RafflesCity
March 29th, 2003, 11:58 PM
National Commercial Bank
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
HEIGHT: 122m/400 feet
FLOORS: 27 floors
COMPLETION: 1983
ARCHITECT: SOM
The National Commercial Bank is the largest privately owned bank in Saudi Arabia. SOM provided full architectural and interior design services for the 766,000 sf headquarters building. Set in a three-acre plaza on the edge of the Red Sea, the project's geometry consists of a triangular 27-story office tower juxtaposed with a 6-story, 400-car circular garage. The configuration of the site and local climatic conditions generated the overall form of the complex. Clad in 5' x 9' panels of honed Roman travertine, the Bank's exterior finish was chosen to respond to local context and climate. Both elegant and serene, the travertine reinforces the architectural vocabulary of the buildings.
The verticality of the bank tower is interrupted by three dramatic triangular courtyards chiseled into the building's facade. Two of these courtyards, seven stories each, face south toward the old portion of the city and the Red Sea. The third nine-story courtyard faces northwest toward the sea. Office windows open directly onto these courtyards with an inward orientation typical of Islamic traditional design.
Interior spaces include a variety of exquisite polished marbles, granites, and more than 100 types of rich upholstery fabrics, with upper executive floors and walls finished in Black Absolute South African marble. Dining facilities include a luxurious executive dining floor with flexible partitions and a colorful employee cafeteria. Inspired by traditional Islamic decorative patterns, the floor of the main public lobby features green and white polished marble panels that give form to the strong geometric image which is carried through and redefined in an exterior courtyard.
Sources
http://www.som.com/html/national_commercial_bank__jedd.html
http://archnet.org/library/images/thumbnails.tcl?location_id=2042
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
HEIGHT: 122m/400 feet
FLOORS: 27 floors
COMPLETION: 1983
ARCHITECT: SOM
The National Commercial Bank is the largest privately owned bank in Saudi Arabia. SOM provided full architectural and interior design services for the 766,000 sf headquarters building. Set in a three-acre plaza on the edge of the Red Sea, the project's geometry consists of a triangular 27-story office tower juxtaposed with a 6-story, 400-car circular garage. The configuration of the site and local climatic conditions generated the overall form of the complex. Clad in 5' x 9' panels of honed Roman travertine, the Bank's exterior finish was chosen to respond to local context and climate. Both elegant and serene, the travertine reinforces the architectural vocabulary of the buildings.
The verticality of the bank tower is interrupted by three dramatic triangular courtyards chiseled into the building's facade. Two of these courtyards, seven stories each, face south toward the old portion of the city and the Red Sea. The third nine-story courtyard faces northwest toward the sea. Office windows open directly onto these courtyards with an inward orientation typical of Islamic traditional design.
Interior spaces include a variety of exquisite polished marbles, granites, and more than 100 types of rich upholstery fabrics, with upper executive floors and walls finished in Black Absolute South African marble. Dining facilities include a luxurious executive dining floor with flexible partitions and a colorful employee cafeteria. Inspired by traditional Islamic decorative patterns, the floor of the main public lobby features green and white polished marble panels that give form to the strong geometric image which is carried through and redefined in an exterior courtyard.
Sources
http://www.som.com/html/national_commercial_bank__jedd.html
http://archnet.org/library/images/thumbnails.tcl?location_id=2042