Office KGDVS has renovated two houses in the Gulf state of Bahrain that form the heart of a dying musical tradition: that of the pearl divers. In doing so, the firm struck a perfect balance between respect and innovation.

I have never been to Bahrain. So I haven’t seen the two centres for traditional music that Office KGDVS built there either. Yet I can still say something about them. The issue of El Croquis dedicated to these architects documents the buildings and their context in detail. It was through this that I also discovered that the drawings in volume 2 of the duo’s catalogue raisonné were a striking foreshadowing of reality.