Modern Architecture Conservation in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s modern buildings are recent enough to remain familiar, yet old enough for their materials, services and original uses to be under pressure. Housing, schools, mosques, airports, offices and cultural buildings from the second half of the twentieth century record the Kingdom’s rapid institutional and urban transformation. Their heritage value does not arise from age alone. It may lie in a structural idea, a civic programme, a construction system, a relationship to climate, or the place a building holds in collective memory.

Conserving modern and postmodern buildings is therefore not a demand to freeze every building from a particular decade. It is a disciplined way to decide what matters, what has failed, what can change and what would be lost through replacement. We treat that decision as an evidence problem before it becomes a design problem.

Why recent buildings belong in the heritage discussion

Assessing recent heritage requires attention to components whose significance is not always apparent from age alone: a modular façade, a thin concrete canopy, a shaded circulation spine, purpose-made furniture or an integrated landscape. Recording these components and their relationship to the whole building helps distinguish routine maintenance from changes that affect architectural character.

The Heritage Commission launched the Modern Urban Heritage initiative in November 2022, followed by work on a national strategy in 2023. Its announced scope includes listing, classification, architectural and urban documentation, registration, conservation, rehabilitation and long-term management. These activities provide a framework for understanding each asset and selecting measures suited to its documented significance and condition.

Modernism and postmodernism require different readings

“Modern” is often used simply to mean new, but architectural history is more precise. Modernist work generally reduced applied ornament and made structure, programme, circulation and industrial production central to expression. In Saudi Arabia, that language was adapted to intense heat, privacy, ceremonial movement and rapidly expanding public institutions. Deep shade, screens, courtyards and controlled openings could coexist with reinforced concrete, large spans and mechanical systems.

Postmodern work did not merely follow modernism in time. It challenged the claim that architecture should rely on abstract form and functional logic alone. Historical references, symbolic geometry, colour and familiar urban images returned, sometimes seriously and sometimes decoratively. A conservation assessment must identify which position a building represents. Cleaning a modernist concrete frame until it looks new and preserving a postmodern ornamental layer while replacing the spatial order can both erase the very evidence that gives the building significance.

Establish significance before rating condition

A cracked surface is evidence of condition, not proof of insignificance. Conversely, an intact façade is not sufficient reason to preserve every component. We begin with a statement of significance that tests several kinds of value:

Architectural value: the quality of the spatial organisation, structural system, environmental response and detail.
Historical value: the building’s connection to a period, institution, event or shift in Saudi urban life.
Technical value: an unusual material, construction method or engineering solution.
Social value: continued use, collective memory and the meanings attached by communities and users.
Urban value: the building’s role in a street, campus, district, skyline or public-space network.

The assessment should also state how much original fabric survives, which alterations have acquired value of their own, and where attribution remains uncertain. A well-documented uncertainty is more useful than a confident but unsupported story.

Diagnose the fabric as a connected system

Technical assessment examines interfaces between systems as well as individual materials. Carbonation or chloride exposure can initiate reinforcement corrosion in concrete; movement and incompatible repairs can then detach patches or coatings. Flat roofs and concealed drainage require careful waterproofing checks. Early curtain walls may need assessment of air leakage, thermal bridges, seals and the availability of replacement profiles. Mechanical and electrical services can reach the end of their useful life while the primary structure remains sound. These are general inspection considerations, not findings about a particular Saudi building.

A useful investigation connects archive and site. Original drawings, specifications and photographs establish design intent. Measured survey records later changes. Close visual mapping locates cracks, staining, deformation and corrosion. Material tests answer defined questions rather than producing data without a decision. Service surveys identify capacity, accessibility and fire-safety constraints. The result is a hierarchy of defects, causes and consequences—not a list of damaged finishes.

This diagnostic stage should be coordinated with construction and delivery planning. Access, temporary works, mock-ups, specialist procurement and phasing can determine whether a theoretically sound repair is feasible while the building remains occupied.

Choose an intervention from evidence, not appearance

The first option is not automatically full restoration. A responsible comparison normally moves through maintenance, local repair, component repair, compatible replacement, adaptation and only then substantial reconstruction or demolition. Each option should be tested against the statement of significance and against realistic cost, safety, service life and operational requirements.

Repair should retain evidence where it can perform. Compatible replacement should match the function and visual role of a component without falsifying age. Adaptation should place new work where it causes the least loss and remains legible on close reading. Where removal is unavoidable, measured drawings, photography, samples where justified, and a record of the decision preserve knowledge that a few exterior images cannot.

The environmental case also needs calculation. Retaining structure can avoid demand for new concrete and steel, but conservation is not automatically the lowest-impact option. Strengthening, replacement systems, operational energy and future maintenance all matter. The appropriate comparison belongs within a broader whole-life sustainability assessment, not a slogan about reuse.

Upgrade performance without erasing the design

Safety, accessibility and energy performance are not exceptions to conservation; they are design constraints to be integrated. The least damaging solution may distribute upgrades rather than force one system to solve everything. Solar control can combine repaired external shading, selective glazing improvements and calibrated internal measures. Cooling demand can fall through zoning, controls and airtightness before major equipment is replaced. Fire strategy may use management, compartmentation and carefully located escape improvements instead of indiscriminate enclosure.

Mock-ups are particularly valuable. A concrete repair sample can test colour, texture and edge treatment. A façade bay can test air and water performance. A lighting trial can reveal whether new fittings alter the intended hierarchy of spaces. These prototypes make the trade-off visible before it is repeated across a building.

Programme is equally important. Spans, floor loading, circulation and available service routes define which new uses fit with limited intervention. Our design process treats the existing building as a set of capacities and constraints, not as an empty shell awaiting a new image.

The Hajj Terminal: conserve the system, not only the silhouette

The Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah demonstrates why a modern building must be understood as a complete environmental and operational system. Completed in 1981, the SOM design arranged 210 tent-like roof units into ten modules. Each module contains 21 units, and each unit occupies a 45-metre square structural grid. The membrane roofs hang from steel rings and cables supported by pylons approximately 45 metres high. This reading concerns documented design characteristics, not an assessment of current condition or a description of an ongoing maintenance programme.

The architectural achievement is not the resemblance to tents alone. The large, open-sided shaded field receives pilgrims after enclosed arrival procedures. The translucent, heat-reflecting fibreglass membrane admits diffuse light, while the open edges and roof form support air movement. Repetition allows an exceptional scale to remain legible as a sequence of shared spaces rather than one sealed hall. The terminal received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983 and the AIA Twenty-Five Year Award in 2010, confirming that technical innovation, cultural meaning and long-term performance are inseparable in its significance.

A conservation plan for such a place cannot preserve roof geometry while ignoring membrane behaviour, cable forces, drainage, replacement cycles, crowd movement or the relationship between conditioned and open areas. The object of conservation is the logic connecting those parts. This is also why broad criticism of modern architecture should remain separate from the assessment of a particular building; our related review of modern architecture in Saudi Arabia addresses that distinction.

Build a durable record and management plan

A completed repair is only one moment in a building’s life. The asset file should retain the statement of significance, verified authorship and dates, drawings, survey control, material test locations, approved mock-ups, intervention records, warranties and maintenance intervals. Photographs need positions and dates. Replaced components need a reason, specification and disposal record. Future teams should be able to distinguish original work, significant alterations and recent repair.

The management plan should assign responsibility for inspection, routine maintenance, emergency response and approval of change. It should also define thresholds: which observations trigger monitoring, specialist review or immediate action. Clear responsibilities and inspection intervals support timely maintenance and consistent decisions throughout the asset’s service life.

Modern buildings broaden the history represented by Saudi urban heritage conservation. They document the institutions, construction industries and environmental design approaches that shaped contemporary cities. Assessing significance, condition and practical options together supports a balanced choice of conservation, rehabilitation or compatible adaptation for each asset.