Culture and climate interact.

Climate is one of the determinants of traditional cultures. Buro Happold has always been interested in developing engineering approaches that can enable regional diversity.

In 1967 Ted Happold, then at Ove Arup & Partners, visited Saudi Arabia with architect Trevor Dannatt to work on a conference centre in Riyadh, then a small and underdeveloped desert town. Frei Otto and Rolf Gutbrod were working on another centre for Mecca and the two design teams coordinated their resources. Two elegant and innovative buildings were produced, and, more importantly, relationships were established between the teams with a client new to construction.

This was the start of a close link between Buro Happold -- in particular Ted Happold and Terry Ealey -- and the Middle East. In the last 30 years the practice has been involved in designs for a government complex, the British Embassy, the Diplomatic Club (AR November 1998), which received a 1998 Aga Khan Award, district development projects and the Quba Mosque, one of the most important in Islam. Success is due to ability to respond to the harsh desert climates (temperatures reach 45 degrees C in summer), to the lack of familiar resources such as timber, and to the Islamic and formerly nomadic culture of these countries.

The Saudi Diplomatic Club, now known as the Tuwaiq Palace, with Saudi architects Bassin Shahabi and Nabil Fanous of Omrania and Frei Otto, is an entirely new form which grew out of the response to these factors. On a 7500[m.sup.2] site, the scheme takes the form of a three-storey 'inhabited wall', containing cellular living accommodation, which snakes round to enclose a sheltered 'oasis' garden. The heavy mass of the wall -- a sandwich of local limestone, insulation and precast concrete -- is a thermal barrier, evening out temperature differences over a 24 hour period: reminiscent of the highly effective mass straw-reinforced mud walls of traditional Saudi dwellings. Within the oasis garden stand four lightweight fabric structures, semi-circular on plan, for restaurant, conference and sports activities. Only intermittently occupied, they act like the Bedouin's goat-hair blanket tent, providing ventilation and shade from the sun.

Tents are of PTFE coated glass fibre and cable net construction. They take support from the wall which is battered -- narrowing as it rises -- to counteract the forces of the tents. The battered form derives from Robert Hook's concept that a hanging chain would define a pure compression path if inverted. The contrast between the pure compression form of the wall and the pure tensile form of the tented structures produces a satisfying structural and environmental harmony.

The Grand Mosque (AR November 1995), with Rasem Badran, also in Riyadh, shows how traditional forms can be integrated with modem structural and environmental controls. It also received an Aga Khan Award. Unlike the domed mosques common to the Ottoman world, those in Saudi Arabia were traditionally constructed of a grid of columns supporting tied masonry arch walls which in turn carried a roof of tamarisk poles with a palm leaf and adobe roof covering. Forms and principles of traditional construction were followed, while allowing air-conditioning, lighting and other services to be incorporated in the structure. Precast concrete was used, and a local plant was set up to service the building. Columns support heads and a system of double walls above, which in turn support a precast double-tee beam roof, the modern textural equivalent of the tamarisk pole and adobe roof.

Ducts in the precast double wall carry cooled air which flows into the prayer hall through grilles in the column heads. Each column is a coordinated structural and environmental unit, assembling air-conditioning, day and artificial light, fresh air and microphones.

A project at the other end of the world: in Alberta, Canada, Buro Happold has designed a covered enclosure for an Arctic village for 2000 people at 58[degrees]N, a project generated by the planned expansion of tar sands extraction but abandoned in 1982 when oil prices fell. The study examined the effects of working in extreme northern conditions, the problems of living in an enclosed environment and the technical difficulties of construction of a 35-acre enclosure. The solution was a cable-reinforced membrane roof pre-stressed by internal air pressure. It was covered with double-skin ETFE foil cushions in 1.5m wide strips supported by a 500 x 500mm cable net. This improved resistance to ponding -- a serious problem on fabric roofs subject to heavy falls of snow -- and would be easy to maintain. The enclosure would provide an internal microclimate equivalent to that of a 10 degree move south.

The new National Museum for Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, a joint venture of Buro Happold and Toronto-based architects Monyama & Teshima, reflects the culture of the country in its use of local stone. It imitates the topography -- desert and oasis courtyards -- and its massive structure and sophisticated service systems respond to the harsh climate.

Visitors enter the museum through a massive curved wall of Riyadh limestone. The 1200[m.sup.2] lobby is paved with granite and leads to 10 galleries which chronicle the archaeology of the country, the rise of Islam and the formation of Saudi Arabia Circulation flows round the galleries, linking courtyards which illustrate and desert and fertile oasis environments.

The 35 000[m.sup.2] project. won in competition in 1996, had to be completed within three years to meet the centenary of the founding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which required the team to adopt fast-track measures in design and construction. For example, services are distributed by a walk-through underground tunnel, one of the first elements to be built Once complete, it allowed fast service installation to proceed, isolated from other construction. Vertical service risers lead from the tunnel to the galleries, isolating the exhibits from disruption by maintenance.

The galleries are designed as a series of enclosed in-situ concrete boxes which give thermal and acoustic mass to protect the internal environment which is controlled by a sophisticated Building Management System and latest technology in thermal ice storage. Ice banks, charged during low demand at night, are used for cooling during the day.

national museum for saudi arabia in riyadh

'Working at such distances, dealing with a vastly different culture, language and religion might have proved difficult. But we worked extremely well together as a team. Clearly we shared a belief in providing our clients with the best service and design, while meeting the time schedule and budget. The result was a world-class museum, finished under budget on a tight 28-month schedule. Officially opened by the King on 22 January 1999, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Unification of Saudi Arabia, the Museum, we have been told, surpasses all our clients' expectations.

'The Museum's success is due, in large part, to Buro Happold's efforts. Not only did Buro Happold's people try to understand all the nuances of our architectural design and its heritage and sociological content, they knew the client and understood the client's practical needs. Their familiarity with the Middle East and the climatic extremes of sand and heat, their sense of what would or would not work in Riyadh, were invaluable to our project team. Mutual agreement, good organization of process, articulate scheduling, great communication and focused objectives, all paved the way to a smooth process.

'With frequent meeting in each other's offices in Toronto and Bath, our relationship with Buro Happold's key staff members has grown beyond a professional relationship into a friendship that we hope will continue to grow.'