Saudi Arabia

Accommodations analyses a series of spatial and social configurations of encounter with the other, in which the histories, protocols, and gestures of quarantine, hosting, and housing are intertwined. Moving beyond the notion of ‘living quarters’, it encompasses the temporary and permanent structures that emerge to manage the threat of contagion during large-scale events such as pilgrimages and pandemics. Tracing the histories of such enclosures, it examines how the built environment and urban fabric accommodate the conditions of emergency and how the meaning and use of such spaces shift over time, revealing the tensions between the acts of separation inherent in quarantine and the acts of accommodation required to continue living.

Image 1 – How will we live together?
Many Saudi Arabian families watch Aramco television programs on their roofs during hot weather, Dhahran, July 1963.

Courtesy Saudi Aramco

Image 2 – Sneak peek of the project
Perspective drawing of Hotel Al Yamamah on Airport Road. The drawing highlights the hotel’s key location across the road from many ministerial buildings.

Drawing: Studio Bound, 2021