Pearling Site

The site holds ruins that are part of a World Heritage route recalling the pearling trade. The whole building acts as the entrance to this heritage and as a foyer for the old town: an urban room with the scale of a public park.

Concrete elements along the boundary form a new place in the dense city. Within them, the Swiss design team created a large space where a forest of columns and wind towers holds a horizontal plate ten metres above the ground. The roof, an archaic gesture, gives vital shade in the very hot climate and creates a new situation through its scale.

Set back in the shadow stands an enigmatic house holding the heritage museum. Taken together, the building forms a world of its own, the entrance to the heritage route and the city beyond.