WADI RUM Desert Resort /  Oppenheim Architecture

The new WADI RUM Desert Resort designed by the Florida-based firm Oppenheim Architecture takes advantage of the natural landscape in order to appreciate the surrounding landscape. Residences, rooms and hotel amenities are built into the cliffs, and inserted into the natural faults and fissures of the land.

WADI RUM Desert Resort technical information

  • Architects : Oppenheim Architecture
  • Principle in Charge: Chad Oppenheim
  • Typology : Hospitality / Resort
  • Location : Confidential
  • Building Scale : 2 stories above ground, one story below ground, 3 stories carved into rock
  • Materials : Local stone, sand mixture, clay mixture, glass, metals (brass, silver and copper). Recycled local woods. Goat hair for the tents. Structure – Natural Materials found on-site. Sandstone mud mix. Multiple-varieties of stone found on site, glass, brass, copper, silver. Exterior Finish – Natural Sandstone mud mix
  • Images: © Luxigon

To live in harmony with the natural world, we must learn how to re-engage the land. Earnest and timeless, the architecture is simultaneously powerful, yet comfortable; primitive, yet innovative; casual, yet elegant; raw, yet refined.

– Oppenheim Architecture

Destination SPA & Resort Renderings

WADI RUM Desert Resort / Oppenheim Architecture WADI RUM Desert Resort / Oppenheim Architecture WADI RUM Desert Resort / Oppenheim Architecture WADI RUM Desert Resort / Oppenheim Architecture WADI RUM Desert Resort / Oppenheim Architecture

Article by the Architects

Here, where desert sand meets desert stone, we see a singular opportunity to devise a new contract between man and nature. Reinterpreting the way we have dealt with the earth, our proposal establishes a new benchmark for design, quality and sustainability in the natural environment. To live in harmony with the natural world, we must learn how to re-engage the land. Earnest and timeless, the architecture is simultaneously powerful, yet comfortable; primitive, yet innovative; casual, yet elegant;
raw, yet refined.

The built form merges silently with its wondrous setting, exploiting and enhancing the natural beauty of the site to establish luxury lodge accommodations – that are uniquely beautiful and luxurious. The resulting experience is sensual and sensitive, intentionally reduced to what is essential, establishing a ancient connection with the universe through simple, elemental forms, sincere materiality/detailing, and the use of bountiful natural resources both physical and ethereal. Nature accelerated, enhanced and embraced; nature nurtured.

The architecture we will humbly create within the realm of the Wadi is intended to miraculously and meticulously add another sound in a perfect symphony, another ingredient in a perfect dish. The conceptual point of departure has its roots in the tectonic and geological histories of the region. Through an engagement of the existing natural faults and fissures, the architecture is inserted in the landscape with nominal impact and primal elegance-synchronizing with the topography.

Works by Oppenheim Architecture

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