Raneem Alsulaim

The Blue Balcony is a research-led initiative for realising urban history, to unfold the unrealised urban scenes that are in danger of demolition and erasure. Hence, to promote a sense of place which accumulates a sense of belonging. To re-engage with the once-modern Khobar city in  Saudi Arabia, which meanwhile lost its pivotal function and meaning.  

The intervention is a spatial experience that aims to change how people see and perceive the city, through a strategy that triggers peoples’  curiosity by questioning an unrealised terminology of the cityscape to draw them to that place, where the object surprisingly appears in the public realm invites to further engagement with the place by targeting a deep personal question that stimulates “Reflective Nostalgia”  which is critical and contemplative longing that draws people to think about the ambiguity of change. The object is a mediator between people and how they perceive the city, to be confronted with certain captured moments. 

The object will become an icon for new things to explore in the everyday encounters of the city.