RIYADH: Royal Diriyah Opera House, scheduled to open in 2028 in the historic heart of Diriyah, was designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snohetta and celebrates tradition and modernity.
Speaking to Arab News on the sideline of a reception hosted by the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh, Eli Synnevag, director and a senior architect at Snohetta, said the design draws inspiration from local Najdi architecture, and reflects a deep connection to the surrounding desert landscape and traditional building techniques.
Part of a broader initiative to reinvigorate the heritage area, the opera house will be a cultural beacon within a master plan aimed at transforming the region into a vibrant, contemporary destination.
Scheduled to open by the end of 2028, the state-of-the-art performing center, designed in collaboration with the ֱn company Syn Architects, is spearheaded by the Diriyah Company and operated by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, she said.
Synnevag, who has been working with Oslo-based Snohetta for almost 25 years, told Arab News: “Our journey in ֱ started with the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran. I worked on Ithra way back in 2008. We were so honored to be selected as a part of an international competition to be the winning proposal.”
It was an initiative from Saudi Aramco to promote cultural development, knowledge and diversity in the Kingdom.
“We were very lucky to be commissioned by a client such as Aramco. We had a very good collaboration with them,” she said.
“In 2013, we won a competition for one of the iconic metro stations in Riyadh, the Qasr Al Hokm Metro Station connecting two of the lines in the city’s brand-new metro network, opened in February this year.” she said.
“And since 2022, we have been working and designing the Royal Diriyah Opera House. That was also an international architectural competition that we were very lucky to be the winning proposal. The estimated time of completion is the end of 2028. It’s well on its way now. It started construction before the summer, and now they are making all the foundation work and the groundwork,” she added.
When asked about plans for future projects Synnevag said: “We are part in several competitions that are ongoing, so we are hoping for positive feedback later. We are focused on key cultural projects that are kind of engaging and a part of progress that we see is happening in Saudi now. So focusing on culture in the wider sense, whether it’s opera houses, museums, libraries and so on.”
On local partnership, she said that for the opera house they collaborated with Syn Architects, who had a deeper knowledge of Najdi architecture, the context, and the understanding of the site at Diriyah.
“For us, that was a very rewarding collaboration,” she said.
The Norwegian architect praised the ongoing transformation in the Kingdom in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
“There are a lot of transformations going on, things are moving fast. Every time you visit Riyadh, there is something new that is happening. But I am really focused on trying to develop local identity, the understanding of place.
“How do we build in this environment, how do we celebrate the culture? I think it’s really something that makes us an example for others. And I think it’s made a very strong push over a very short period of time,” Synnevag said.
On the changing landscape of the entertainment sector in the Kingdom, she said: “There are so many new venues for concerts, for art, for music, and also more for leisure and so on, and I think the young people really like to take part in this … like the same on the global scale as well.”
With a proposal rooted in the desert landscape, local cultural heritage, and Najdi building traditions, Snohetta is working on the opera house project to create a new stage for future generations of performers and audiences.
The 46,000-square-meter opera house will accommodate about 3,500 people at its four venues, including a 2,000-seat theatre for large-scale productions and headline artists, two smaller theatres for multipurpose use, and a 450-seat, shaded rooftop amphitheater for outdoor performances.
Intended as a tribute to local visual culture and heritage, the venue’s design will incorporate installation pieces by ֱn artists, including Maha Malluh, one of the country’s leading female conceptual creatives.
The ambitious project is designed as a cluster of buildings interconnected throughout by open passages that will provide shaded relief from the intense sun, with green gardens open to visitors to the opera house and the wider public.
