PROJECTS
Shamalat
Malluh’s approach as an artist centers around the juxtaposition of materials to enact a dialogue between the past, present, and future. Her latest project, ‘Shamalat’, a cultural space, is a direct continuation of that line of inquiry. The property in the periphery of Diriyah was purchased in early 2013 and recently converted. Diriyah is a historical area located on the northwestern outskirts of the capital, Riyadh.
At the base, the property was an old mud house. It was renovated using a two-phased experimental approach – Restoration and Addition. Parts of the mud house were kept intact, while others were renovated using modern construction materials. The new addition to the building falls within the footprint of the original yard and is constructed around the remnants of the original adobe fence, visible from both inside and outside. It is built visibly, from both outside and in, around the remnants of the original adobe fence. Its facade is clad with a warm white Riyadh stone that provides a seamless backdrop to the textured mud building. The new addition serves as an exhibition space with an artist residency space on the second floor, as well as a workshop space.
Unlike a preserved heritage site, ‘Shamalat’ is functional and built to nurture a community for the future, neither romanticized nor glorified as a museum-level artifact. A stubborn pragmatism and the will to reinvent define the approach, where a column of concrete adjacent to a hollowed-out mud wall recreates a literal embrace between two time periods, materials, and uses through time.
A sense of duality is inherent in the name ‘Shamalat’, a modification of Shmam. In Jahili poetry, the twin mountain peaks are a witness to time, a background against which the central action of the poem takes place. It’s a way to evoke and rope in the wisdom and guidance of the past as it underpins the present. This simultaneously carries forward into the future by creating a space for young minds, whose creativity will create further fluid linkages between the times.
Stories about the use, the what, the why, and the how of buildings have always sustained humans, communities, and civilization. The artist and architect are forever reinventing the story around the use of space and its relevance. ‘Shamalat’ is a testament to that.
As an artist, Malluh uses the power of storytelling to change the meaning the past holds for us in contemporary times. The reimagined mud house in Diriyah invites young people to come look at it differently than other mud houses. This one has had the collaboration of a young architect duo, SYN Architects, who have previously advised on restoration consultancies for other preservation projects in the Kingdom.
