Public Libraries Rehabilitation – Houses of Culture

Design + Construction Supervision

Client Name

Ministry of Culture – Libraries Commission

Total Area

33,656 m²

Project Value

Confidential

Location

Dammam, Ahad Rafidah, King Salman Oasis - Riyadh

Sector

Sports & Culture

Status

Completed

The Challenge

The Challenge: The hardest rehabilitation brief is not the one with a single difficult building. It is the one with three. Under Saudi Vision 2030, the Ministry of Culture's Libraries Commission set out to transform its public libraries from static reading halls into Houses of Culture, active civic destinations for learning, creativity, and community life. The mandate covered three existing facilities, in three cities, each with its own structural history and its own community to serve. The objective was not to design three separate outcomes. It was to deliver one national standard, applied without compromise, three times over. Three cities. Three existing buildings. One Ministry standard, uncompromised in every one of them.

What we faced

The Context

Vision 2030 treats cultural infrastructure as a measure of national quality of life, not a secondary civic amenity. The Ministry of Culture's library rehabilitation initiative sits directly inside that agenda: existing public libraries in Dammam, Ahad Rafidah, and Riyadh's Al Taawun district were selected for transformation into modern Houses of Culture, spaces built to host exhibitions, learning programmes, and community events, not just shelve books.

The Brief

ecec was appointed to deliver full condition assessment, engineering evaluation, and rehabilitation design across all three facilities: the Dammam Public Library (5,400 m²), the Ahad Rafidah Public Library (3,256 m²), and the King Salman Oasis Public Library in Riyadh (25,000 m²). Each site required its own architectural, structural, and MEP assessment before a single rehabilitation decision could be made and each rehabilitation had to be executed to the same Ministry-defined cultural standard, regardless of the building's age, condition, or scale.

The Complexity

These were not three commissions run in parallel by convenience. They were three existing, occupied public buildings, a 5,400 m² facility, a 3,256 m² facility, and a 25,000 m² facility; each carrying its own structural history, spatial logic, and rehabilitation risk. The complexity was not in any one library. It was in holding a single Ministry standard across all three, without letting the differences in scale or condition produce three different qualities of outcome.

The Approach

One methodology, applied without exception. Three cultural destinations, delivered to one standard.

The Strategic Decision

ecec’s defining decision was to treat the three libraries not as three independent rehabilitation projects, but as a single standardized methodology applied across three sites, a common assessment framework, a common design language for cultural transformation, and a common quality standard for construction supervision, calibrated to each building’s specific structural and operational realities.

The Method

Multidisciplinary teams carried out detailed field surveys and condition assessments at all three libraries, producing a structural and MEP baseline for each site before design began. Architectural and engineering rehabilitation solutions were then developed against that baseline, modernizing each facility’s spatial and technical performance while preserving continuous operational functionality throughout. ecec’s own construction supervision team carried the standard through to site, verifying that what was built matched what was designed, at every location.

The Journey 

From Site Assessment to Cultural Transformation, Applied Three Times Over
Rehabilitation is tested on site, not on the drawing. ecec supervised the implementation works across all three libraries to verify compliance with design intent, technical specification, quality standards, and Ministry of Culture requirements; ensuring that what was delivered matched what was designed, at every location, without exception.

The Final Built Reality

Three former libraries now function as Houses of Culture; modern cultural destinations capable of supporting exhibitions, learning programmes, and community events, in three cities, to one national standard.

Site Assessment

Every rehabilitation begins with what already exists, not what is proposed. Detailed field surveys and condition assessments were carried out across all three libraries; structural condition, MEP performance, and spatial layout evaluated individually at Dammam, Ahad Rafidah, and King Salman Oasis before a single design decision was made. The assessment stage is where the risk of a rehabilitation project is either found early or inherited late.

The Design

The concept becomes a coordinated engineering response. Integrated architectural and engineering solutions were developed for each library; modernizing the facility’s condition, performance, and cultural function while the buildings continued to operate. Design decisions were made against the specific structural and spatial reality of each site, held to the same Ministry-defined standard across all three.

The Engineering Mastery

Three libraries. One integrated engineering standard, applied without deviation.

Architecture

Structural Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Plumbing

Interior Design

Infrastructure

Quantity Surveying

Construction Supervision

The Human Impact

Strengthening cultural infrastructure for communities across Saudi Arabia.

The Human Outcome

The rehabilitation project enhanced the quality, accessibility, and functionality of three public libraries; creating flexible spaces built for education, arts, public events, and community engagement, in cities that had not previously had a cultural destination built to this standard.

The National Contribution

The project directly supports Saudi Vision 2030’s cultural agenda: strengthening cultural infrastructure and creating inclusive community destinations that promote learning, creativity, and cultural participation across multiple regions of the Kingdom; not concentrated in a single capital project, but distributed to where communities already are.

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