Maraya Concert Hall

A concert hall in AlUla's Ashar Valley whose walls are clad entirely in mirrors, the world's largest mirrored building.

About 9,740 square metres of custom mirror glass cover the outside, so the building reflects the sandstone cliffs and sky around it and nearly seems to disappear. The designers called the idea 'land-art architecture'. It was finished in 2018 and opened at the Winter at Tantora festival, and it was commissioned by the Royal Commission for AlUla.

The idea behind the mirrors

The architect Florian Boje of the studio Giò Forma said that he first wrote the words 'Nothing visible should be built here' on his sketch when looking at AlUla's landscape, and the mirror cube grew from that thought. The team learned from the Nabataeans, who carved tombs by taking stone away rather than piling it up. A simple cube with a few carved-out parts mirrors that idea. The hall holds a concert hall, an art pavilion and restaurants.

How it was built

Giò Forma's Italian-German team led the design, while Black Engineering managed the project and Gap Progetti did the general engineering. The main contractor was MMG KSA. The mirror cladding was developed especially for this building by Guardian Glass, based on its UltraMirror product, which resists corrosion and clouding. According to the architect, the whole process from the first concept to delivery took six months, and construction lasted 76 days.

Concerts in the desert

The hall is fitted with theatre and opera sound systems. Moroccan singer Aziza Jalal opened the festival season there, and Italy's Andrea Bocelli and Egypt's Omar Khairat have also performed. The Royal Commission for AlUla says it wants the hall to be a hub for world events, concerts and conventions. Around it, AlUla is an ancient oasis with Nabataean tombs and rock art, so the shiny building sits among very old history.

On the globe

The model shows the mirrored cube standing in the desert valley.