Binladin (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Good. Working document in its original printed red wraps 21x29cm. English texts printed to the rectos only: (1)pp title page, 117pp copy of an extensively ink stamped typescript + (5)pp numbered pp26a-e, collating complete. A note at the end of the Index (p2) states p89 is deleted, though it is present here. Wraps good with numbered sticker to the front, worn along the spine with creasing to the corners. The front hinge is loose revealing archival tape reinforcements to the inner spine paper. The interiors are good with some pencil annotation, and the ink stamps of Promet (Proje, Muhendislik, Endustriyel, Taahut ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi), which may have been a Turkish sub-contractor to whom this copy belonged. This is undated, but it relates to the public housing project completed in 1982 by a Saudi-Turkish joint venture made up of the M. Binladin Organization (Jeddah) and Soyak Construction and Trading (Istanbul). Soyak's website describes the project at follows: "Construction of 2,592 villas and infrastructure utilities in Mecca, Saudi Arabia brings in a revenue of USD 485 million". (Soyak's website also indicates it was engaged on a military factory in Riyadh in 1980). This scheme contributed to the Saudi Ministry of Public Works and Housing's wider strategy to boost housing for public sector staff and people on low incomes, and it predates the shift from low to high rise developments in Mecca that occurred from the mid-1980s under King Fahd. The villas are described here as "a single family house of one story open on at least three sides [with] three bedrooms and three bathrooms --- semi-detached --- the size of the villa plot is nearly 400 sq m with a minimum frontage of 20 metres" (p3). While this set of villa specifications is self-contained, it would have been accompanied by site plans and other documents. The contents include proposals relating to the villas (internal temperature, climatic conditions); their substructure (floor beds, foundations etc); structure (external and internal walls, stairs, roofs, doors, windows etc); finishes (walls, floors, ceilings, roofs); piped and ducted services; electrical services; fittings (culinary, sanitary, storage); and site structures, enclosures, services, fittings, landscape and play areas. No other copies have been located. (Reference: Soyak website history page).