In March 1982, just before midnight, I arrived at the modest and tired Riyadh airport (soon to be the new King Salman Park). Collecting my bags from an industrial shed masquerading as a baggage hall, I headed on to the congested streets with cars and trucks jostling for position. I could see construction everywhere even at night with the telltale lights from the tower cranes illuminating the night sky – this was boomtown. I had arrived to work on the first stage of the new government complex, Kings Office Council of Ministers Majlis Al Shura or KOCOMMAS, now known as Al Yamamah Palace.

This was Buro Happold’s launch project in Saudi Arabia working with Rolf Gutbrod, Frei Otto, and Arup, on a massive site, so big that you needed a site vehicle to do inspections. The Anglo-German team lived in hastily built site accommodation and we grew our own fruit and vegetables. Work dominated our lives, but some of my memories were movie nights and the drawing of lots to select whether we watched a German or English movie, the visits to the gold and Persian carpet souqs in Al Batha and Yemeni chicken restaurant.

Ted Happold first visited Saudia Arabia in the late-1960s whilst at Arup to participate in a competition for the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh and met German architect Rolf Gutbrod who had just won the competition for Makkah Hotel and Conference Centre. Ted’s ancestry was German and admired greatly German industry and education creating a natural affinity with Rolf and together with Frei Otto they agreed to join a competition for KOCOMAS and won. That project launched Buro Happold and was to change all our lives, cementing not just our German links but creating a new set of relationships in Saudi Arabia.

Ted was a big personality, a natural communicator who loved exploring new cultures, so it was no surprise that he should feel at home in the very hospitable Saudi culture. His passion for tensile structures led to collaboration on a succession of projects with Frei Otto. One of the most important of these was the Diplomatic Club or Kasr Tuwaiq which evolved from a competition and brought together Frei with Buro Happold and the local firm Omrania to deliver the Agha Khan award-winning cultural project for the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) under the then leadership of Dr. Mohammed Al Shaikh.

I could not resist the opportunity to return to Riyadh in late 1983 to help deliver the project, which blends technology and tradition, using two local architectural elements, the fortress, and the tent. This time I landed at the magnificent newly completed KKIA airport.

The original settlement of Riyadh of less than 1km2 started in the Kasr Al Hukm district in the 1750’s?? and in the 1990s the RCRC had been working on a plan to redevelop the former mud-walled city. Based on our work on Kasr Tuwaiq we were appointment as engineers for the redevelopment of the old city. Our projects included the Justice Palace, Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque, and other cultural and retail projects alongside architect Rasem Badran. It was impossible not to feel a sense of history looking out to the magnificent Musmak Fort just 3 meters away from my site office. We had a strong integrated team split 50:50 between Saudi staff from RCRC and consultants.

Less than one year into the construction of the mosque the main Saudi contractor went bankrupt and on 2nd August 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Our world was turned upside down, families were evacuated after the nightly barrage of scud missiles. Most expatriate staff followed official advice and evacuated but we decided to stay and work, many of us finding refuge at night under bridges on the outskirts of the city. That decision built an enduring bond of friendship between our team and our Saudi colleagues which continues to this day. At the official opening by King Fahad in 1992, the whole team we were given medals in recognition of the achievement in the face of adversity.

In 1993, I had a knock on my office door to be greeted by a policeman and a group of religious police who accused me of breaking the law by employing a woman landscape architect. I was aware that it was not allowed but I decided to take the risk as she was highly qualified and our second highest paid team member, and our clients loved working with her.

Later the chief of police apologized for insisting that I sign a declaration that I would not repeat the offence, saying that he had no choice as it was the religious police or Mutawa who had initiated the complaint against us. My colleague decided to work from her home for a 3-month trial period, but she missed the camaraderie with colleagues and reluctantly decided to return to the UK.

The last eight years has seen dramatic changes in the position of Saudi women in society. Today more than 50% of Saudi university graduates are women. and progress is being made in promoting women to senior roles in organisations. Today more than 30% of our employees in our Riyadh office are women, working in roles historically dominated by men such as architects/planners, designers, engineers, and project managers.

It was 1992 and I was asked by an American architect friend to take photos of a sample of buildings in the city as preparation for a competition. I had driven around the city and got a good representation of the old and relatively few high-quality buildings. All that remained was a photo of the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior, that upside down pyramid on the King Fahd Road. Given its role in the country’s security I thought I should ask permission first and in my broken Arabic I exchanged greetings and smiles with one of the guards believing I had been given permission took a few photos.

Within a minute I heard sirens and saw flashing lights and before I knew what was happening, I was in the basement under polite interrogation with the focus being on who had sent me. It was a long weekend but finally, one of my clients answered and explained to the guards who I was and apologized for my irresponsible behaviour and I was allowed to leave on relinquishing my roll of film.

Following the sudden death of Ted Happold earlier in 1996, I was getting ready to return to the UK to become the Managing Partner of the firm after 13 years living in Riyadh and was visiting RCRC to say my goodbye’s. I was greeted by Raymond Moriyama of Canadian Architects Moriyama and Teshima at the RCRC who informed me that his practice had won the competition for the Saudi National Museum. I was struck by the quality of the competition winning entry but there was only one issue, the project had to be designed, built and exhibitions installed in 28 months, which meant we only had 5 months to design a building of international reference standards.

I called my colleagues back in UK and they just laughed – they quite rightly said that the design alone would take about two years. It was time for Raymond and I to have a conversation with the Vice President of RCRC who made it clear that there was no negotiation on the timeline and asked us to come back with a proposal on how the project could be designed and delivered on time. We finally agree to the timeline but on condition that we had to completely redesign the process of design, bidding and building which RCRC agreed to whilst insisting we still needed to conform with Saudi procurement laws requiring lump sum, fixed price construction contracts. Lesson learnt: The one thing we can all agree on is that we should not try to repeat another 5-month design project – it took our teams at least 6 months to recover.

Padraic Kelly is a director of the British engineering company Buro Happold. He came to Saudi Arabia as a young analyst and engineer. After 13 years as a resident and more than 25 years visiting monthly, he says, he have been inspired and challenged by the leaders of the city to help them address the complex strategic, urban, economic, environmental, infrastructures and social issues of a rapidly expanding city. He would strongly recommend visiting the country and seeing the spectacular landscapes, the culture and heritage but most of all experience the hospitality of the people.

Buro Happold has just celebrated 40 years since they opened their office in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has played a critical role in the firm’s growth and talent development, specifically two of their German leaders, Paul Rogers and Rod Manson launched their careers in the Saudi office prior to moving to a unified Germany to launch the German office in the mid 90ies. They now support German collaborators work in Saudi Arabia and vice versa. The relationship to Frei Otto continued with successful collaborations in Germany like the RWE Tower in Essen and the soon to be completed Stuttgart 21 Main Station.