Crafting a new pathway
Once a former school, Madrasat Addeera has been transformed into a design centre honouring the stories and practice of craft from AlUla and beyond.
A school for all
In the middle of a desert oasis, among the growing arts district of AlJadidah, craft and heritage have found their natural home. This is the Madrasat Addeera, a place for the public and dedicated students to learn the stories and practice of craft from AlUla and its surrounding region.
Within its walls, new hands find the rhythm of local crafts, the criss-crossing of fingers, the folding of palm fronds into a tight, unbroken weave. They begin to smooth, to sew, to embroider and embellish, with a growing steadiness. Here, the work of traditional artisans is transferred to another generation.
In 2019, the building – which once functioned as the city’s first school for girls – was transformed into an arts and design centre. Madrasat Addeera’s aim is to revive ancient handicrafts integral to the region’s history: embroidery, stone carving, felting and sadu weaving. The materials are reflective of the area’s heritage: threads are coloured with natural plant dyes, clay is collected nearby and palm fronds are pulled from the date palms that are integral to the ways of the oasis that have been part of AlUla’s history for years.
The school’s record is growing: already, 40 artisans have graduated from its programmes, and 120 others are in stages of study across a multiplicity of crafts. Here, the vocations of history are given new voices – and new hands to express them.
Inside Madrasat Addeera Editions
What happens when four designers are given licence to reinterpret traditional craft? The result is Madrasat Addeera Editions, an initiative overseen by Creative Dialogue founder Samar Yamani that brings together AlUla’s craft traditions and international collaborators.
Collectible design comes with the benefit of scope to be innovative and bold. Local herbs and fruits and naturally dyed linen form the structure of ‘Alwadiya’, a series of 3D-printed ‘living pots’ that reach up to the sky. Such is the bounty of the desert’s trees, thriving even in hostile climates. They are the brainchild of TECHNOCrafts and the exhibition curator, Spanish creative director Samer Yamani. The natural beauty of the landscape is reflected also in a sculptural room divider created by Argentinian designer Cristián Mohaded using khoos (palm weaving) in collaboration with local Saudi artisans who are trained in the craft.
The colours of AlUla are prone to surprise. An undulating bench by Spanish architects Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño (TAKK) is an ode to the constant human preoccupation: the search for a resting place. It’s painted in washed blue and light violet (the hues of an AlUla sunset).
A series of embroidered leather sculptures was conceptualised closer to home. Saudi designer Dr Zahrah Alghamdi’s towers are embroidered with chamomile flowers and desert grasses, drawing from the striking landscape of AlUla’s formations. Folding modern material technology and ancestral craft techniques, Editions shores up AlUla’s place as a leader in the design world and Madrasat Addeera as its nexus for exchange.
Photography by Lorenzo Arrigoni, Adriaan de Groot and Lance Gerber
Discover more about design initiatives in AlUla
livingmuseum.com
