“It felt like coming home,” says AD100 architect Shahira Fahmy of her first time setting foot in AlUla Old Town. “I’m Egyptian, so you might ask why would Saudi Arabia evoke those feelings, but it was something about the Middle Eastern sun hitting my face and being surrounded by a vast archaeological landscape that felt so familiar.” Fahmy, who has been living in London for the past few years, was feeling particularly homesick when a long-time friend and client called her in 2021 to invite her to see his latest passion project, a compound in AlUla’s historic quarter that he had been given permission to restore into a beit (house).
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Fahmy jumped at the opportunity to get involved, having a passion for archaeology stemming from her time studying architecture at Cairo University. “One of the most important things I learnt at design school was that a line drawn on paper is not just a line; it represents so many things – the land, its people, the way they lived and their aspirations,” she says, “I knew that the only way to do justice to this project was to be on-site in AlUla Old Town and let it tell me what we needed to do.”
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What the site told her was that instead of an old house with a courtyard (as her client had initially thought he was acquiring), they were standing before what would have once been two adjacent buildings. “Their walls had been eroded over time, and all that was left behind was traces of their foundations,” recalls Fahmy. In consultation with the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), the organisation entrusted with the environmentally and historically sensitive transformation of AlUla, the concept of what this home could be was revisited. “In the process, we ended up creating a zone for a few more private residences to be created in the future,” Fahmy adds.
The RCU granted the architect and her team access to their archaeological records of the Old Town in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, which document not only the bones of the original homes – from their window frames and woven palm ceilings to drainage and structural systems – but also the town’s soul. “We got a glimpse of how people used to live here,” says Fahmy. “In many ways, those values have been retained in the Arab world.” She reinstated that hierarchy via her design: the ground floor was dedicated to welcoming guests and entertaining, while the upper floor was private, reserved for two bedrooms. She also brought on board Egypt-based Environmental Quality International, a consortium specialising in developing and implementing research-based design solutions, to support her team of archaeologists and local craftspeople whilst ensuring authenticity.
“I always wanted to work with the earth and without big machines,” she says of the mud bricks used to rebuild the house, which were made on-site following traditional techniques. “This house really is all handmade.” Even the pipes used for mod cons like water and electricity supply were coiled manually in reed ropes to blend them into the walls. Also new is the circular pond in the middle of the courtyard. Not only does it offer respite from the blazing sun, but it is also Fahmy’s way of paying homage to AlUla’s legacy as a thriving oasis.
“When we started working on this house, we had women weaving the roofs and rugs, and local artists painting murals on the walls and historic patterns on the doors,” recalls Fahmy. “By restoring just one beit, it felt like we were bringing AlUla’s community back.” AlUla gave back to the designer, too: witnessing the success of this restoration, the RCU entrusted her with reimagining part of the Old Town as an eco-hotel, and the celebrated Dar Tantora lodge was born. sfahmy.com
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