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London / Buenos Aires / Caracas
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Architectural Language / Façade Guidelines
Makkah, Saudi Arabia
2023–2025
Masar Holy City explores the construction of a contemporary architectural language for a sacred urban axis in Makkah.
The project seeks to recover the memory of a lost historical Makkah — not through imitation, but through atmosphere, rhythm, shade and proportion. Conceived as a set of façade guidelines, the work defines how architecture can respond to pilgrimage, density and collective movement while preserving a sense of place, continuity and spiritual gravity.
The language is structured through a gradual transition. As the buildings move closer to Al-Haram, the façades become more restrained, precise and composed. As they move away, the architectural expression becomes more contemporary, allowing greater variation, abstraction and openness within the urban sequence.
A clear podium establishes the civic and cultural base at street level, connecting the buildings to the movement of pilgrims. Above it, a loggia becomes a layer of shadow and transition: a place of articulation, depth and pause between the city and the tower.
The tower is treated as a quiet vertical body, allowing the façade to breathe. At specific moments, carefully inserted architectural elements recall fragments of memory without becoming literal ornament. The composition culminates in a crown, giving each building presence, identity and a sense of completion within the larger urban rhythm.
Rather than producing isolated towers, the project proposes a coherent architectural language rooted in memory, shade, rhythm and pilgrimage — a contemporary attempt to bring back the spirit of a historical Makkah.
Design lead by Karla Montauti, as Associate Director at Benoy, London
Initial design direction: Nick Norgate and Anton Comrie
Team Assitance: Lydia Kyprioti, Sofía Urzainqui, Nabiha Qadir, Luka Ahmad
Teaser
Under development
2024-07-03_Benoy - Art or Architecture? Karla Montauti discussed her passion for design. London, United Kingdom