Riyadh’s Black Gold Museum Transforms a Zaha Hadid Library

Oil, affectionately named “black gold,” has long played the overachiever of global resources – fuelling economies, geopolitics and just about every industrial ambition since the modern age started. It’s less a commodity and more a reminder that the world’s still very much running on something we dig out of the ground.

When Riyadh’s Black Gold Museum opened in early April, it could not have been at a timelier moment. As conflict in the Middle East escalated, oil, one of the region’s most critical resources, was in the political spotlight – and here was a new institution devoted to charting its complex history.

The museum is as thoughtfully done as you would hope. At its heart is the adaptive reuse of one of Saudi Arabia’s most significant contemporary landmarks; in fact, this is one of the most ambitious adaptive projects in the Kingdom to date, taking a building designed for a singular purpose and changing it into something completely different, as if to mirror the transformative story of oil itself.

Created in partnership between the Ministry of Culture’s Museums Commission and King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), the Black Gold Museum inhabits a former library in the KAPSARC complex, which was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2017. At the helm of the new project is London-based architect DaeWha Kang, who spent a decade in Hadid’s studio and directed the original library’s design. Now leading his own firm, Kang is committed to sustainable, forward-thinking architecture, and this was an opportunity to put his philosophy into practice. “Breathing new life into old spaces is a way to add incredible value to the environment in which we live,” he says. “Re-engaging with a design I had directed almost 20 years ago, at a new point in my creative journey, opened up new thinking and new possibilities for how to make a mark on the people who experience our architecture.”

In repurposing the KAPSARC building, only 440 square metres – or six per cent – was added to its 6,800 square-metre floor area. The rest of the museum was created entirely within the existing footprint. Why choose this venue to reinvent? “When I was the design director of KAPSARC, the brief called for a large library to house research books, journals, and other physical resources,” explains Kang. “Over the years it took for the building to be designed and constructed, the field underwent a major digital transformation, and such a large building for physical books was no longer necessary.”

Because a museum calls for a completely different type of space and flow, most of the old interior was stripped out, and reading rooms and book stacks were reimagined as galleries. Kang’s design was led by the original building’s complex geometries, which draw on Saudi geology and wadis. “The primary structure of the building is organised around hexagonal geometries, which give a quiet reference to the living world, to science, to molecules and hydrocarbons,” he explains. “Our interior architecture respects that structure and builds on it. We treated the main gallery spaces as large boulders, cut through by canyons of circulation and occasionally cracked open with atriums and courtyards. In the galleries and the Grand Spiral staircase, the layering of sculptural walls evokes sedimentary strata accrued over time, giving a feeling of progression and movement as you travel upwards.”

Constructed with polished-plaster walls, black terrazzo floors, and portals of metal and tinted glass, the museum houses over 350 artworks and installations as part of its permanent collection; it will also host temporary exhibitions. An intuitive journey through the space takes in four themed galleries, each representing a different chapter in the story of oil. The tour begins with Encounter, which focuses on its discovery in the mid-19^th century; next, Dreams traces how oil became a valuable resource that reshaped societies; Doubts addresses the growing awareness of the consequences of exploiting fossil fuels, both environmental and social; and Visions explores current challenges and possible futures.

Kang worked closely with the museum’s curators and scenographers to ensure dynamic storytelling. “As an architect, the big spatial and sensory pieces naturally inspire me,” he enthuses. “In the Encounter gallery on the lower level, [Saudi artist] Muhannad Shono’s mysterious robotic piece is a hidden gem — as you approach, cables that were inert begin to swing and spin with an energy all their own; it’s a genuinely surprising moment. In the Future gallery at the top of the museum, [Lebanese artist] Tarek Atoui’s piece — a soundscape and interactive installation of algae consuming oil and falling as droplets into pools of water — creates an immersive experience that fills the gallery with wonder.”

Throughout the museum, Kang has created “strong, primal spaces that feel emotional and calm” as a way to encourage introspection on the part of the audience. “The pacing of the artworks, the generosity of the spaces, and the punctuation of intense aesthetic and intellectual experience with moments of contemplation and rest invites visitors to engage with the topic in real depth, rather than passively consume it,” he says. “I hope visitors will feel the beautiful tension between old and new — between the work of Zaha and that of my studio — and find inspiration in the unusual tensions presented by so many artistic voices, all grappling with a topic so fundamental to our lives and yet so full of complexity.”