AMAALA Triple Bay Marina Yacht Club New Saudi Arabian Yacht Club Offers Guests Unique Luxury Experience

The Challenge

The AMAALA Triple Bay Marina Yacht Club seeks to provide guests with uniquely memorable experiences in a spectacular setting. HKS designers had the task of designing a brand new, state-of-the-art facility with exceptional architectural design that surrounds members and guests in a contemporary yachting lifestyle experience. 

Designers also faced the challenge of designing a building that forms a gateway to the Red Sea, allowing the public access to the waterfront and marina views without exclusion. The Yacht Club sits at the heart of the Marina village community, combining a luxury members club with an active urban realm, and serves as a home-away-from home for local and global travelers as well as international yachting fraternities.

The Design Solution

AMAALA’s new Yacht Club is a keystone development with a captivating free-flowing structure that delivers a one-of-a-kind meeting point between land and sea.

Drawing creative inspiration from two sets of geometry, the HKS design team first looked to the unique rock formations on the Saudi Red Sea coastline to create the club’s bespoke cantilevered terraces, which echo the natural shape of the surrounding cliffs. The second inspiration is drawn from mankind’s relationship with the sea and maritime history. This nautical edge will ensure the building sits seamlessly within the marina as a central hub and focal point.

Alongside the ‘sea meets-land’ concept, the design references the notion of a traditional Arabian house with a simple, smooth white exterior that reveals luxurious metal externally and a rich palette of natural and locally sourced materials internally such as stone, timber and leather. The building’s position at the center of the marina village acts as a meeting place for visitors arriving from land and sea. The 360-degree nature of the building means all servicing is handled at the basement level, the ground floor arrival level is the start of a luxurious guest journey, and the Venetian style grand stair leads guests up to lounges, bars and restaurants at the upper levels. The building’s geometry marks the transition from the desert and mountains inland to the open sea and horizon beyond. Covering 7,900 sqm (85,034 sf) and set on four levels, the ultra-luxurious club creates a home-like environment for its members to do business, relax, entertain or participate in a calendar of yachting events.

Whether traveling by land or sea, that arrival moment is a special one for Triple Bay guests. The entrance is set within an arch that forms a shaded plaza and frames dramatic views of the Red Sea. The area has a mirrored vaulted ceiling over a star-lit floor, which creates an alternative night sky for guests in the evening.

The interior of the club — designed by ROAM — is as visually stimulating as the exterior, with unparalleled attention to detail to ensure guests remain connected to the landscapes around them. Using local materials with a focus on stone, timber and metals and embracing a luxurious brass champagne color scheme, the interior design helps the bars, lounges and the signature restaurant to blend seamlessly into an infinity loop-shaped journey through the club.

Triple Bay spans three natural bays along the coastline. The destination is designed to create a one-of-a-kind global wellness hub and is underpinned by a commitment to sustainable development. The entire development is targeting a minimum LEED Gold standard for environmental sustainability with the yacht club designed to achieve a LEED Platinum rating.

The Design Impact

AMAALA is a core component of the Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the Saudi Arabian economy by fostering rapid growth in the tourism sector. The project is expected to create approximately 50,000 new direct, indirect and induced jobs for Saudis, as well as nearly 11 billion riyals to the country’s GDP once it is fully operational.