OUT OF
LINE
أوت أوف لاين
A house that steps
out of line.
A small mudbrick house in AlJadidah, half-collapsed and full of rubble, turned into a café. The street front was kept quiet — white lime plaster, the old green timber windows, one lit sign — so the surprise is inside: a long timber-ceilinged corridor leads past calm seating rooms to a sunny gravel courtyard with a palm, stone stools and a coffee bar under the sky.
The site survey, all studies, the concept and the three rounds of design development, the technical drawings and the BOQ (bills of quantities) for the café — its restoration, interiors, courtyard, lighting and furniture — were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.
- Site survey & studies
- Concept & three design rounds
- Restoration, interiors & courtyard
- Lighting & furniture
- Technical drawings
- BOQ — bills of quantities
Heritage house kept and restored — walls, timber ceilings and windows.
Rounds of design development before the scheme was built.
Spaces along one corridor: entrance, lounges, coffee bar, kitchen and courtyard.
Opened in the AlJadidah Arts District.
In AlJadidah,
off Incense Road.
The house stands in the AlJadidah Arts District, the 20th-century quarter between AlUla Old Town and the oasis, a short walk from Incense Road and its cafés and galleries. The sandstone cliffs rise straight behind the street.
- 1Out of Line (approximate)
- 2AlJadidah
- 3AlUla Old Town
- 400 m walking radius
- District
- AlJadidah Arts District, AlUla
- Building
- Single-storey mudbrick house with a back yard
- Climate
- Hot desert — thick walls, shade and evening use
The house
as found.
The site survey, December 2022: a long earth-walled house on a quiet AlJadidah street, its roof partly fallen in, the rooms full of rubble and palm fronds — but with its timber ceilings, an old painted wall, a carved timber door and the green steel windows still in place.
Studies.
The house re-planned around its corridor, taken apart, cut through and modelled. Select a study.
Materials
& colours.
What the house already had, cleaned up and repeated: white lime plaster outside, raw earth plaster in the courtyard, the heritage green of the old windows, dark timber beams with palm-rib strips, a grey terrazzo floor, river gravel and charcoal stone.
The real pieces.
The furniture as built: charcoal stone stools and black round tables in the courtyard, low lounge chairs in off-white upholstery, and cane-backed chairs in the inner rooms.
The design,
in three rounds.
The café was worked through three rounds. The last one, closest to what was built, keeps the earth tones of the house and puts the coffee bar in the courtyard under the palm.
Built.
The café as it opened: the street front restored in white lime, the old windows painted back to green, the corridor under its timber ceiling, and the courtyard with gravel, stone stools and the palm.
Design and delivery: AMSY Group (2022–2023). Sources: Out of Line site survey photographs (December 2022), design renders, studies and after-construction photography.
The site survey, all studies, the concept and the three rounds of design development, the technical drawings and the BOQ (bills of quantities) for the café — its restoration, interiors, courtyard, lighting and furniture — were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.