Saudi Arabia’s Neom project has announced Leyja, its fifth region, which will feature a mirrored hotel by Shaun Killa, a rock-shaped hotel by Mario Cucinella and a stepped cliffside hotel by Chris van Duijn.
Cajsa Carlson | October 2023
The Leyja region will be located in an ancient valley that starts at the Gulf of Aqaba coast and is overhung by 400-metre-tall mountains.
Three architects have been tapped to design “luxury high-end boutique hotels” for the region, each with 40 rooms and suites, Neom said.
These will be placed along a route that follows the shape of the valley, beginning with the Adventure hotel designed by van Duijn, who is a partner at Dutch studio OMA.
Killa, of architecture studio Killa Design, will be creating Leyja’s final offering, the Wellness hotel. It will comprise two vertical mirrored volumes facing each other and will have an entire floor dedicated to wellness.
Rooftop pools will crown the mirrored buildings.
“One of the greatest challenges is creating beautiful buildings that change emotion, that are timeless and sustainable,” Killa said.
“It’s our responsibility to build as such a light touch in the wadi that it’s almost like a footprint hasn’t landed.”
Guests at Leyja’s three hotels will be able to explore a 73-kilometre hiking trail to the Trojena ski resort, which is also being built as part of the wider Neom project, and take part in mountain and adventure sports.
According to Neom, 95 per cent of Leyja will be preserved for nature.
Neom will eventually have 10 regions in total, encompassing an area of around 10,200 square miles. It is the most high-profile and largest of the “giga projects” currently being developed in Saudi Arabia.
Four other regions have so far been unveiled. As well as Trojena, Neom will include an octagon-shaped port city named Oxagon, the mirrored mega-city The Line and an island resort called Sindalah.
