Completed in 2024, Shebara Resort sits off the coast of Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Province, set on the waters surrounding Sheybarah Island. Conceived by Dubai-based practice Killa Design, the studio behind the Museum of the Future in Dubai, the resort features 73 villas: 38 suspended above the lagoon and 35 perched along the beachfront. Together, they compose a “string of pearls” laid out against the sea.
The resort’s over-water pods are clad in polished stainless steel and shaped into orb forms that reflect the sky, sea, and surrounding landscape. It gives them a near-invisible quality as they hover above the water with minimal structural intrusion. This levity of form is matched by a construction strategy that prefabricated each pod off-site, then transported and installed with care to preserve marine ecosystems beneath.
On land, the beachfront villas and amenity buildings are embedded in sand and vegetation. Their low-profile, curved forms and soft material palette help the resort recede into its natural setting. The result is a subtle dialogue between built form and nature. The over-water pods echo the lagoon’s shifting light, and the beachfront structures softly trace the contours of sand, scrub, and mangrove.
Within the orbs, interiors by Studio Paolo Ferrari embrace curves, mirror finishes, and custom furniture that follows the geometry of the shells. Leather-clad walls with bronze inlay, travertine floors, and polished steel vanities bring warmth and craftsmanship to spaces that might otherwise feel hyper-futuristic. The juxtaposition of the high-tech exterior with the human scale, tactile interiors creates a sense of being in-between worlds: marine and terrestrial, natural and designed.
Sustainability underpins the resort’s design ethos. The resort operates with its own dedicated solar farm, employs reverse-osmosis desalination and water-treatment systems, and uses a circular waste-management strategy. The structural minimalism of the over-water villas demonstrates a deliberate attempt to lessen ecological impact, allowing coral gardens, seagrass, and mangrove patches beneath to remain largely undisturbed.
All in all, the architecture of Shebara Resort speaks of balance between bold and subtle, between echoing nature and asserting design, between luxury and sustainability. It offers a model of how high-end hospitality need not come at the cost of ecological sensitivity, and indeed how architecture can become a mediator between human ambition and natural wonder.
To learn more about the Shebara Resort, please visit the official web page of the project.
You might also be interested in reading about the Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre in Riyadh.
To stay connected with the latest art news, you can follow our Telegram channel.
