Residential — 480 m²
The Olaya Penthouse
A full-floor residence in the heart of Riyadh, reimagined around light, art and long, uninterrupted sightlines.
Project facts
- Type
Private residence - Location
Olaya, Riyadh - Area
480 m², single floor - Scope
Full interior & styling - Year
2025
The brief
Our clients — a couple with a serious appetite for contemporary art — wanted a home that felt like a private gallery without ever feeling cold. The existing layout was a maze of small rooms that fought the light. The brief was simple to say and hard to do: make it calm, make it warm, and let the art breathe.
Our approach
We removed almost every internal wall on the public side of the home, replacing them with a single flowing volume zoned by level changes, joinery and light rather than doors. A restrained palette of travertine, smoked oak and hand-applied lime plaster gives the eye somewhere quiet to rest, so the art becomes the colour in the room.
Light as the main material
Every finish was chosen for how it behaves at different times of day. The travertine warms at sunset; the plaster softens the midday glare; concealed cove lighting takes over at night so the space never feels switched off. The result is a home that quietly changes character from morning to evening.
“We stopped noticing the design and started just living — which is the highest compliment we can give it.”
The homeowners