In the course of a ten-month invited competition Mark Foster Gage Architects, using tools ranging from artificial intelligence to 3D fractal software, re-invented the design languages of the ancient Nabatean civilisation located on the Arabian Peninsula to propose the first Saudi resort in the modern era that would be open for international tourists. Isolated in a vast desert, with little infrastructure and virtually no visitors, lie the ancient ruins of Mada'in Saleh, and the site for the project. With 500 pages and over 1,500 images this is a book that documents the design process of this project, complete with all of its ideas, misdirections, failures, restarts, breakthroughs, and everything in-between. Of interest to architects and non-architects alike, this book heralds a new generation of creative techniques and design technologies that promise to redefine how we think of the past, present and future of the built environment in the 21st century and beyond.

About the Author

Mark Foster Gage is the principal of Mark Foster Gage Architects in New York City, as well as a writer, design contributor for CNN, and tenured professor at the Yale University School of Architecture where he has taught since 2001. His previous books include: Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011); Mark Foster Gage: Projects and Provocations (Rizzoli, 2018); Designing Social Equality: Architecture, Aesthetics, and the Perception of Democracy (Routledge, 2018); Aesthetics Equals Politics: New Discourses across Art, Architecture, and Philosophy (The MIT Press, 2019); Composites, Surfaces, and Software: High Performance Architecture (Yale School of Architecture / Norton, 2011).

Book Information
ISBN 9781954081499
Author Mark Foster Gage
Format Paperback
Page Count 512
Imprint Oro Editions
Publisher Oro Editions
Weight(grams) 1708g