Ancient Nabataean inspiration behind Saudi Arabia's Six Senses Southern Dunes resort

UK design company has combined traditional influences with a modern aesthetic

Six Senses Southern Dunes in Saudi Arabia is the first of 50 hotels planned for the Red Sea area. Photo: Mark Williams for Muza Lab

“Our concept was inspired by the Nabataean traders going through the desert,” explains Inge Moore, co-founder of London-based design company Muza Lab, when asked about its most recent project, Saudi Arabia’s Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea resort.

“These traders used to follow the incense routes and then they would set up camp, and that’s what we wanted the resort to feel like.”

It’s the latest high-end project by Muza Lab, which Moore cofounded in 2016 alongside Nathan Hutchins. Looking to bring a cerebral touch to interiors, shaped by extensive research and artful layering, the pair have built a reputation for excellence.

Whether it’s the One&Only Aesthesis hotel in Athens, or the Belmond Andean Explorer, Peru’s only luxury sleeper train, all of Muza Lab’s projects are skilful, nuanced discussions on local cultures and traditions, sensitively brought into decidedly modern spaces.

Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea is the newest example of its work and it is inspired by the long-vanished Nabataean civilisation, which is known for the rock tombs built in AlUla and Petra, and their role in the silk trade.

“It’s really important that it’s authentic,” Moore explains. “We believe in reading books and finding the real things that other people haven’t used before.”

After being offered the project at the height of the pandemic when all travel was halted due to the lockdowns, Moore and Hutchins had to find another way to get a sense of the unique, pristine desert environment where the hotel now sits.

“We didn’t get the normal beautiful site visit to kick off the project. We had to get seduced by the beauty of the desert over a phone call,” says Hutchins.

Located a 45-minute drive inland, the new hotel is situated amid the rolling sand dunes of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea area, which spans more than 28,000 square km. Comprising more than 90 pristine islands, featuring dormant volcanoes, untouched beaches, mountain canyons and desert dunes, the area is also home to the world’s fourth-largest reef ecosystem.

To complement the hotel structure designed and built by the architectural firm Foster + Partners, Moore and Hutchins did painstaking research to inform their design choices. But it wasn’t all aged books.

“We watched every movie about these traders, about Bertram Thomas [the first Westerner to cross the Rub’ al Khali or Empty Quarter] and Lawrence of Arabia, and we strung the whole thing together,” Moore explains.

The pair then contacted Turquoise Mountain, an organisation that helps protect at-risk heritage locations, to source Saudi artisans and craftspeople capable of bringing the plan to life.

“Some of the textiles used are very traditional and could be 200 years old because of the design and the weaving techniques,” explains Hutchins. “Others are much more contemporary, but are recognisable from the region. There are also different carving techniques and patterns. The whole face of the minibar is carved in a very contemporary take on a traditional pattern from the region.”

Using an array of carving techniques, handmade ceramics, textile patterns and surfaces, as well as different tones of wood, the interiors mirror the shifting tones of the environment outside.

Working in a discreet palette of soft neutrals, as if bleached by the sun, it is interspersed with pops of red or green that would be familiar to those early traders. “It’s a mix, and that eclectic mix is what brings it all together,” explains Hutchins.

Lightweight fabric canopies strung over the beds, for example, are edged with the geometric pattern of al sadu – an ancient Bedouin style of weaving that was added to the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Other surfaces are traced with the elongated diamonds of traditional Saudi Arabian carving, such as woven floor rugs, hand-carved wall panelling, and the lush pile of tone-on-tone cushions.

Each of the 36 hotel rooms and 40 villas has been designed to reflect the unique history and heritage of Saudi Arabia, but in a way that is fresh and unutterably cool. “When you are travelling to a more remote site, you need to arrive somewhere memorable and special, and the design has to reinforce that,” Hutchins explains.

“We want everything to feel connected. Going back to the first inspiration of the traders, they were not only selling things, but also carrying things they had found in different parts of the region, and bringing them on their journey. It was always this eclectic mix.”

The project was not without challenges, and not least due to its remote location. “There was no infrastructure, so a large part of the build was putting in the solar farm and infrastructure to support the resort. This was not just tapping into mains electricity,” Hutchins says.

There have been unexpected upsides, too. The entranceway into the resort is an oasis now shaded by giant “petals” overhead, strung with rope.

“We were there a few weeks ago, and I was surprised at how much animal life there is. The oasis has its own microclimate and is home to thousands of birds and butterflies. It has really attracted the wildlife to come and stay. It’s spectacular,” says Hutchins.

Overall, the experience with the project has been exciting and inspiring, Hutchins notes. “In the region right now, there is that spark, that vision, that big dream to do extraordinary projects. For us to be part of it is quite exciting.”

Six Senses is the first of what will eventually be 50 hotels in this area, and Hutchins is impressed with the level of environmental awareness that underpins the project. The entire site, including all staff accommodation, will be solar powered, while all on-site vehicles will be electric.

“Six Senses Southern Dunes is a dark skies project, so no light pollutes the sky at night. You feel like you are in the most amazing stargazing place in the world, as it hasn’t been ruined by normal development parameters. It’s being done in a thoughtful way.”