SIYADI PEARL MUSEUM / STUDIO ANNE HOLTROP
Studio Anne Holtrop’s Siyadi Pearl Museum project, which carries the local texture into a contemporary language, is now on yem. Located in Bahrain, the Siyadi Pearl Museum by Studio Anne Holtrop represents a practice that thinks through material as much as form. Holtrop approaches restoration not merely as an act of preservation but as a rewriting of construction knowledge. The new walls, which reference the historic building’s coral stone (froush) foundation and lime-based plaster layers, reinterpret this tradition through a contemporary technique.
10/9/25
The newly added sections use a double-layer plaster system that not only distinguishes itself from the old walls but also reveals traces of the process itself. While the first rough layer remains visible, the smooth upper layer—applied in roughly two-and-a-half-meter bands—creates a controlled randomness across the surface. The museum thus takes shape less through form than through the gestures of making; craftsmanship and material behavior define its aesthetic measure.
The spatial composition extends this material approach. Instead of sharp boundaries between the new and old volumes, permeable transitions have been established. In the main exhibition hall, a silver leaf coating gradually transforms into a soft golden tone as it reacts with air and humidity, forming a subtle patina over time. Here, Holtrop seeks beauty not in perfection, but in the material’s potential for transformation.
SONRAKİ