Hotels & Holidays

The most active section on the site, and most of it concerns hotels in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf that opened in the last three years.

These are covered as buildings first: who won the commission, what the design was solving, how many keys, what is open and what is still a render. Shebara’s villas were built onshore and floated into place to avoid the reef. Desert Rock was excavated rather than constructed.

Where a hotel is ordinary, the piece says so.