Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea

by Eddie Rayner August 30, 2022

The Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea resort is one of the two inland locations in Phase One of The Red Sea Project, designed by Foster+Partners and renowned for its eco-credentials. The architectural approach pays homage to the Nabataean heritage and majestic desert and sand dunes surroundings.

Southern Dunes will be operated by Six Senses, the first of its kind to open in Saudi Arabia and will include:

40 villas
A central hotel building with 36 rooms, restaurants, a pool and a spa.

Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs comments: “The mission of early travelers was to trade, document, observe and see things in a new way. Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea is an invitation to explore a region that is undiscovered. Our job here is to tread very lightly. This has been a unique opportunity to see how we can bring to life wellness and sustainability – two great values of Six Senses – in an exciting new destination.”

The design uses sustainable, lightweight materials reflecting the textures of the Saudi Arabian desert

“With its world-leading approach to sustainability and wellness, and of course, famed for providing ultimate luxury, Six Senses mirrors our development’s ethos. The Red Sea Project is set to deliver a new type of barefoot luxury experience, underpinned by a commitment to regenerative tourism development,” added TRSDC’s CEO John Pagano.

The design uses sustainable, lightweight materials reflecting the textures of the Saudi Arabian desert.

It’s the engineering under the surface that helps the resort set a new standard for environmental sustainability

The base structure is a modular, precast system that ensures the building only touches the ground lightly to leave most of the site undisturbed, with minimal paving to ensure the surrounding pathways remain natural and authentic.

It’s the engineering under the surface that helps the resort set a new standard for environmental sustainability and the ambition is to achieve LEED Platinum standard. The entire destination has already secured the first stage of LEED for Cities Platinum certification, and is the first development in the region to do so.

The project has:

Passed the 50% completion milestone
Has approximately 20,000 workers busy on site
Upwards of SR 25 billion has already been awarded in contracts
TRSDC expects this number to exceed SR 40 billion by the end of the year across its two flagship projects.

Work is on track to welcome the first guests in early 2023, in line with the wider completion of resorts and other key assets at the destination as part of Phase One.