Architecture studio OMA has designed the backdrop for the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale, which is being hosted in the Western Hajj Terminal at Jeddah airport, Saudi Arabia.
OMA designed the overall identity for the Islamic Arts Biennale, which is being curated by South African architect Sumayya Vally and opened to the public earlier this week.
The biennale is being hosted within the Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, which was designed by US studio Skidmore Owings & Merrill in the early 1980s.
OMA created the scenography for this year's Islamic Arts Biennale
Made from a series of fibreglass fabric tents suspended from steel pylons, the distinctive building won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983. OMA's design for the event aims to complement the existing building.
"Our scenography design aims to create a space that works with the cable-stayed, fabric-roof of the Hajj Terminal ? a seminal piece of modern architecture known to Muslims around the world ? literally reinventing it as an umbrella for Islamic Arts," explained OMA Associate Kaveh Dabiri.
A desert-like landscape was created within the SOM-designed Jeddah airport
The studio designed two distinct areas for the biennale. Under the terminal's open canopy it created a "desert-like landscape" that was informed by Mohamed's journey from Mecca to Medina ? known as Hijrah.
The landscape consists of sand-coloured slopes and slanted walls to ...