Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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communities. Aramco introduced assembly plants to produce building materials locally.
Moreover, the oil company built luxurious guest houses for its visitors, among whom
many were royal family members. The commodious, well furnished and air-conditioned
accommodations were supplied with swimming pools, lawns, terraces and other
architectural elements and design concepts hitherto unbeknown to the isolated society.
Soon the King and other royal family members were to demand the construction of similar
buildings serviced with Western conveniences. King Saud's palatial complex at Al-
Nasiriyah was an example of this process and an exemplar that was emulated in subsequent
development. The rich were next to emulate the modern architecture which was deemed
suitable for the times. The superiority of the versatile cement and steel construction was
unmatched by the standard method of mud design.
Thus with the improvement of the national economy, residents started to experiment
with new design styles and building materials. New construction methods and materials
(concrete, cement tiles and bricks) were introduced at an increasing pace. The standard,
essentially one-material, mud house was supplanted with the villa, built with reinforced
concrete structure adorned with glass, marble and other finishing materials forming the
gingerbread facades of contemporary, stucco houses, commonly referred to as the villa.
The contemporary villa is a two-story, closed mass box, onto which many additions
and adornments can be grafted to suit individual needs and tastes (Figure 8). It offers a
broad range of spatial and functional arrangements, thanks to the versatile method of
reinforced concrete. In most cases, residents are left to improvise their own facades
without intervention by the municipality. However, many Saudis entrusted the design and
construction of their homes to incompetent designers and contractors, resulting in a
hodgepodge, pretentious and gaudy architecture. Developers sought the construction of
residential compounds and apartment buildings with ghastly styles. Individual house
builders and major contractors paid the minimum to hire architects, drafters and novices
who found in the construction boom an ample opportunity to experiment with whatever
styles and forms they could imagine.
The villa became the conventional style in most Saudi cities, towns and villages alike.
It comprised several rooms organized around the family room, saalah, usually located at
the center of the home. Downstairs, there exists a duality of space attesting to the
segregation between sexes. A front section is usually preserved for guests, predominantly