Much of the urban environment was built during the second oil boom of the 1980s, when architects flocked to the Gulf to put up housing, mosques, administrative buildings and malls for the growing cities. Many were part of the Non-Aligned movement, coming from neighbouring countries such as Syria and Iraq. Other architecture was part of the tradition of Arab-influenced modernism, such as the Al Rabooa mosque, whose architect Abdul Wahid Al-Wakeel studied under the famed Egyptian Modernist Hassan Fathi.

This backstory mostly goes unnoticed; many of these buildings now sit with crumbling facades, or internal systems such as air-conditioning or lighting that have ceased functioning. In Saudi’s current construction boom, it seems easier to knock them down and build anew1.

....

• 1. A year ago, an elegant, white mosque in Jeddah, with a blue-topped minaret and an active congregation, was slated for demolition. For three months jackhammers hacked into its dome, revealing the rich gold calligraphy within, when calls began to halt the destruction. Local and international architecture practices wrote letters of complaint, and there were rumours that Saudi’s ministry of culture had stepped in to save the 1980s-era building. But last month, the Al Rabooa mosque was razed to the ground, leaving a pile of rubble that will soon be carted away to build a new, larger place of worship. Despite not being able to save Al Rabooa, the yearlong story shows the changing perceptions around 1970s and 1980s architecture in the Gulf. New initiatives are seeking to create more robust mechanisms for the conservation of Modernist and post-Modernist buildings.