Ritz Carlton Hotel
Asia Pacific
View Project
Sea Petals
- Location
- Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia
- Client
- M&B
- Services
- Commercial Strategy, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Graphics and Wayfinding
- Sector
- Residential, Mixed Use
- Size
- 120,000m²
Residences, villas and retail, composed as a single shoreline.
Sea Petals is a 120,000m2 residential waterfront development on Al Khobar Beach, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. The scheme brings together retail, residential towers and beachfront villas on a single site with frontage onto the Arabian Gulf. Deisgned by Benoy’s integrated team of commercial strategy, architecture, landscape and branded environments.
At pre-concept, the commercial strategy team reviewed the client’s aspirations against local and regional competition, quantified and qualified the addressable audience by visitor type, nationality and spend potential, and tested the viability of the proposed retail. Benchmarking and direct interviews with brands and operators determined the retail’s optimal mix, location and clustering. These findings then shaped the design work that followed.
Design drawn from a petal motif
The plan takes its form from the image of petals unfolding along the shore, with built volumes stepping from the inland edge of the site down to the beach. Residential towers, villas and retail volumes are arranged as a single composition with the landscape. A climate- responsive landscape runs through the scheme, with shaded routes, planted thresholds and courtyard spaces calibrated to the heat and humidity of the Gulf coast. At the water’s edge, promenades, beachfront dining and a sequence of public moments are designed so that residents, and visitors share a continuous street level environment. Sea Petals will establish itself as a new address on the city’s seafront.
