Misk Art Institute

Location: Other Middle East
Height: Mid-rise
Status: Under construction

Architect: Studio Ann Holtrop
Developer: MISK
Location: Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Use: Museum

Situated in Wadi Hanifah, the Misk Art Institute free-standing museum is placed within excavated land inserted to the natural wadi and divided into two buildings: the Galleries Building with its entrance on wadi level, and the Studio Building with its entrance on city level.

The External Facades are made out of cast glass, that diffracts and diffuses daylight to all interior places. The inner skin will feature more conventional flat and vertical insulated glass walls.

Koltay Facades has supported to project from competition stage, seeing through to handover, enabling realization of the architectural vision into actual completed building. 



The cast glass elements represented a truly unique coordination challenge, that required a deep engineering understanding of the material (borosilicate glass) and a strict series of testing in coordination with the manufacturers, that are still ongoing during the early phase of construction stage.

The design of the inner skin is studied in parallel with the outer skin, considering performance, structural and aesthetic requirements.