Brownbook Riyadh Issue: CITYGRAM, History of the Future

Co-edited, along with Ahmed Bin Shabib, a supplement called (Citygram: History of the Future) embedded within Brownbook Riyadh Issue. At  face value, we traced Riyadh’s modernist architectural history, but more than that, the primary aim from our booklet was to help reframe the developments currently happening in the country as part of a historical continuum, where Saudi in general (and Riyadh as its capital)  had long been asserting itself as an experimental playground for futuristic architectural imagination. As such, this special booklet offers a glance back into the history of a place of the future. From a Carlo Scarpa house in Riyadh, to a an Oscar Niemeyer Toyota dealership in Jeddah, we’ve dug deep into the archives and curated a list of prominent modernist architects who were actively experimenting in Saudi Arabia between the 1960 and 1980s. We specifically highlight two examples, one from the West: Paul Rudolph, and one from the East: Kenzo Tange, to properly showcase Saudi as the crossroad and meeting point it was. We interviewed Lord Norman Foster to speak about a 1960s Rudplph proposal in Saudi, and Paul Tange to speak on why/how his Father found in the Kingdom a place to dream.