MARGAB

No. 049

OMQ Complex

ResidentialHittin, Riyadh4,640 m²2025Architecture, Interiors, Lighting, Landscape

One travertine platform, cut by a wadi, carrying five homes for an extended family and a guest palace.

The long street elevation of OMQ Complex on its platform
01

Ground First

Diriyah rose on the banks of Wadi Hanifa, and Riyadh drew its water from the wadi before it drew its buildings. The compound begins in the same order: ground first. A travertine plinth spreads across two joined plots before any house is named, the way At-Turaif stands on its raised ground.

Diagram: one platform across the two joined plots
Diagram: the wadi cut through the platform
The platform first, then the wadi
The compound's stepped stone masses rising from the platform at the street corner
02

The Wadi

A single cut runs through the platform between its eastern and western sides. It is not a corridor but the compound's spine: courtyards open along its length, and their gardens join into one ground. Each house still keeps its own internal courtyard, its private garden, and separate entrances for guests and family.

Ground floor plan of the compound, the wadi running between east and west
Ground floor plan: the wadi between east and west
Walking along the wadi, a water channel beside the stone walls
The wadi under a pergola, gardens on either side
A narrow courtyard between grooved stone walls, a tree at its end
A house courtyard under a planted terrace
03

Masses on the Platform

Above the platform, masses of grooved Riyadh stone rise and step. What stays low is shared; what rises is private. On the east, the parents' house sits between the two sons' houses. On the west stands the guest palace, the majlis of the whole family, fronted by a large shared courtyard.

Diagram: the houses rising from the platform
What stays low is shared; what rises is private
Axonometric of the compound: the houses and their courtyards
Axonometric of the compound from the west, the guest palace in front
Five homes and a guest palace
The stepped masses from the street, trees along the boundary wall
Grooved stone volumes behind the planted boundary
A living room in warm stone and timber
A lounge with low seating and a timber wall
The guest palace dining hall beneath a floating stair
An entrance niche with a lit stone wall

The project recovers not the form of At-Turaif but its order: one ground, a wadi, and houses standing upon it.

Facts

Project
OMQ Complex
Type
Residential
Scope
Architecture · Interiors · Lighting · Landscape
Year
2025
Location
Hittin, Riyadh
Site area
4,640 m²
Status
In design
Plot
Two merged plots between two public parks, east and west
Programme
The parents' house between two sons' houses · two linked residential units · a guest palace with a shared court and support parking below
Materials
Cross-cut travertine platform · grooved Riyadh stone volumes · one continuous boundary wall fronted by planted beds

Drawings

Ground floor plan

“The plan is the generator.”

Le Corbusier