Renowned architectural firm Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture has revealed detailed renderings and plans for the AlUla Immersive Living project, an innovative residential design conceived to emerge seamlessly from the desert landscape of Saudi Arabia's historic AlUla region. The proposed dwelling represents a groundbreaking approach to desert architecture, with its form carefully shaped by the site's natural light patterns and wind flows, positioning the structure strategically between ancient rock formations and shifting sand dunes.
The design philosophy centers on creating a shelter that belongs equally to the desert environment and its future inhabitants, functioning as what the architects describe as a "living landscape." The structure features thick rammed-earth walls that contrast dramatically with open platforms designed to frame views of the expansive desert sky. This architectural statement embodies Lina Ghotmeh's philosophy of design intended "not to dominate but to host," providing refuge while maintaining deep connections to the surrounding natural environment.
Dating back to 2022, the proposal remains in its design development phase and is grounded in profound respect for AlUla's desert landscape, which the architects recognize as sacred terrain bearing testimony to millennia of geological history inscribed in successive rock layers. The studio's comprehensive approach suggests that architecture should serve as both an emphasis of the natural landscape and a tool for understanding the territory's unique characteristics. The project is strategically positioned within an embankment along a ridge where topographies shift between two major rock formations, following the natural rise of existing stone outcroppings that already provide natural shelter.
Designing for such an extreme desert environment required extensive research into the region's specific climatic conditions. The architectural team began their process by conducting detailed scans of thermal conditions, wind patterns, sun exposure, shade patterns, and topographical features to determine the most suitable locations for human habitation. Climate serves as a fundamental structuring element for the AlUla MP1 development, considered inseparable from the overall experience of the place.
Comprehensive environmental studies conducted by the studio identified three distinct climatic periods across a typical year in AlUla. Summer months from June through September are characterized by hot or extremely hot and dry conditions, with temperatures exceeding 25°C nearly 80% of the time and rising above 35°C approximately 15% of the time, while humidity levels remain below 30% for much of the season. The few comfortable hours under 24°C generally occur between 4 AM and 8 AM. Spring and autumn seasons bring sharper temperature contrasts with cooler nights, while winters remain relatively mild with temperatures rarely falling below freezing.
These climatic realities informed the development of what the architects term "heat-preventing strategies" for summer and transitional seasons, while heat-preservation strategies are required for colder winter nights. The studio also conducted extensive sun-path analysis, noting that sunrise occurs around 5:30 AM in summer and 7:15 AM in winter, while sunset ranges from 5:45 PM in winter to 7:30 PM in summer. At noon during the summer solstice, the sun reaches an altitude of 85 degrees. Wind patterns in AlUla generally originate from the north and northwest directions.
These environmental parameters informed the architects' definition of "climatic hospitality," understood as the capacity of a place to generate comfortable microclimatic atmospheres. In the Saudi desert environment, any cold source, shade, or rock cavity can represent such hospitality, whether occurring naturally or created through architectural intervention. To maximize comfort while reducing energy demands, the proposed buildings are carefully sited with meticulous attention to sun and wind patterns.
The chosen site contains several lines of rock formations expected to cast beneficial shade during summer, autumn, and spring seasons while allowing crucial airflow and conserving coolness. Within this context, two particularly favorable microclimatic conditions were identified: canyon cavities between rocks that reduce direct summer sunshine, lower global solar irradiation, and accelerate wind flow through the Venturi effect; and the embankment formation, a dune positioned west of the largest rock formation, offering protected linear ground with favorable thermal inertia properties.
Protected from ground-level heat, the design envisions a natural extension of the existing dune alongside the mountain, reinforcing the sense of shelter and environmental integration. In this carefully chosen setting, the porous rock formations frame the strategic placement of buildings, channeling accelerated winds to create effective summer refuges. The embankment provides a semi-buried atmospheric condition, with approximately 70% of the façade covered by ground or dunes and 30% exposed at the surface level.
On the western side, thoughtfully positioned openings look out toward the broader landscape, while the eastern side leans into the protective dune formation. The overhanging roof system is specifically designed to protect the façade from intense solar radiation while maintaining permanent visual and atmospheric connections between interior and exterior spaces. Thermal simulations suggest that partial burial combined with sun-shading overhangs could yield energy requirements equivalent to a conventional building with only 15% glazing coverage.
The façade facing the rock formations utilizes rammed earth construction in opaque portions, connecting the structure materially to its desert context. To enhance thermal comfort throughout the year, the design incorporates adiabatic ventilation systems, either integrated mechanically or supported by natural airflow enhanced with water misters. Surface textures and porous treatments draw inspiration from natural wind erosion patterns and traditional regional design motifs, while the carefully selected color palette aims to blend the project seamlessly into its natural desert setting.
The architectural program is organized as a thoughtful sequence of spaces that gradually transition from public to private areas, defined by gracefully curved rammed-earth walls that echo the natural forms of the surrounding landscape. Niches and alcoves carved directly into these walls shape distinct functional areas, from a library space to a traditional majlis gathering area and onward toward more intimate private zones. In the canyon setting, the architectural intervention is conceived as subtle and respectful, carefully attuned to the raw natural sculpture created by colliding rock formations that form their own unique shelter.
The architectural narrative is conceptually divided into three distinct episodes, each designed to accommodate multiple uses and imagined as eventually subject to natural erosion in the distant future, allowing the building to return to the landscape that created it. These episodes include spaces rooted in shifting dune formations, others embraced by protective rocks, and elevated areas suspended above the desert floor, inviting new interpretations of dwelling in profound relationship to both landscape and sky.
Saudi Arabia's AlUla desert region is internationally recognized for hosting Desert X AlUla, a prestigious open-air contemporary art exhibition that took place from January 16 to February 22 earlier this year, featuring major presentations of works by renowned Light and Space artist James Turrell. In 2023, architects Lina Ghotmeh and Asif Khan were appointed by the Royal Commission for AlUla to design two forthcoming museums following an intensive international architectural competition.
More recently, Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture unveiled images of an ambitious project to transform a historic residence in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, into a museum dedicated to exploring the ideas and cultural influence of the Jadidism movement. The internationally acclaimed studio has also designed the Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain for Expo Osaka 2025 and was selected to create Qatar's first permanent national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale's prestigious Giardini location, demonstrating their continued leadership in culturally sensitive international architectural projects.
