Saudi Modern
Jeddah in Transition 1938–1964

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 Asaad Badawi, Lina Barnawi, Bricklab, Abdulrahman Gazzaz, Turki Gazzaz, Laurian Ghinițoiu, Safouh Naamani, Todd Reisz, Anhar Salem, Saudi Ethnographic Diary, Sumayya Vally, and excerpts from historical research by Abdulla Yahia Bokhari and Sameer Al Layali.