King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture

Text description provided by the architects. The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is a bold new initiative by Saudi Aramco Oil Company to promote cultural development within the Kingdom. After an architectural design competition was invited in 2007, Snøhetta was chosen to design this prestigious cultural facility.

Located in Dhahran in the Eastern Province, the Cultural Center will provide a wide range of activities that serve the local population and become a cultural landmark on the regional, national and global horizon. Upon completion, the project will contain various cultural facilities, including an auditorium, cinema, library, exhibition hall, museum and archive.

The auditorium will have a capacity of 930 visitors and will provide a wide range of events ranging from operas, symphony concerts, musicals, speeches, etc. Along with a smaller cinema, this will be an unparalleled venue for the performing arts in the Kingdom.

The library will become a learning center containing some of them

200,000 books on open access, serving all ages and categories of users. The large exhibition hall will accommodate large-scale traveling exhibitions, as well as provide a venue for social events, banquets and conferences. The museum and archive facilities connect the center's vibrant cultural life to the past and to the roots of the community from which the center arose.

The architectural concept is based on the following six concepts:

1. The culture of the past and the future grow from the past, without culture no society or company can create a future. The design of the Saudi Aramco Cultural Center embraces the past and the future, as it does the present. In terms of architectural expression and interior logic, this proposal delves into the past and reaches into the future.

2. Introvert and Extrovert: The concept is both introverted and extroverted. Under Degree, museum and archive functions are grouped around the interior void, looking inward at the facts and knowledge to be found within Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabia. Above the row, the composition extends off the ground, connecting to the world beyond.

3. Repository and Lighthouse: The Museum and Archives are located below the stairs, and become a veritable repository of knowledge in protective surroundings and stored for posterity. In turn, the library, children's gallery, and visitor center are expressed as beacons for scholars around the world.

4. Diversity and unity. This design takes the form of a complex composition, consisting of a number of individual and discrete components. Balance and harmony are created through interdependence. Each component is conceived as a unique and tailored entity, corresponding to and expressing its individual needs and requirements.

5. Teamwork. A single component cannot be removed. They are all interconnected and dependent on each other. The resulting composition is an expression of teamwork. Each part can be endlessly modified to suit individual and specific needs. This form of flexibility is not general or universal, but is specific and individual.

6. Energy. The balance and harmony of the composition is not static, but rather dynamic, expressing the teamwork and, above all, the energy that can be found in the people who make up Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabia. Evoking amazement and the steadfast memory of endurance and hard work under harsh conditions in the oiled pioneer.