The Sustainable Research Centre (SRC) is a built testimony to the prosperity that Saudi Arabia owes to oil, and is very close to the country's first commercially exploited oil well. Inside, the building complex combines a library, a training centre for natural and engineering sciences, a business incubator, a cultural museum and a children's museum. In addition, there is a large event hall for congresses and travelling exhibitions, a concert and theatre hall with 900 seats and a smaller lecture and cinema hall for 200 people.  

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The base floor of the building serves as the entrance and distribution level, which is located under a slightly hilly bed platform designed as a landscape garden. The above-ground structure resembles boulders sanded by sand and wind, which are covered by a fine line pattern of bent stainless steel tubes reminiscent of fingerprints. They lend the building a gently shimmering sheen, but avoid harsh light reflections that would have been caused by a flat sheet metal cladding. In addition, the tubes shade the thermal envelope of the building behind them and counteract overheating through their rear ventilation

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 Categories 

Architecture, Education

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Timeline                                 Status

2019                              Design proposal

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Location

VAE

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