Museum of Contemporary Art Riyadh

Set above a palm grove on a rocky edge, the museum is designed as a measured response to intense, abundant sunlight. The pale stone building gathers its galleries around a circular court and tempers daylight through shade, water and the depth of its walls.

The task is not to bring more light in but to reduce it. Midday sun can exceed 100,000 lux, while artworks are seen under a few hundred. Between the brightness outside and the controlled galleries, the building sets out a gradual adjustment for the eye: palm shade, water, deep arches and vaulted galleries, each lowering the light a step.

A stair rises between two stone walls to the entrance, with a narrow water channel along its axis that continues across the forecourt, while a reflecting pool runs along the facade. Glass is set deep in the reveals, out of direct sun. At the entrance, concentric stepped rings show the thickness of the wall and catch moving shadows.

Square in plan, the museum is organised around a circular courtyard open to the sky, the one place where daylight enters directly, aligned with a channel of water. Tall piers divide the exterior into equal bays, with entrances set between them as deep arches. The walls hold the day’s heat away from the galleries and release it slowly after dark. The design draws on a regional practice of building with depth, thick walls, shaded passages and water for its coolness and sound, and translates it into a contemporary setting for art.