Going back to my early visits in 2002 I must admit that there have been fundamental changes. First of all, public and social life have altered completely during the seven years that Mohammed bin Salman has been crown prince. What used to be a fairly secluded, if not isolated country has become an open one. You have, for example, a lot of sports events and cultural activities. When I started visiting Saudi Arabia there was not even a radio station. Music in the public domain was forbidden. Hence, people lived a rather withdrawn private life and it took me many years to get invited to a Saudi private house. Professionally, the speed of development has increased even further. As a matter of fact, this transformation the country is going through requires a multitude, if not additional intellectual capacities. These have been covered by women in particular who are no longer restricted in their professional choice. Female emancipation has sped up the pace of development enormously.

When we start a project, we are always very keen on developing a contextual architecture. As a matter of fact, our target is to visit the place by ourselves; try to develop an intrinsic understanding for the site context; build up a rapport with the client; read their mind when it comes to details like materials, colours etc. That’s quite a taxing task at the beginning of each project and then we develop concepts with alternatives. In all of these facts I have just been adding up, you will find the reasons why some of our buildings were chosen as examples for Salmani Architecture.

No, I regard it differently. There is the Saudi initiative called “Architectural Identity Design Guideline Study” to which we also contributed. For instance, right now we are working on this subject in the south-west of the country, in the Asir and Jizan Provinces. There we digest and distil the regional architecture and culture and develop design guidelines for future buildings. Most certainly those guidelines will then be applied to public buildings. In other words, it is not just Riyadh where the Salmani Architectural Charter with reference to Najdi Architecture plays the leading role, but this applies to other parts of the kingdom, too. The central idea behind all this is to find a contextual architectural language for the entire country. Thus, Saudi Arabia is not encouraging a disparate kind of international architecture that you might find in Asia. They turn away from these stereotypical types of architecture to something which is more indigenous.

In the past a lot of firms entered the Saudi market under the impression that their clients are super-affluent. Some Saudis were ripped off... Over time this practice has changed and the Saudis became very cautious. With AS+P as a long-term partner we have a joint legacy. We have been there all the time since the seventies through good and bad. I personally have relationships with people for more than twenty years. Long and solid relationships count a lot in the Arabian world and I am very interested in honouring this tradition. It bestows you with trust, credibility and friendship. Admittedly, very big words, but that’s how I perceive it.

Indeed, the Metro in Riyadh was my first Saudi project. In the first place only two lines were conceived, one along King Abdullah Road, the other one was along Olaya Road running parallel to the King Fahad Road, which forms Riyadh’s central spine. Our job was to re-design the streets where the metro lines run. For this we devised a streetscape manual which dealt with the metro either on, above or underground. At the time when the metro lines were built there was no plan how to reinstate the roads once the metro will be up and running.

So, we set up a manual that dealt with all the nitty-gritty bits and pieces, like how wide are the pedestrian paths, how is car parking organized, how big is the plantation in the middle or at the side of the street, what materials should be used etc. Then this configuration of steps and measures was applied to different urban scenarios like inner city areas, urban housing quarters or industrial districts. Therefore, our manual was very comprehensive and was used by all of the six of the design & build consortia working on the Metro. You can see the results of that, for example, in Olaya Road when you look at the pedestrian walkways and the bicycle paths.

Saudi Arabia is a country with a rich heritage. How do you define the relationship between tradition and modernism/modernity when it comes to architecture?

Saudi Arabia is a very young nation. 60% of the population are below thirty years of age. On the opposite part of society you have the older people, who are more traditional and stick to old habits. So, the country has to find a formula to deal with expectations of the one and the other. This also applies to architecture where you can sense a clash of those two cultures. Therefore, architecture should not only fulfil the expectations of the youth who travel the world physically and on the internet, but to go back to tradition, like the courtyard building, the colours and the configuration of buildings. When it comes to a balance between the traditional and the progressive there is no fixed percentage or even a formula. It entirely depends on the local context. That’s where you have to develop and engage yourself with a significant degree of sensibility.

What you are saying applies to architecture as well as to urban planning. We have an enormous housing project in Riyadh called Sedra by the PIF-developer ROSHN. Eventually, it will house 180.000 people, that is a town of the size of Heidelberg. Sedra was conceived and is being built in a very short period of time. In a case like this the most important aspect is that you are able to create places for human beings, where they can feel at home. You must not lose the scale whilst you are designing. AS+P has very strict guidelines when it comes to these huge projects. Neighbourhoods are created where everything is within 15-minute walking distance when it comes to your daily needs, your own housing quarter satisfies your weekly requirements and so on. In these neighbourhoods people can walk, use bicycles or scooters and have communal open spaces like a park nearby. Under such circumstances people start feeling at home. That would not be the case if they had to travel far from their homes or just sleep there and commute every day. In such cases European planers have an advantage because our cities have already been developing into this direction for many years.

The direct opposite of this are the large scale iconic projects like Misk/Al Mishraq. There you have to be very careful because the danger is, that very quickly the “iconic” may lose its “iconicness” and become familiar, if not drab. In this context AS+P moves very cautiously, we always aim to strike a balance between the iconic and the common. And I believe the city authorities of Riyadh are wise and not simply copy a city like Dubai. With regard to balancing heritage with futuristic aspects AS+P have already collected our recommendations in a booklet which will be published soon.

All of these events are excellent opportunities to establish KSA further on the global map. However, instead of talking about 2030 one should be realistic and talk about 2040 or even 2050 because these events will take place during a decade or so. I just had a discussion with the Transport Department in Riyadh that they are reconsidering their plans for King Fahad Road in terms of how to welcome hundred thousand visitors and at the same time guarantee a seamless traffic flow. So, people are thinking well ahead and Saudi Arabia will become an even more open country and certainly a more prominent partner of the G-20 as they are right now.

Joachim Schares is a graduate engineer in spatial and environmental planning from the University of Kaiserslautern. He has been working with AS+P since 1994 and has been managing partner of AS+P Albert Speer + Partner GmbH since 2017. Joachim Schares is a member of the executive board of the Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.