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Buildner and the Mujassam Watan Initiative are pleased to announce the results of the Mujassam Watan Urban Sculpture Challenge, Edition 8, which invited architects, artists and designers from around the world to create public sculptures for two sites in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. The competition received 320 submissions from 64 countries, with participants exploring how public art can reflect cultural identity while responding to the specific character of each location. The six winning projects were selected by an international seven-member jury, with three prizes awarded for each site.
For Salwa Road, the 1st Prize was awarded to Mathieu Henri Pierre Nouhen from France for Cloud of Pearl, a cluster of pearl-colored spheres inspired by the Gulf’s pearling heritage and desert skies. 2nd Prize went to Frederic Gapinski from New Zealand for Gateway Of Strata: From the Sand, We Forge Tomorrow, a sequence of sculptural forms representing Saudi Arabia’s past, present and future. 3rd Prize was awarded to Penghui Zhang, Hengxuan He and Telmen Bayasgalan from the United States for The Navigator, a series of tensile structures inspired by the flight of a falcon.
For Tharwa Sea Front, 1st Prize went to Andrea Baldo from Spain for Hidden Pearl, which transforms the image of a pearl into an inhabitable gathering space. 2nd Prize was awarded to Pouria Babakhani from Germany for The Blue Threshold, a sculptural meeting point between the city and the sea. 3rd Prize went to Raniya Mohammed A Al Mughyirah, Abdulrahman Saleh Abdullah Lahmdi and Mohamed Salah from Saudi Arabia for The Waiting Shore, a memorial inspired by the region’s pearling history and the 1925 Sanat Al-Tab’ah storm.
Across the selected projects, the jury highlighted the importance of cultural references, movement, scale, materiality and the relationship between sculpture and its surroundings. The proposals demonstrate different ways public art can become part of everyday urban experience, from roadside landmarks perceived at speed to spaces designed for gathering, reflection and interaction. Visit our website to see the Honorable Mention winners from both sites, as well as the full selection of winning projects.
Salwa Road
1st Prize
2nd Prize
3rd Prize
Tharwa Sea Front
1st Prize
2nd Prize
3rd Prize
