AL-GHUNAIM
MURAL
جدارية الغنيم — الجدار الاستنادي على طريق الملك فيصل، أبها
The planted
canvas.
At the Al-Ghunaim interchange, King Faisal Road — the main north–south expressway of Abha — cuts a 14 m slope, held by a 47 m concrete retaining wall: the first large surface a visitor from the airport reads. The design keeps the sound wall and turns it into an Al-Qatt Al-Asiri painting cut into the colour of the mountain itself. The composition is laser-cut from Corten steel and broken into frameless shards floating off a dark wall; its largest fields are opened as voids from which teak planters grow, so bougainvillea, lavender and grasses spill out of the artwork; and reclaimed-teak farm terraces climb both flanks and step down to the sidewalk, dissolving the edges of the wall into the hillside like the farms of an Asir village.
The site and sight-line studies, the mural concept and its translation of Al-Qatt Al-Asiri into Corten steel, the planted voids and teak terraces, the lighting concept, the visualisations and the BOQ (bills of quantities) mapped to the Amanah tender were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.
- Site & sight-line studies
- Mural concept & composition
- Slope & terrace design
- Lighting concept
- Visualisations
- BOQ — bills of quantities
Of concrete retaining wall, about 6 m high, kept and re-finished.
Frameless Corten shards, 0.6 to 4.5 m, on stainless standoffs.
Of terraced frontage — about 8,000 m² of slope brought back to planting.
The frontal window at 80 km/h, when the whole composition is in view.
The gateway
slope.
Abha sits at 2,200 m on the Sarawat escarpment. Beside King Faisal Roundabout the expressway cuts into the hill below a residential loop road; tens of thousands of drivers pass the wall every day at 60–80 km/h, and from the interchange ramp it is seen slowly and close.
- 1Al-Ghunaim Mural wall
- 2King Faisal Roundabout
- 3King Faisal Mosque
- Elevation
- 2,200 m · fog and mild sun
- Climate
- 7–30 °C · 200–300 mm rain a year
- Site
- 270 m × 25–35 m · ≈ 8,000 m²
- The wall
- 47 m reinforced-concrete retaining wall · ≈ 6 m high
A painted wall
on a bare cut.
The wall as found from the northbound carriageway: a flat 2017 painting that reads as a billboard, on a sound concrete wall and stone base — kept, cleaned and re-finished rather than demolished — with eroded rock and rubble around it, no planting, and a single street light, so the wall disappears after sunset on the city’s main approach.
Studies.
The frontage in plan, one bay taken apart, a section from the road to the crest, the sight lines that size every shard, and the Al-Qatt grammar the mural is cut from. Select a study.
Corten, teak
& the Asir hills.
Built materials that weather with the mountain — 8 mm Corten pre-weathered in the workshop, reclaimed teak oiled and silvering, a charcoal mineral coat on the concrete — and a native Asir planting of lavender, rosemary, bougainvillea, silver grasses, dodonaea and young juniper. At night the light comes from within, never from the front: warm 2700 K lines hidden in the voids and under every coping.
The planted
canvas.
The wall from the expressway: the Al-Qatt composition shattered into Corten shards on the charcoal wall, planters growing out of its voids, and teak terraces climbing both flanks.
Human
scale.
At the sidewalk the planters are within reach: three wide teak tiers and a stair at the toe of the wall, and farm terraces stepping up the flanks along the contours, planted with herbs and grasses between the boulders.
After
dark.
No floodlights and no wash on the wall: warm light switches on inside the voids and under every teak coping, the Corten glows through its perforation, and the houses above stay dark. The light is dimmed after midnight.
Details.
Up close the wall is about two materials ageing together: the laser-cut Al-Qatt perforation in rusting steel, and weathered teak with a warm line of light under its coping.
Design
development.
Two days earlier the same composition was studied in its painted colours: shards of coloured steel with Al-Qatt cut-outs, floating off the charcoal wall and spilling onto the rocks at its foot. The final scheme kept the composition and the standoffs, and traded the paint for Corten, the voids for planting, and the bare slope for terraces.
The earlier, 2025 options for the slope beside the roundabout are presented on the King Faisal Roundabout page.
Scope
Site and sight-line studies, mural concept and composition in Corten steel, planted voids and teak terraces, slope and landscape design, lighting concept, visualisations and a BOQ mapping the design to the twelve works packages of the Amanah tender.
Status: concept design, September 2026 — for the Asir Region Municipality.
Design & delivery: AMSY Group for the Asir Region Municipality. Sources: the concept design presentation of 30 September 2026, the development renders of 28 September 2026 and the study figures; further studies drawn from the design. The Al-Qatt composition is adapted from source paintings, courtesy of the artist. The position on the map is approximate.
The site and sight-line studies, the mural concept and its translation of Al-Qatt Al-Asiri into Corten steel, the planted voids and teak terraces, the lighting concept, the visualisations and the BOQ (bills of quantities) mapped to the Amanah tender were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.