Saudi culture · presented to the world
Saudi culture, presented to the world.
Pavilions, seasons, forums and the Saudi table — curated, designed, engineered, fabricated, shipped, installed and operated by Cedrus International® House of Ci. One house in Riyadh and ten cities, so the Kingdom’s story arrives in Cannes, Paris or Milan exactly as it was approved in Diriyah.
Riyadh · Diriyah · Ten cities · One accountable team
The house and the Kingdom’s story
A cultural presentation is not a stand. It is a story that has to travel.
Saudi Arabia is telling its story abroad more often, and more ambitiously, than at any point in its history — at luxury travel markets, world expositions, biennials, film festivals, sporting summits and state visits. Each time, the same question: who holds the whole thing? The curator, the designer, the engineer, the joinery workshop, the freight agent, the installer, the hosts who pour the coffee and the team that strikes the hall at midnight are usually eight different companies in three countries, and the story leaks at every handover.
The House of Ci holds it as one. Narrative and curatorial direction, scenography and architecture, structure and MEP, joinery and furniture made in our own workshops, brand and signage, content and program, freight, installation, operation and strike — six of our nineteen solutions working to one brief, one price and one calendar, under one project director. In the Kingdom and in the nine cities the house works from, so the pavilion that opens in Europe is the pavilion that was approved in Riyadh.
linked solutions
cities, one house
years of practice
team, end to end
I · What we present
One cultural program. Every detail connected.
We connect the story, the space and the people who bring it to life. Our nineteen existing solutions support five complementary parts of a Saudi cultural experience, from the first brief to the final return shipment.
Cultural exhibitions and pavilions
We design and deliver exhibitions, national pavilions and temporary cultural environments. Architecture, visitor journeys, fabrication, graphics, audiovisual systems and installation are developed together, so the Kingdom’s story remains coherent from the first threshold to the last display.
Cultural consulting and programming
We shape the cultural brief, narrative and program with the people responsible for its content. Talks, workshops, craft demonstrations, music, theater and artistic performances are coordinated around the audience and the setting, with contributors, rights and approvals agreed before production.
Saudi hospitality and regional cuisine
We make the welcome part of the cultural story: the majlis, the table, Saudi coffee and regional cuisine. Menu development, service presentation and guest flow are coordinated with the appropriate culinary and hospitality specialists, respecting the traditions represented and the requirements of the venue.
Cultural gifts and printed materials
We develop cultural gifts, crafted objects, packaging and printed materials as one family. Bilingual programs, invitations, interpretation cards and publications carry the same narrative as the pavilion, with artwork, wording and production samples approved before manufacture.
Logistics, operation and return
We coordinate production schedules, freight, customs documentation, participant travel and accommodation, site installation and daily operation with the relevant service providers. After the final visitor, we manage dismantling, condition checks, storage or return shipment, with one program and clear responsibilities throughout.
II · Six doors, one program
Six of the nineteen solutions, working as one.
There is no twentieth solution for culture. A cultural program simply calls six of the house’s existing rooms at once — and because they are rooms in the same house, nothing is lost between them.
III · How it travels
From the curatorial brief to the last crate home.
Six stages, one team, one calendar — and a rehearsal before anyone books a flight.
Story & curatorial brief
What the Kingdom is saying, to whom, and in what order a visitor should feel it. Narrative, audience, protocol and the objects or crafts the presentation will carry — agreed before a single line is drawn.
Design & single price
Scenography, plans, material boards and photoreal views, with a bill of quantities you can read line by line — one number, fixed before the details, including freight, installation and strike.
Engineering & venue compliance
Structure, rigging, electrical, fire and accessibility resolved together and submitted to the venue in its own format — Riyadh, Cannes, Milan or Paris — with our engineers attending the reviews.
Workshop & rehearsal
Joinery, vitrines, furniture and finishes pre-fabricated and pre-assembled in our workshops, lit and photographed before they are crated, so the first time the pavilion stands is not on the show floor.
Freight, install & operate
Customs, crates, local labor, night installs, technical rehearsals, hosts, hospitality and the daily run of show — with the same project director on site, in whichever country the hall is in.
Strike, storage & the next edition
Clean strike to the venue’s deadline, condition report, reusable elements cataloged and stored, and a design that is built to come back next year rather than to be thrown away.
Culture is detail under deadline. Ours is drawn in Riyadh, made in our own workshops, and carried abroad by the people who made it — so a Najdi pattern is cut to the right geometry, the coffee is served at the right moment, and the hall is empty by the hour the venue asked for.
Made in the house
Najdi geometry, turned timber, leather and stone — specified, made and installed by one house.
A presentation is believed or disbelieved at arm’s length. Every surface a guest can touch is sampled in your hand before it is made, and made by the people who will install it.
Geometric marquetry · Turned timber · Leather · Book-matched stone — Custom Furniture, Joinery & FF&E →
Diriyah · Riyadh
We are global, and at home.
Saudi culture has many places and many voices. Diriyah and Najd, AlUla and Hegra, historic Jeddah and the Red Sea each offer distinct references in architecture, craft, hospitality and memory. We begin with the context of the program and the people it represents, so a regional detail is understood before it becomes a material, a performance, a dish or a gift.
IV · Questions
Presenting Saudi culture abroad — questions we are asked.
Can one house really cover curation, design, build, freight and hospitality?
Yes — that is what the nineteen solutions are for. A cultural program calls six of them at once: exhibitions and pavilions, events and experiential production, knowledge and content, brand and signage, furniture and FF&E, and project and program management. They sit in one house, under one project director, on one contract.
Do you work outside Saudi Arabia?
Constantly. The house works across ten cities, with our Middle East regional office in Riyadh — Riyadh, Dubai, Beirut, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, London, Los Angeles, Bogota and New York — so a pavilion in Cannes, Milan or Paris is installed by our own people, with local labor and customs handled by the same team that drew it.
Who owns the design and the content?
You do. When a concept is brought to us we build it faithfully and credit its author; when the house is asked to design, the drawings, the narrative and the fabrication package are yours on handover, including the files you need to rebuild the pavilion for its next edition.
Can you serve traditional Saudi hospitality inside the design?
Yes, and we prefer to design the room around it: the majlis and its seating, the coffee and dates ritual, the kitchen or back-of-house a caterer will need, tableware, uniforms, scent and the gift a guest carries home — specified as part of the architecture, not bolted on at the end.
How early should we come to you?
At the brief, not at the tender. The cheapest hour on any cultural program is the first one: the narrative, the venue’s rules, the freight window and the budget decide the design, and a design drawn after those are fixed never has to be redrawn.
What does a pavilion cost?
It follows the hall, the hours you are given to install, the level of craft and how much of the structure is meant to come back next year. What we give you is one price, line by line, with freight, installation and strike inside it — and, if it lands above your budget, a working session on the bill of quantities rather than a surprise.
Begin
Bring us the story.
Tell us the audience, the hall and the dates. Within days you have a narrative, a first scenography and a single price — and one team that carries it from Riyadh to the show floor and back.
info@Ci.Design · +1 202 524 1794 · Riyadh · Dubai · Beirut · Paris · Milan · Barcelona · London · Los Angeles · Bogota · New York
Neighboring doors