Maghras: A Farm for Experimentation
Overview
Coming Soon
Maghras: A Farm for Experimentation accompanies the inaugural Saudi Pavilion at the 24th Triennale di Milano, marking Saudi Arabia’s first participation in this global architecture and design platform.
Centered on the Al Ahsa region, one of the world’s oldest and largest oases, Maghras: A Farm for Experimentation reimagines the farm as a site of collective inquiry, where environmental change, cultural memory, and community practices converge.
The publication documents research, fieldwork, and newly commissioned projects by architects, artists, and practitioners who engaged with farmers, craftspeople, and residents of Al Ahsa. Through essays, images, oral histories, and archival material, it reflects on the shifting relationship between land, water, and community in a landscape transformed by modernization and urban expansion.
Maghras frames the oasis as both a physical and symbolic ground for experimentation, where traditions of cultivation and storytelling inform new modes of sustainability and design. The book invites readers to consider how rural knowledge and lived experience can contribute to wider debates on ecology, equity, and the future of shared environments.
Edited by: Sara Al Omran, Lulu Almana, Latifa Al Khayat
About the Authors
Lulu Almana
Lulu Almana, a landscape architect based in Saudi Arabia, is one of the co-curators of Maghras, A Farm for Experimentation. She specializes in urban regeneration and ecological restoration. Having worked in London, Istanbul, and Abu Dhabi, she brings a global-local perspective to her work. She served as an advisor to the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing from 2022–23, focusing on Saudi Arabia’s community parks strategy. At Arup, she led the development of the Urban Transformation Manual launched by the Saudi Architecture and Design Commission in 2024—a comprehensive initiative dedicated to regenerating public spaces. She continues to serve as a jury member for national design awards in the Kingdom. She studied at the American University of Sharjah and Columbia University in New York. In 2024, she co-founded Maghras with Sara Al Omran, a farm and community space in Al Ahsa.
Sara Al Omran
Sara Al Omran, a strategy advisor to art institutions in Saudi Arabia and the region, co-curated Maghras, A Farm for Experimentation. Her work has been dedicated to building art institutions and nurturing creative communities. She formerly served as the Deputy Director at Art Jameel, where she led the launch and development of Hayy Jameel, a multidisciplinary arts complex with a particular mandate to support artists through residencies, commissions, and bespoke learning programs. Prior to working at Art Jameel, Sara worked as a management consultant with Monitor Group and the Boston Consulting Group, focusing on education and social impact projects. She is the co-founder of Maghras, a farm and community space in Al Ahsa launched in 2024 with Lulu Almana.
Latifa Alkhayat
Latifa Alkhayat is a Bahraini architect, researcher, and educator whose work navigates the intersections of materials, landscapes, and energy systems, with a focus on circularity. Her approach moves between narrated world-building and precise technical resolution, bridging speculation with groundedness. In 2023, Alkhayat co-curated Sweating Assets, the National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain at the Venice Architecture Biennale, where she foregrounded critical conversations around thermal comfort and environmental resilience. Her experience in architectural practice spans the UK, US, and Bahrain. Alkhayat earned her Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2023, where she later taught and received numerous honors, including the prestigious AIA Certificate of Merit. She is the co-founder of Maraj (2024) and Harness the Heat (2021).
Ali Ismail Karimi
Ali Ismail Karimi is an architect whose work explores public space, ecology, and the extractive landscapes of the Middle East. He worked in Belgium with OFFICE KGDVS, and in Chile with Alejandaro Aravena/Elemental, and taught at the University of Bahrain as an adjunct professor. His writings have been published in various media outlets including San Rocco, the Architectural Review, and e-flux. Karimi earned his MArch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and was recently a visiting critic at Rice University’s School of Architecture.
Hamed Bukhamseen
Hamed Bukhamseen is an architect from Kuwait. He earned a BFA and a BArch from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a master’s of architecture and urban design (MAUD) from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), where he is pursuing his doctoral studies. His research is concerned with the developmental projects undertaken by sovereign wealth funds and their sociopolitical impact within their host nations. He has worked as an architect in Japan, Germany, and the United States, and as a faculty member at the Kuwait University College of Architecture.
Fatma Ebrahim Al Sehlawi
(b. 1986, London) A Doha-based architect, urbanist, and beekeeper, Fatma Ebrahim Al Sehlawi is the co-founder of Atlas Bookstore (2015), a transient bookstore specialized in the natural and built environments in the Arab world, and co-founder of Studio Imara (2017), an interdisciplinary design practice. Since 2020, Al Sehlawi has been directing the Qatar Blueprint initiative in the Office of the Chairperson of Qatar Museums, a project planning the cultural activation of Qatar’s eight municipalities. Her work spans multiple areas of research, including the evolution of Qatar’s architecture and urbanism, oral histories relating to bygone settlements, and the productive farmlands and rural regions of Qatar. Her side interests include documenting and growing native flora, seed collection and preservation, and practicing Prophetic Medicine. Al Sehlawi holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the American University of Sharjah and an Urban Design Master of Architecture from the Bartlett, University College London.
Reem Ibrahim Al Sehlawi
(b. 1990, Doha) Reem Ibrahim Al Sehlawi is an Islamic environmental ethicist, farmer, and textile artist, working to raise awareness on the relationship between humans and the natural environment through impact-driven initiatives built around the intersection of ecology, art, and culture. She is the co-founder of Atlas Bookstore (2015), a transient bookstore specialized in the natural and built environments in the Arab world and the founder of SEAM (2017) a tailoring studio based in Qatar championing a holistic human / environment-centered approach to design, production, and consumption. She is also the associate director at the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar. Al Sehlawi's research spans a wide range of topics with a focus on the revival and advancement of traditional ecological knowledge in the Arab world and applied Islamic environmental ethics in addressing contemporary environmental dilemmas. Her active interests include permaculture farming, growing and cultivating natural dye plants, native insects macro photography, and observing micro-climates. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Real Estate Development from Kingston’s University in London and a Master of Arts in Applied Islamic Ethics from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.
Ghaidaa Gutub
Ghaidaa Gutub is an architect and multimedia artist from Jeddah. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Effat University in Jeddah (2017) and a Master’s in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York (2020). She worked at Bricklab on design and creative projects until 2023, and is currently part of the design team at Diriyah Company in Riyadh. Ghaida participated in the 2018 Design Exhibition with the installation Nur ‘ala Nur, and in the 2023 Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah with a video installation. She is currently part of the research team at the experimental research farm
Fatima Al Hajji
Fatima is a storyteller with a deep interest in the relationship between humans, nature, and the land through stories and oral narratives. She is the founder of Marj Library, the first read-aloud library in Saudi Arabia, located in Al-Ahsa, with a focus on children’s literature and storytelling. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic Language from King Faisal University. Her work has been featured in numerous local, regional, and international events, including the Al Rawi Festival in Sharjah, where she presented stories about plants and birds over two consecutive years (UAE); the Morocco Tales Festival (Kingdom of Morocco); in addition to many workshops held in the farms of Al-Ahsa
Ali Al Hajji
Ali is an architect with a passion for craftsmanship and a deep interest in local cultural heritage, the environment, and earthen architecture. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and pursued further education in traditional earthen construction through the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts program. He gained hands-on experience by working on various projects across different regions of Saudi Arabia, with a focus on the restoration of heritage buildings. He is currently serving as a Heritage Conservation Officer at the Diriyah Gate Development Authority
Mariam Al Noami
Mariam Al Noami is an artist and urban designer whose work explores the intersections between people and their environment, often grounded in research and community engagement. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Design from the University of Colorado (2017). Her work has been exhibited in numerous regional and international art venues, including Sharjah Biennial 16 (UAE); Hayy Jameel (Saudi Arabia); NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery (UAE); Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition; Al Riwaq Art Space (Bahrain); Saatchi Gallery (UK); and in 2019, her work was featured in the exhibition “Waiting” held in parallel with the Venice Biennale in Italy.
Mohammed Alfaraj
Mohammed Alfaraj is a visual artist that works in film, photography, sculpture and poetry, influenced by his hometown and his travels. Alfaraj attempts to capture the imprint and impact of life both literally and metaphorically. Having studied engineering and growing up loving the camera in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, Alfaraj’s work can be described as a cinematic collage of mediums, practices and ideas. With his artwork and projects, Alfaraj aims to create a world charged with stories, poetry and the search for truth via exploration, documentation and interpretation, resulting in works that the artist hopes nurture imagination and empathy. His use and reuse of organic and manmade waste work as a physical capsule of memories and time, with these materials and their histories holding a spiritual quality. Alfaraj also engages in workshops and action-based activities with the community as a believer in collective creativity.
Sawtasura
Sawtasura is a socially engaged research platform dedicated to non-tangible heritage and art forms in the Arab Gulf and wider region. The platform was founded in 2020 by Tara Al Dughaither (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia), an independent arts curator, artist, and cultural producer focusing on process based methods of embodied learning and expression. Al Dughaither holds a masters in Culture Crticisim and Curation from Central Saint Martin’s London, (2013) and has worked across private and government sectors as well as grass roots initiatives.
Leen Ajlan
Leen Ajlan is an architectural designer from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, whose work navigates the intersection of spatial design, cultural narratives, and material experimentation. Rooted in a deep engagement with Arab heritage, her practice explores the ways in which architecture can facilitate communal interactions, revive traditional craftsmanship, and support ecological regeneration. Leen holds an MA in Architecture from the Royal College of Art in London, where she is currently based. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Milan Design Week, AlUla Design Festival, Paris Design Week, and the Venice Biennale. Through a multidisciplinary approach, she continues to investigate the evolving role of architecture in shaping sensory, cultural, and ecological landscapes.
Thamer Al Sunaidi
Thamer Al Sunaidi is a film producer and director, and a writer on Saudi popular culture, based in Riyadh. He launched the project Fulan— a platform dedicated to documenting and analyzing cultural and social transformations in Saudi Arabia through films, articles, and cultural programs. His work focuses on marginal stories and oral memory, exploring people and their relationship to place, while combining visual expression with field-based research.
Deema Alghunaim
Deema Alghunaim is an artist and writer from Kuwait. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Kuwait University (2008) and an MFA in contemporary arts from The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (2024). Deema is part of Safat Studios community of artists and a founding member of Naktub; an Arabic creative writing programme for children funded by the Promenade Cultural Centre.
Courage Dzidula Kpodo
Courage Dzidula Kpodo is an architecture-graduate and researcher based between Ghana and the US. He has degrees from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work explores the socio-cultural transformations within built and unbuilt spaces, the aspirations of the humans or non-humans that make them, and the materials that support or resist these transformations. Kpodo has exhibited at numerous exhibitions including Vantage Point (2023) in Sharjah and the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023).
Technical Details
- Publication Date:
- Wednesday, October 15, 2025
- Language:
- English & Arabic
- Format:
- Softcover
- Dimensions:
- 19.05 x 26.67cm
- Weight:
- 1 kg
- ISBN:
- 978-614-8035-88-3
- Number of Pages:
- 400
- Publisher:
- Kaph Books