The monumental water celebration : a construction proposal of building on water and carving water edges

Abstract EN

Building-on-water is the trend of the 21st century for waterfront cities.

In fact, being a waterfront city is an added value for the city, which, in turn, increases the value of its lands and real-estates.

Therefore, architects, designers, and governors encourage the concept of building-on-water to create iconic identity to the waterfront cities.

Nevertheless, some architectural proposals of buildings-on-water remain on papers due to several constrains, such as, cost, regulations, structure, constructability, and transportation.

Jeddah is a Middle Eastern waterfront city, located at the center of the Red Sea at the west shore of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

It is the largest seaport in the Middle East and North African regions.

Moreover, the city is acknowledged as the gate to Mecca, the Muslims’ destination for pilgrimage and Umra; accordingly, Jeddah gained its uniqueness to be one of the most imperative cities on the Red Sea.

Since then, building on the Red Sea water is developed as an element of contemporary architecture to enrich the concept of Jeddah watercelebration; to be one of the iconic cities of Saudi Arabia.

In fact, the 2030 vision of KSA aims to transform Jeddah city to be the tourists’ destination that attracts visitors from all over the world to participate in that celebration.

The celebration of building-on-water techniques are mainly dominated by two methods; building on an artificial island, such as Burj Al-Arab, Dubai, United Arab of Emirates (UAE); and building-on-land then shift the structure to water, such as Troll-A Platform Oil Rigs, North Sea.

The objective of this study is to introduce a third construction method to build-on- water by arguing the following questions: How buildings on water can be integrated into the land while maintaining the character of being in the middle of the water? How to transform the existing building condition to accommodate water? How to reduce and avoid construction on water issues and concerns? And finally, how to utilize and control shore edges in term of public zones versus private zones?