Silhouetted from afar, five shapes cluster like wind-worn stones. Closer, they shimmer, suggesting perhaps a squad of recently landed spaceships. Standing in their shadow, touching one of the thousands of polished steel tubes that wrap the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is to touch a 21st-century mashrabiyyah, the traditional Middle Eastern window screen that both clads and cools. Indoors, a light brown wall of rammed earth, flecked and pitted with desert pebbles, plays off seven tall panels of dark Corten steel inscribed with centuries-old Arabian motifs. In the Great Hall, lighting sparkles across a skysized ceiling like desert stars.



Abdullah A Alshammary Abdullah A Alshammary Arthur Clark Mohammed Alebn Alshaikh