Where to draw the line?

No comments

Last week’s news that the King Abdullah Sports City project has been slashed may have been a calamity in terms of fees for the practices involved, but as someone who worked on the project (and resigned) it came as a relief

From the first few days of the project, when I looked at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, I had misgivings about being involved. It seemed incredible to me that, out of all the sports buildings in the scheme, only one of them was dedicated to women. Segregation between men and women is enforced very strictly and is a principle of the Wahabi form of Islam.

So why not have 50% of the sports buildings dedicated to women, and 50% to men?

I was working on one of the many men’s buildings and any images of women that had crept into design reports had to be removed. What the hell were we doing operating at this level of absurdity?

The other issue I had was with sustainability. In one meeting, I asked who would be playing golf in 50°C heat. The golf course requires obscene amounts of water to remain green. Why, I wondered, did we bother making an effort to design passive buildings elsewhere in the world, when C02 was being produced in vast quantities in order to provide water for golf courses that no one will be able to play on in the Middle East?

When fees are at stake, the urge to turn a blind eye is very strong. You could argue that it is impossible to know where to draw the line. My own personal line was drawn at the project’s exclusion of females and its eroded environmental strategy. Architects should have a conscience, and should at least be asking the questions, however uncomfortable they may be. Otherwise nothing will ever change.

Name and address supplied