SBS Event - Nejd Architecture: A Living Tradition by Mr John McAslan

good evening everybody

thank you very much uh william um yes i'm gonna call it najd makes it easier for me is we've always probably mistakenly called it naj but i blame peter harrigan for that and um elliot my colleague will be sharing the presentation um i have rather dodgy internet so if a packs in eliot's take over um and he knows at least as much if not more and brings of course a youthful voice to the importance of nash as a living tradition so as william said i'm going to talk for about 40 minutes hopefully no longer and um i i'm just going to start by saying maybe the next slide mla is that is that i first went to to saudi arabia just 18 months ago that was the first first trip i made and that was um for a project and we're not we're bound by nda so we're not really allowed to say anything about the projects but they are cultural and and and of great excitement to us to be involved and the highlight of that trip actually was was to see nash architecture i have to say in that to reef and derea and i was greatly taken by by the architecture which i have to say i knew very little about before i went and particularly not that reminded me of scottish buildings or scottish keep towers but there was something about the stark and sort of handmade quality of those simple essentially mud brick structures of all scales that struck me and and the kind of elemental beauty of them and made me think well this isn't this isn't architecture of the past it's it's a has a timeless living quality um and so this afternoon i'm going to talk and elliot's going to to contribute to to talk about why we think nash desert is a living architecture and it's not just an architecture of the past but we're going to start with some a quick run through some of our other projects internationally because they sort of show we're sort of a wandering a wandering practice and take great delight in picking up projects which probably most people would turn away because they're usually complicated and they don't pay very well but they're of great interest to us next and the first of those effectively is a series of next of schools that we built in in malawi for the clinton foundation um beginning in 2009 and i hope that not these aren't our schools by the way they show something of the transformative power of very simple architecture i mean the schools as that we came across top left were overcrowded obviously poorly lit poorly constructed unsafe and actually the best spaces were those spaces which were outdoors for the kids so we were commissioned to look at um for night to build nine schools all north of la longway with arab engineers and next and for those projects we effectively decided that we would work within the budgets which had been established which was twenty five thousand dollars or ten dollars a square foot which is very low to build anything and that we of course would look to transform the quality of those schools not just in terms of um their architectural quality but also of course in the environmental and lighting and and um and opportunities and so on the right is one of the schools we built it had a split roof a ventilated roof was built effectively on site with handmade bricks and local timber and is included within the schools is what we call the space in between next which was the you can see on the picture of the left and it shows how something as simple as that made such a difference effectively we split the classrooms we added this external classrooms at the end as as per the slide i showed at the beginning and the space in between became phenomenally important because mothers of kids who were being taught would look through the barn doors see their kids being taught also be taught how to read to to read and write and then at weekends when the school was closed up that space would become a kind of health clinic for the local community and so it was extraordinarily purposeful and and functional but also we think something of something very simple and elegant and elemental and um in its construction next

northwest of fez we um which is one again one of our slightly unusual projects this for those who know it's the furthest south into africa that the romans um penetrated and but there's also south of the the main settlement is a islamic um settlement itself obviously a later islamic settlement and that's really what interested me um next and so we developed a project with the university college london the university of meknes and the ministry of culture in morocco which looked at um effectively a project which excavated and opened that site um for for a greater understanding of this form and courtyard housing there's a command that's being repaired and that work which was led by a wonderful archaeologist called elizabeth fentress goes on today and brings i think this interest extraordinary kind of comparison between the roman and the islamic later islamic settlement next

um we're also involved in in significant number of educational projects with students and this was called the one-year house which was built by two wonderful architectural association students julia king and asif khan and we gave them a little bursary award and with that they traveled extensively to the thai burmese border and worked with the local community to build these amazing bamboo houses with an adjustable roof a bit like an adjustable version of our malawi schools and um passed on those those skills of of effectively developing innovative ways of working with um materials a wide group of um of the locals

and the the the project ended with asif and julia effectively dividing developing a handbook to continue the to to guide going forward the the building of these what they call the one-year house of course they lasted significantly more than one year one years and and you know i think that shows you know for young architects the fact or to to people in it who are here that young architects are interested in this stuff i mean you know this is the future of working with local materials and looking at ecological and responsible ways of building and asif and julia typified that enthusiasm and commitment to go far away far as far afield to develop skills and then of course to put these in practice uh wherever they were fortunate enough to work next

and then lastly probably could be a whole series of lectures i guess on its own is that is a florida southern college in florida and florida southern was one of the last buildings set of buildings developed by frank lloyd wright the great american architect who developed effectively his own form of sort of nash construction building on effectively developing buildings made of effectively uh air concrete blocks textile blocks in that they were stacked vertically and then connected horizontally and vertically with reinforcement and um this photograph on the left is right on the left with lud m spivey who was this extraordinary director of florida southern college who befriended wright and convinced bright to build a series of buildings the the the lake the lakeland campus which on the right probably the best known building is the annie pfeiffer chapel in the middle this lady who looks to be levitating on the lawn is that what was called the polk county science building which was possibly the worst ever desert building designed by frank lloyd wright and is one which we were challenged to repair and restore next the key thing about florida southern though as i said was that it was it utilized rather crudely made block concrete blocks each were about three feet long by food high crumbling and the buildings around them were crumbling so we developed with arab engineers um the sort of super strong replacement block and in various formations which allowed the buildings to be stabilized and on the right you can see somebody actually from trent concrete taking um effectively building prototype elements of blocks which could then be tested and i used to hold these over to uh on virgin atlantic economy to orlando and then take them to the site and of course the client thought it was a complete maniac that why was i there and why was i interested in these buildings but it's because it was extraordinary that one of the great architects in the world frank lloyd wright had experimented with this form of construction of handmade buildings over an extended period which had failed but which were still glorious buildings in their own right and i felt sort of compelled to try and contribute to their repair and reuse next

and then so the building we actually ended up being commissioned for the pulp county science building which was about to be demolished it wasn't protected we rebuilt as a science building um uh back in 2005

and lastly there is actually one completing project which is actually probably the closest to nest is a group of museums that we built in doha formed within four courtyard houses constructed in some in in effectfully adobes others in rubble masonry next and they became you can see the four martin red really the only buildings which were retained in the heart of doha which became part of a major redevelopment where we were architects for a number of buildings and landscapes but one of our principal commissions was to save those buildings and to restore as museums next

we we started off in a way in a way that really would be um equivalent to looking at the nash building which was to sort of unpick how the original building was constructed so this was a typical um courtyard house not one of the houses actually returned to museum but it was the house which we effectively took apart and then reconstructed in order that we understood how it was made this in this case it wasn't adobe it was it was sort of rubble it was kind of rubble masonry with um with pantry lintels and and and and beams and earth fired earth roofs richly decorated doors but but you can imagine similar similar in character albeit much later than nash architecture and consisting of all of the sort of challenges which this sort of sort of hybrid historic um masonry or adobe constructed buildings consist of so that was in a way our introduction to comparable building types which we then repaired and mixed and brought back into use as a series of museums with sort of significant interventions which in a way nash buildings need if they are in in many cases so inserting modern services um threading those through the existing fabric um improving the compressive strength of the structure itself um and in this case introducing various museum functions uh within the four buildings so they could be used as museums which tells the story of the past the present and future of doha next

so not the large context i mean i'm not for a moment going to try and tell people about the subject that they know much more about but we as probably most of you will know and you'll know a lot more than i do that nash funds the geographical center of saudi arabia accounts for about twenty percent of its area and about thirty percent of its population spread across 40 or so cities and 1200 villages the region's about a thousand kilometers long 750 kilometers wide it slopes from its highest point to the west down eastward and it's probably typified as illustrated in this photograph photographic illustration of these wonderful valleys and wadi's that extend through um and in this instance one of the great um wadis in in central arabia which for thousands of years has nurtured oasis communities and through seasonal floods brought fertile soil silt and mud to its banks creating essential material for agriculture and building and crucially of course not only does that happen but it's also climatically one of the most arid regions in all of the world which suffers long hot and totally dry summers with daytime temperatures that can reach 50 degrees centigrade and when the rain comes of course which is typical of desert rainfall it usually results in violent rainstorms where about half of the years rainfall can occur in a day leading to obviously in some cases catastrophic flooding next

i'm now going to pass over actually to to um elliot who's going to talk a bit about um the specifics of that to reef and um derea and which in a way is this sort of heart of our interest and ellie would you like to yes if you can talk and control that would be great

thanks if you just go back for a moment i think the other thing that struck us was that whilst at the rafe had monumental buildings and policies this simple courtyard dwelling in the spaces between and the alleyways which probably was the most interesting to us and also demonstrated that those very simple you know crumbling dwellings were logical and providing a natural response to the to the you know the specifically harsh climatic conditions um and with thermal and economic and social and other environmental attributes ensuring that indoor indoor temperatures were cool in summer and warm in winter so we seem to think well i mean that's so relevant to what we need to be thinking about today so in those simple buildings there were a lot of clues we felt i think to to a kind of ecologically responsible way of looking at the architecture of the of the future next

and then and then in all of this is all about mud you know mud mud glorious mud you know one of the oldest materials used in construction you know it's a mix of water and and organic soil in a way is that is at the heart of of nourished architecture but that expression of mud bricks there's many variants of it there's earth bricks soil bricks there's cob there's adobe the sun dried bricks there's clay bricks the stabilized bricks and there's rammed earth which is a fantastic material when it's used in its in its mud form but also in its concrete form as a as a stable material and of course you take all of that and with the distinct patterns and colors of of that of that mud based architecture and you get a compelling language of buildings of buildings which are both large and small but those buildings next aren't of course just typical of of um saudi arabia because there's something like a quarter of the world's population live in mud dwellings and those dwellings are spread across the globe in china across africa and across the americas so it's it's you know it's it's it's an architectural type which has been found to be to work for billions and billions of people um and therefore warrants attention thanks

and then this this group of slides again which i'm going to ask elliot to take you through is just sort of shows when you take all of that and you try to then analyze nash architecture in in its sort of most elemental form we we beg we began to kind of categorize those in a way that we felt began to make some sense for us so ellie would you like to go through those

ellie if i can just move into yes i think the other thing that it shows is that if you think of knives it's not your type of building which is limited to one or two stories you can see a building on the left and the building in the bottom there i mean these are six eight ten floors and it's a little like that we think of timber construction because of course now you can build with you know in them hybrid timber structures 12 14 floors so it's not it's not as if nash is restricted to low scale domestic it's its opportunities are great not just as demonstrated here historically but today at building structures of much greater volume and and density thank you um

The principles of Najd architecture include creative openings, materiality, and a timeless tradition. It is not a style but an approach to building that responds to climate and place. Examples like the Al-Khindi Palace and Henning Larson's foreign affairs building show how contemporary architecture can capture the essence of Najd. Repair and renewal of historic buildings must avoid romanticism and honestly express the ruin while strengthening and repurposing. This living tradition has a central role in the Kingdom's sustainable future, especially under Vision 2030 and climate change.

Thank you for your kind comments. I can't answer specifically about the Iranian embassy, but I believe a diplomatic building should reflect those traditions. The key is to respect the essence of what makes Najd buildings important, rather than creating stylistic replications or pastiche. It's a challenge we face everywhere, including Britain, to develop authentic buildings that capture the essence without mimicking.

I will investigate the Iranian embassy and get back to you via William. But be careful not to get arrested while photographing it.

Brilliant question. We haven't developed formal principles, but we have begun to look at scaling up through projects like Msheireb in Doha. That master plan reinterprets Qatari historic architecture with a grain of streets and alleyways, introducing public transport. With 120 buildings on a site comparable to King's Cross, it shows that density and urban patterning can create a place resonant with historic cities. You start with grain, patterning, mobility, and sustainability. The language of Najd can be scaled to any size by adjusting density and openness. You wouldn't build an entire city of Najd, but you can retain the best, repair and repurpose, and allow new buildings to share that language. Buildings come and go, but you must hold onto what creates a sense of place.

First, we must recognize that there is a limit to what we can do against extreme weather. Mud buildings are particularly subject to erosion. But repair is possible. I drew an analogy from repairing Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Florida Southern, where we increased compressive strength by using stronger concrete blocks. Similarly, you can incorporate admixtures into mud blocks to strengthen them and improve water resistance. It requires significant investment in developing appropriate mixes. We are not promoting a romantic view of Najd in its ruinous state; it has issues like pest infestation and service integration. But by working with the fabric, stripping back, and inserting stiffening elements, we can strengthen and repurpose. In Doha, we incorporated pitched roofs and larger downpipes. It's possible with ingenuity and understanding of what is appropriate to maintain.

You covered a lot. I would say it requires a large time investment to develop traditional techniques mixed with contemporary. Through projects, we trialed different mixtures to retain the traditional approach while withstanding rainfall. It's always going to have issues like any historic architecture, but modern engineering can provide solutions. It's just a matter of time and resource to develop further.

There is one approach we began to investigate, which we haven't built yet. It may sound counterintuitive: to build Najd authentically, you start building and adjust as you go – knock down walls, create courtyards, strengthen with steel and concrete, and allow the building to evolve during construction. It's like fast-tracking a 300-year cycle of building, repair, and extension. At the end, you get something authentic that has been adjusted to meet the brief. It incorporates redundancy and circular economy, reusing what you remove. We'd love an opportunity to try it if anyone is mad enough to commission us.