The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, is a modern office building with a number of specially constructed
rooms for social functions. Its introvert exterior as well as paradisiac
interior reflect the Islamic architectural tradition of the Middle East.
The building design origins in the quadratic shape
of the classical Arabic house and is adjusted to fit a triangular lot
surrounded by modern infrastructure and to face Mecca. The building stands on a
large plateau and appears very closed from the outside, whereas the inside
opens to a diversity of small and large, intimate and monumental rooms with fountains
and luscious atriums.
The large simple white interior
wall surfaces are counterbalanced by the building's richly patterned marble
floors that constitute the main ornamentation. The atmosphere of the rooms is
one of serenity and varies with changing angles of lighting, soft splashes of
the fountains and light that changes with the sun over the course of the day
and the year.