[Snøhetta] King Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Culture

**Jimmern** · 22-05-2008

A Saudi Aramco initiative, the Center will be open to the general public on 2012 and will serve as home to multiple facilities that will include a world-class public library and knowledge creation center. Designed with a café-like atmosphere, the Center's library will combine digital access to information, connectivity with knowledge cneters across the world and an extensive array of books and periodicals

The King Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Cultur is a bold new initiative on the part of the Saudi Aramco Oil Company to promote cultural development within the Kingdon. Following an invited architectural design competition in 2007 Snøhetta has been selected to design this prestigious cultural facility.

Located in Dhahran in the Eastern Procine, the Cultural Centre will provide for a wide range of activities serving the local population and becoming a cultural landmark on both a regional, national and global horizon. When completed, the project will contain some 50,000m2 of diverse cultural facilities including an auditorium, cinema, library, exhibition hall, museum and archive.

On May 20th 2008 The foundataion stone was laid by King Abdullah, the cultural Center will be completed in 2011 with a $300,000,000 construction budget

Snøhetta's Project Page

Press Release .PDF

Images from nettavisen article with norwegian text.

**Jimmern** · 22-05-2008

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**imasayer** · 22-05-2008

Can you tell us why the project looks like that. I mean I can see a very inovative design; but why? It reminds me of a group of smooth stones.

$300,000,000?!! Man, I would love to see the fee proposal on that one!

**palphd** · 22-05-2008

$300,000,000?!! Man, I would love to see the fee proposal on that one!

It's an assload of money, that's for sure... But I'm actually surprised it's that low, considering projects like the NY Silvercup Studios by Richard Rogers are estimated at $1 billion.

Some of those interior renderings seem to suggest a similar scale and spatial concept as the Seattle Central Public Library.

I also wonder what drives the four-tumbled-stones-looking concept.

**palphd** · 22-05-2008

Come to think of it, it seems more along the lines of something a Zaha protege would do. I think what we are witnessing is the beginning of a trend in 21st Century architecture.

And now that the 'Subdivide and Smooth' plugin has been released, we'll all be be right there in the thick of it.

THE BLOBS ARE COMING!!!

**Jimmern** · 22-05-2008

I haven't done any work on this one at all, and now that I'm on the outside it's not my place to comment on the inner workings.

I'm just passing on this as information that is already available in the public domain. It was on the first page of the norwegian newspapers wednesday.

I think it's a beautiful project and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Congrats to the whole Snøhetta team!

**lonedevil** · 25-05-2008

It is an interesting work, but I find it a bit anxious, I mean that's what it communicates me.

**Halsey** · 25-05-2008

I like it, the video was great. The project is very interesting. their website has improved greatly from what i remember too.

**adiwall** · 05-09-2009

Hmm.. quite frankly... i had mixed reactions on the project... how is this a knowledge centre and a symbol of knowledge or culture of the Saudi?? is this really a contemplative project or a gimimck project?? The architect proved that on way of defeating Hadid is by playing her own game... Are the reflective surfaces are going to reflect back the desert views back to the desert?? The views are great.. so is the marketting... Maybe on seeining the plans, my views change... but its a change for sure...

**aemkei** · 10-09-2009

I saw this documentary about Snøhetta and their Ras al-Khaimah Gateway Project and they had a meeting with the project manager assigned by the Sheikh and he was disappoited with their first proposal and the conversation went something like:

UAE project manager: "It's nice but it's not the world's best at anything, is it? It's not the biggest, it's not the tallest and it's not the world's most luxurious. We expected something... more."

Snøhetta architect: "What about most expensive per square meter?"

Maybe they will finally achieve that with this project?