The Monumental Water Celebration: A Construction Proposal of Building on Water and Carving Water Edges

Building-on-water is the trend of the 21st century for waterfront cities. In fact, beinga waterfront city is an added value for the city, which, in turn, increases the value ofits lands and real-estates. Therefore, architects, designers, and governors encouragethe concept of building-on-water to create iconic identity to the waterfront cities.Nevertheless, some architectural proposals of buildings-on-water remain on papersdue to several constrains, such as, cost, regulations, structure, constructability, andtransportation. Jeddah is a Middle Eastern waterfront city, located at the center ofthe Red Sea at the west shore of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It is thelargest seaport in the Middle East and North African regions. Moreover, the city isacknowledged as the gate to Mecca, the Muslims’ destination for pilgrimage andUmra; accordingly, Jeddah gained its uniqueness to be one of the most imperativecities on the Red Sea. Since then, building on the Red Sea water is developed as anelement of contemporary architecture to enrich the concept of Jeddah watercelebration;to be one of the iconic cities of Saudi Arabia. In fact, the 2030 vision ofKSA aims to transform Jeddah city to be the tourists’ destination that attracts visitorsfrom all over the world to participate in that celebration. The celebration ofbuilding-on-water techniques are mainly dominated by two methods; building on anartificial island, such as Burj Al-Arab, Dubai, United Arab of Emirates (UAE); andbuilding-on-land then shift the structure to water, such as Troll-A Platform Oil Rigs,North Sea. The objective of this study is to introduce a third construction method tobuild-on- water by arguing the following questions: How buildings on water can beintegrated into the land while maintaining the character of being in the middle of thewater? How to transform the existing building condition to accommodate water?How to reduce and avoid construction on water issues and concerns? And finally,how to utilize and control shore edges in term of public zones versus private zones?