MEGUERDITCH BOULDOUKIAN   

ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS

 RESIDENTIAL    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13

PRINCE TALAL PALACE

1980, JEDDAH - SAUDI ARABIA

BOULDOUKIAN & KADRI

The palace was designed and constructed by ACA, during the Saudi Arabian construction boom period in nineteen eighties. It was destined to an unknown client, being created by a newly affluent society, to enjoy facilities of a showplace residence with playful exteriors for onlookers and a dramatic private internal setting. It was meant to be an ultimate expression of a sudden change in quality of life, through the medium of domestic architecture.

Existing family structure was an important factor that has influenced contemporary residential architecture in Saudi Arabia. Large residential compounds and palaces are occupied by single or multi-generation families with their teams of drivers, guards, gardeners, cooks and servers requiring a complex network of services and segregated living and private family spaces.

It was a constant challenge to find satisfactory and adequate formal means to integrate the vocabulary of traditional architecture in a wide range of commercial and residential projects, using new methods of construction, building materials and services.

Built on a 5000 m2 plot, the palace had two distinct quarters with separate entrances. The reception area was designed as an open living space, in the form of a covered patio that included an intricate network of water system composed of ten meters high waterfall, pools with spouting fountains and exotic plantation. The dining room table was an art piece and a technical showcase. The fourteen meters table was unique both as idea and technical performance. The table top was composed of a fixed element all around and a middle movable one used for vertical servicing. The kitchen pantry was located below the dining room. The middle part of the table, almost full length, was fixed on piston type elevators and it was used to service the dining room table through an intricate system of moveable elements. It allowed a faster service of fruits and desert, by simply displacing the middle part of the table top, at the pantry and raising it up. The table top surface was designed by Wajih Nahle, a well known Lebanese artist and a specialist of Islamic art and calligraphy.

Prince Talal Palace was included in the Saudi Arabian Mirror catalogue of major construction projects in Saudi Arabia, by Sifi, in 1981.