Studio Anne Holtrop   Bahrain   In the center of Muharraq, the old Amarat Fakhro storehouse is one of the most important symbols of the pearling tradition. The property hosted coffee shops and businesses at street level where some of the pearl purchasing deals took place, while the

Studio Anne Holtrop   Bahrain   The Murad House is a key part of the Pearling Path, a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site showcasing the history of the pearl trade in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The house is an essential component since the Murad family was highly involved in the pearlin

Studio Anne Holtrop   Bahrain   The architectural heritage of the pearling trade is the last testimony of a culture that defined the country’s identity. Amongst the iconic structures along the Pearling Path, a World Heritage Site, is the Siyadi cluster where Tajir Al-Lulu received

Studio Anne Holtrop   Bahrain   For centuries, the pearling economy structured the economic and social life of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Several gathering places sprang up around this activity, like the coffee shops where some of the pearl purchasing deals took place, as well as the

Christian Kerez   Bahrain   Compensating for the lack of parking spots in the former capital is a network of open, flexible constuctions which serve at the same time to give the urban fabric a new character altogether.

Christian Kerez   Bahrain   At the end of the 19th century, the German mathematician August Möbius discovered his famous strip, a continuous band with only side and one edge. Perhaps influenced by this non-orientable surface, or perhaps fascinated by the infinite folds of Deleu

Studio Anne Holtrop   Bahrain   The firm headed by Anne Holtrop, based in the Netherlands and Bahrein, has designed this narrow building that will keep part of the art collection of the Shaikh Ebrahim Center for Culture in the city of Muharraq. Two identically sized rooms and a cor

Valerio Olgiati   Bahrain   Aside from protecting a series of ruins in the Pearling Path, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the building becomes a foyer for the medina and a public space for the people of Muharraq.

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen   Bahrain   Dar Al Jinaa and Dar Al Riffa are two similar buildings, part of an urban renewal project in the historic center of Muharraq in Bahrain. The ambition is to give a public face to the ancient community of pearl divers and their musical and cultural tra

Bizet set Les Pêcheurs de perles in Ceylon, but could have chosen another island in the Indian Ocean to situate the story of its two fishermen: Bahrain, thub of an ancestral pearl market – mentioned in Assyrian texts – that was the pillar of the loca