ArchiTangle

🗓 Thursday, Sept 11, 2025
⏰ Doors open at 6 PM
🎉 Join us in Berlin to celebrate the launch of ’s
Saudi Modern – Jeddah in Transition 1938–1964.

The book, edited by Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, explores the urban and architectural transformation of the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, since the discovery of oil—highlighting the city’s rapid modernization and societal change.
Over the last ninety years, Jeddah has transitioned from a modest walled city and pilgrimage hub into a sprawling modern metropolis. The complex urban morphology that characterizes it today can be credited to the port city’s role in the Saudi Arabian oil industry that arose after the discovery of natural oil reservoirs in 1938. The industry brought foreign companies and institutions, as well as workers and their families, from around the world. The city grew beyond its old walls. Moreover, interactions with modern technologies and development models launched a radical infrastructural and architectural reconfiguration of the urban fabric.

As a reaction to this dramatic shift, the language of the vernacular has become fetishized. Modernist developments post-1938 are today commonly considered inauthentic, and many of the buildings, streets, and neighborhoods that bear witness to the evolution of the city right after the discovery of oil have been demolished without formal archival documentation. In their place, new megaprojects have sprung up. Driven by global capital, Jeddah, along with other cities across the Persian Gulf, has entered yet a new phase of sweeping urban transformation.
Highlighting fifteen case studies, the book further combines scholarly essays with visual contributions, presenting unparalleled documentary research and historical contextualization of the city’s disappearing modernist heritage.

With contributions by Abdulrahman Gazzaz, Turki Gazzaz, Laurian Ghinițoiu, Safouh Naamani, Todd Reisz, Saudi Ethnographic Diary, Sumayya Vally, and excerpts from historical research by Abdulla Yahia Bokhari and Sameer Al Layali.
Book Design by

Thanks so much to our great contributors:

SAUDI MODERN: Thanks to Katarzyna and Andres we had the chance to get to know – and now they’re holding the book in their hands! These are the amazing stories! Back when Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska was still Director of the Goethe-Institut in Riyadh (before becoming the Artistic Director of the German Federal Cultural Foundation ), she and Andres visited Turki and Abdulrahman Gazzaz in their studio in Jeddah – and just look at what has grown out of that meeting!

Stay tuned for our SAUDI MODERN Book Launch & ArchiTangle Talk on September 11 at our publishing house in Berlin.

Big thanks to our fabulous models Zhang Ke, Tina and Hans-Jürgen for showcasing our brand new bike bags at their world premiere! 💥🤣