Enter The Void

To live in the 21st century is to be wrapped up in a fusion of dimensions—where the vibrancy of a community, the unpredictability of nature, the speed of interconnectivity, the power of identity, and the allure of the metaverse intertwine in a bustling tapestry of existence. When designing public space for today’s hybrid experiences that merge living, hospitality, and leisure, LAVA seeks to create a framework for this potential energy, one that is adaptable to disparate and myriad functions from hosting a marketplace to an AI-driven artwork and all the uninvented activities of the future, too.

For Aquellum, a satellite resort destination in Saudi Arabia, LAVA had the opportunity to explore a vision of a hybrid space for a sophisticated, digitalized society embedded into a 450-meter-high coastal mountain range in the Gulf of Aqaba region. Inside one of these mountains, a mysterious hidden world unfolds, invisible from the outside and only accessible from a floating marina. From there, visitors descend and embark on an exhilarating custom-designed transportation vessel down a hidden underground canal to enter Aquellum at its lowest point and into an underwater open square.

The subterranean void inverted ordinary architectural principles and opened new possibilities for re-imagining space. With no façade, windows, or form, LAVA had to design an inside-out and upside-down structure. Similarly to the disruptive architectural paradigms of LAVA’s design for The Vault, “the interior focus of the brief required us to deeply interrogate how public space itself could shape emotions and experiences,” explains LAVA Partner Alexander Rieck.

Once entering this 100-meter-high vertical underwater open square, the void reveals itself, with light cascading down from above and illuminating layers of amenities, including a hotel, apartments, luxury retail, dining, sport, and entertainment. Uncertainty abounds; the void transforms into a magic cube around which an urban environment unfolds, where visitors embark on a journey from dark to light. “The underwater square extends into a social boulevard where all experiences converge and diverge. It features an irregular pattern of intimate and open layers, offering places to network, socialize, contemplate, eat, and shop, much like a city,” continues Rieck.

Just like the architecture itself, this is no ordinary atmospheric experience; its climactic master plan integrates many ‘mid-door’ experiences, indoor and outdoor spaces. The cave-like environment is shady, cool, and sheltered yet open to the sky and the region's powerful sunlight. The hanging cloud garden, in turn, moderates the temperature below, creating a more pleasant ambiance through shade and water. The ‘underwater square’ interior climate can be conditioned due to its enclosure, an advantage during extreme summer temperatures, offering an open-air public space to enjoy year-round.

Complementing this design is a master plan for dynamic zoning lighting, sound, and material. Daylight is augmented with a blend of artificial lighting, responsive to the outdoors and the requirements for indoor activities. This opens up the potential for the entrancing, meditative conditions of twilight and sunrise to be intensified and merged into the architecture itself through projections of red and blue light, creating an ambiance of biomimicry. “Imagine an evening gazing at the moon,” describes Rieck, “each night, the interplay of the clouds and the light is unique because nature evolves in abstract patterns, never on a loop. It’s unpredictable and inspired by this; each atmospheric experience will be distinctive, a rare moment that is not transferable or repeatable.”

Aquellum is a prototype of a hybrid between a small city and a building, where architecture is informed by nature, the landscape, the climate, and its variability of dimensions that result in an environment conceived to expand beyond the limits of the metaverse, providing individualized and simultaneous bodily and visual experiences. “We want to orchestrate a complex new paradigm of blended art, nature, and architecture driven by AI,” continues Rieck. "At present, this experiential space serves as a concept, embodying a vision driven by the curiosity of its inhabitants' imaginations. Curiosity is a fundamental driver of humanity, the quest to uncover the unseen. Aquellum resets our curiosity, enriching a void with endless experiences and possibilities and the latest technologies.