Samarec recreational center

This complex was designed as a recreational centre for use by the employees of the Samarec refinery in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. The project transformed a stretch of flat desert lapped by the sea into a tropical beach with white sand, with an artificial island being created across from it to form a lagoon protected against the waves of the open sea. A chain of dunes surmounted by palm groves separates the beaches from the desert behind. A Mediterranean village with narrow, tortuous alleyways, like the villages on Greek islands, plays host to shops, restaurants and meeting places in the squares and on the verandas of buildings. Through a process of deconstruction of the volumes and architectural markers, it takes on the appearance of a magical, dreamlike village.