Saudi Modern: Jeddah in Transition 1938-1964 edited by Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz of
Bricklab explores the urban and architectural transformation of the city of Jeddah Saudi
Arabia since the discovery of oil-highlighting the city's rapid modernization and societal
change. Over the last ninety years Jeddah has transitioned from a modest walled city and
pilgrimage hub into a sprawling modern metropolis. The complex urban morphology that
characterizes it today can be credited to the port city's role in the Saudi Arabian oil
industry that arose after the discovery of natural oil reservoirs in 1938. The industry brought
foreign companies and institutions as well as workers and their families from around the
world. The city grew beyond its old walls. Moreover interactions with modern technologies and
development models launched a radical infrastructural and architectural reconfiguration of the
urban fabric. As a reaction to this dramatic shift the language of the vernacular has become
fetishized. Modernist developments post-1938 are today commonly considered inauthentic and
many of the buildings streets and neighborhoods that bear witness to the evolution of the
city right after the discovery of oil have been demolished without formal archival
documentation. In their place new megaprojects have sprung up. Driven by global capital
Jeddah along with other cities across the Persian Gulf has entered yet a new phase of
sweeping urban transformation. Highlighting fifteen case studies the book further combines
scholarly essays with visual contributions presenting unparalleled documentary research and
historical contextualization of the city's disappearing modernist heritage. With contributions
by Asaad Badawi Lina Barnawi Bricklab Abdulrahman Gazzaz Turki Gazzaz Laurian Ghini¿oiu
Safouh Naamani Todd Reisz Anhar Salem Saudi Ethnographic Diary Sumayya Vally and excerpts
from historical research by Abdulla Yahia Bokhari and Sameer Al Layali.
