We appointed award-winning British architects Foster + Partners to design two of the three Ummahat AlShaykh Islands in The Red Sea Project’s archipelago. Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners, elaborates on the inspiration behind their designs.
“What is very important about anything sustainable is two things: one is giving people choices. And the second thing is looking at what the resultant reaction of what you do will be. So, when we looked at the islands our approach was to have a light touch. As light as we could possibly be.
“How do you bring people to these places where nobody has been before? And how do you bring people into those places without damaging anything? It is about constructing more of the environment and about building on what was there long term as opposed to destruction.
“It was the light touch, non-damaging approach, and that has led through the whole of the design from beginning to end, and that is what we continue to strive towards.”
