Words by Allegra Salvadori | Photography by Sarah El Masry

Jeddah’s newest design hotel, Fanaya, arrives with a premise that is both poetic and architectural: to build a hospitality experience around the linguistic universe of fan — art, craft, creativity. Rather than treating this concept as branding, the designers translated it into a spatial language rooted in a single, timeless motif: the tassel. Historically used to adorn garments and interiors, the tassel becomes here a philosophy of form — a study in gathering, tying, layering, and unifying.

At Fanaya, this symbol becomes design’s point of departure. Its physical logic — threads drawn together into a single gesture — informs everything from the palette to the flow of circulation. What might have remained an abstract cultural reference instead materializes as a tactile vocabulary: soft draping, gathered contours, hand-worked surfaces, and textures that speak of craftsmanship rather than ornament. The result is a hotel conceived not as a container for art, but as a living artwork in itself.

A Narrative Anchored by a Single Motif

The tassel functions as Fanaya’s conceptual spine. It embodies the hotel’s mission to “marry the fringes of modernity and tradition,” serving as a metaphor for union: between old and new, between local memory and contemporary ambitions, between the numerous creative collaborators who shaped the project.

Every space subtly echoes this motif — not literally, but structurally. In the soft transitions of light, in the repetition of gathered forms, in the way materials seem to draw together to guide the eye and the body. Guests move through Fanaya as if following a continuous thread, one that connects the lobby to the Collectors’ Lounge, the Atelier, and the Supper Club, ensuring that each space feels distinct but never disconnected.

Jeddah as the First Chapter

As the flagship Fanaya globally, the Jeddah property establishes the blueprint for the brand’s future. Yet its identity is deeply anchored in place. The designers looked toward Al Balad, Jeddah’s historic district, treating its coral stone textures, weathered shutters, terracotta facades, and chalk-white surfaces as a chromatic archive.
These tones — earthy, sun-baked, quietly eroded — shape the hotel’s palette. The rhythm of the souq, its layered history, and its hidden courtyards inform the narrative structure of the interior. The result is not a reproduction of heritage but a translation: a contemporary tapestry woven from the city’s memory.

A Constellation of Cultural Spaces

Rather than functioning as discrete venues, Fanaya’s key public spaces form a constellation of cultural encounters.
The Collectors’ Lounge evokes the intimacy of a private salon, filled with objects chosen not for decoration but for the stories they carry.
The Atelier celebrates process, experimentation, and the region’s craft traditions.
The Supper Club becomes the social epicentre, where culinary creativity meets performative design.

The flow between them is intuitive: soft lighting shifts, repeated materials, and the conceptual “thread” act as wayfinding, ensuring that movement feels natural, almost choreographed.

Objects as Storytellers

Art and objects at Fanaya are treated with curatorial intention. Many pieces are locally sourced, chosen not because they complement the interior but because they expand its meaning. These works become touchpoints in a wider cultural conversation — reflections of Saudi Arabia’s craft traditions, contemporary artistic scene, and the region’s evolving design identity.
In a hospitality landscape where art is often a decorative afterthought, Fanaya positions it at the centre of the experience.

A Blueprint for Future Cities

Though rooted in Jeddah, Fanaya’s design logic is built for adaptation. The tassel — at once universal and deeply local — provides a flexible conceptual framework. In Jeddah, it draws from coastal textures and Al Balad’s historic tones. In Riyadh, future iterations may echo desert light, Najdi geometry, or contemporary urban energy.
What remains constant is the philosophy of fan: the belief that craft, creativity, and cultural continuity are not aesthetic layers but structural foundations.

A New Direction for Hospitality in Saudi Arabia

Fanaya stands as a signal of where design-driven hospitality in Saudi Arabia is heading: toward projects that are culturally anchored, materially expressive, and narratively rich. In treating each space as a “living artwork,” the hotel reframes hospitality as an experience of discovery — one where guests do not merely stay, but read, feel, and inhabit the story.

In Jeddah, that story begins with a single gesture: a thread gathered into a tassel, tying past to present, craft to contemporary design, and Saudi heritage to the future of global hospitality.