-Saleem is overseeing the development of of the port city, which will include an opera house, the Jeddah museum, a sports stadium and coral reef farms. A marina, restaurants, beach resorts, 2,700 hotel rooms, and 17,000 homes will also be built in Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city, which currently has a population of 4 million.
the last two chimneys of the desalination plant were shut down in 2020 for environmental reasons. The stacks emitted high levels of air pollution and it goes without saying that desalination plants should always be a last resort for water, as they are energy intensive and emit high levels of saline effluent which damages the coastal areas.
The Saline Water Conversion Corp. of Saudi Arabia says it currently uses more sustainable energy in creating water from the sea.
