Kengo Kuma rarely works in the Arabian Peninsula, which makes his commission for The St. Regis Red Sea Resort all the more arresting. Completed in 2024 on Ummahat Island within the shallow turquoise waters of the Al Wajh Lagoon, this was the first private island resort to open anywhere along the Saudi coastline — a debut shaped as much by environmental ambition as architectural vision. Kuma, working alongside Dewan Architects and Engineers, deployed prefabricated timber construction with cedar-shingle roofs and clay-plaster walls, the curved and spiral forms of each of the 90 villas drawn from the logic of sand dunes and coral reefs rather than imported resort typologies. The effect is closer to a coastal settlement grown from its landscape than to a built intervention imposed upon one. Inside, Kristina Zanic Consultants translated that same attentiveness into a LEED Platinum-aligned palette where desert sand, soft white oak herringbone floors, and woven rattan ceilings anchor the rooms before coral-hued circular rugs and teal accents pull the reef back in. The all-villa format — 47 beachfront, 43 overwater — gives each space floor-to-ceiling glass trained on the Red Sea, while the resort's all-day dining pavilion layers hand-knotted ceiling installations over mosaic stone floors and rope-woven chairs that feel genuinely rooted in craft tradition. The pool terrace, framed by date palms laden with fruit, completes an atmosphere that sits somewhere between an Emirati pearl-diving settlement and a very considered contemporary retreat.

Chartered boat or seaplane transfer required from Red Sea airport (RSI)

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