How Saudi Arabia's hidden wonders inspired Lebanese designer Miram El Maoula's limited edition pieces

El Maoula draws from the Kingdom's history and natural landscape to create her work

Miram El Maoula's first collection is centred around Saudi Arabia.

On her very first visit to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's natural landscape captured Miram El Maoula's imagination right away. It was 2018, and the young Lebanese designer was there on a trip with her now-husband.

“We visited the Asir Mountains. It was August and it was raining. Can you imagine?,” she says. The region is located in the southwestern area of the Kingdom and consists of plains, valleys and mountains of limestone and rock. “Saudi is not like the desert that most people think of,” El Maoula adds.

Visiting the nearby communities, she became interested in their histories and architecture. So much so that she recreated an Asir fortress in one of her product designs for her lifestyle company Defectless, which she launched in 2019.

Through her research, El Maoula learned that every village in Asir has a watchtower and a way for the different communities to communicate with each other. Through this network of fortresses, as many as 2,000 villages are linked together. Made of 3D-printed concrete, El Maoula’s decorative Asir Fortress is part of a collection of products envisioned by her and inspired by Saudi Arabia’s lesser-known wonders.

Other pieces include modular golden and silver trays that mimic the outlines of old ruins in the historic town of Al Diriyah, while the design of the Red Sea Siglia represents the millennia-old coral reef of the Red Sea.

There is also a marble and gold table shaped like the elephant rock in Al Ula, a city in the northwest of the Kingdom that is now being developed and touted as its next big tourist destination. It was also meant to be the location for El Maoula's wedding this year, though the Covid-19 pandemic caused her to postpone it to February 2021.

The piece Guardian of Al Ula is hand-sculpted from pure marble, and only 15 pieces have been produced. It exemplifies El Maoula's approach to design, one that she is employing to run Defectless – small scale and sustainable. When choosing the artisans to create the products, for example, she opts for family businesses.

El Maoula's 'Guardian of Al Ula' table, made of marble and gold. Courtesy Miram El Maoula

“The most important thing for me is that I try to find people who are passionate about their work. I don’t do commercial production. I go to small ateliers that are family-oriented,” she says.

Born and raised in Lebanon, El Maoula spent two years in Prague studying product design before settling in the UAE in 2018. She says that, even as a child, she always had an eye on the details of objects. “Every time I used to go somewhere, I would always see the place in a different way. If I see a cut of glass or an object, I would think about how it could be done in a nicer way,” she recalls.

She started her lifestyle brand Defectless with the collection focused around Saudi Arabia. Though the pandemic has brought on new challenges, she says 2020 has also provided “a good opportunity to have time to think more about my brand”. One of the outcomes of her newly developed strategy is to open a design studio in Riyadh, which can serve as a working space for Defectless, but also a meeting point for designers in Saudi Arabia. “It’s hard for designers to get to know each other there because it’s a new world for them. I want them to meet, collaborate, get into art and make the studio their place,” she says.

Al Diriyah tray, designed by El Maoula. Courtesy Miram El Maoula

El Maoula is now working on new projects, including another collection focusing on Saudi Arabia. “I’m thinking of how to mix all regions of Saudi into one product,” she says. In addition, she is developing a cosmetic brand that uses organic honey from the Kingdom as its main ingredient.

For now, Saudi Arabia remains at the centre of her work. “There’s a lot to do there, a lot of amazing places that have not yet been found [out]. I’m taking the opportunity to be the first one to point them out,” she says.