A Saudi Desert Resort At One With The Landscape

2025 Best of Year Winner for Country Getaway

Scattered across the rugged property in Hanak, Saudi Arabia, Oppenheim Architecture’s structures for the Desert Rock Resort—64 suites and villas, plus several amenity buildings, such as the triangular, pool-flanked spa, totaling 275,000 square feet—blend into the terrain as if part of the natural landscape. Guest accommodations fall into four typologies: wadi villas on the valley floor; cliff-hanging villas built into the rock face; mountain cave suites carved into the heights; and mountain-crevice villas spanning clefts and ridges. Studio Paolo Ferrari’s interiors are equally attuned to the remote wilderness setting, with a consistent, sympathetic palette of understated materials: raw concrete, hand-troweled plaster, honed limestone, patinated bronze, and wood—both charred and sandblasted. All furnishings and lighting are custom, forming a collection of 200 unique pieces, including sand-cast hardware that provides a subtle, tactile connection to the surrounding desert.

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REYNOLDS DIAZ JR.; KEVIN HEIDORN; ALEX LOZANO; OLIVIER MONTFORT; MARCEL MONTOYA; MARIE-PIERRE PARÉ; ANDREA PERELLI; NAALY PIERRE; PATRICK REUTER (OPPENHEIM ARCHITECTURE).