ABSTRACT Drilling of the deep-test oil well Dammam No. 7 began in Saudi Arabia in December 1936. In March 1938, at a depth of 1,440 metres it punctured the reservoir and began to produce a commercial quantity of crude oil. Geopolitical, entrepreneurial, financial, and exploratory events leading up to this momentous emanation from the desert are complex, but it was Standard Oil of California (SOCAL) that in 1933 gained a concession to explore for oil in the Kingdom. The Saudi King’s choice of SOCAL connected oil exploration and extraction directly to the west coast of America with its already well-established architectural culture of lightweight balloon framing and a burgeoning interest in the production of prefabricated, factory-made buildings, particularly houses. SOCAL and its successor company, Aramco parachuted these new-world building technologies, along with a simulacrum of Californian (sub)urbanism, into Saudi Arabian desert compounds to house expatriate oil workers. While initially viewed with deep suspicion and confined behind wire and gates, within a few decades, industrialised and prefabricated construction techniques had become the Saudi government’s standard method of delivering enormous numbers of affordable houses.

中文翻译：

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石油+建筑

摘要 1936 年 12 月，沙特阿拉伯达曼 7 号深试油井开始钻探。1938 年 3 月，它在 1440 米深处刺穿储层，开始生产商业数量的原油。导致这一从沙漠发出的重大事件的地缘政治、创业、金融和勘探事件是复杂的，但加利福尼亚标准石油公司 (SOCAL) 于 1933 年获得了在该王国勘探石油的特许权。沙特国王选择 SOCAL 将石油勘探和开采直接与美国西海岸联系起来，其轻质气球框架的建筑文化已经很成熟，并且对生产预制、工厂制造的建筑物，特别是房屋的兴趣日益浓厚。SOCAL 及其继任公司，沙特阿美将这些新世界的建筑技术连同加利福尼亚（郊区）城市化的模拟一起，将这些新世界的建筑技术空降到沙特阿拉伯的沙漠地区，以安置外派石油工人。虽然最初被深深怀疑并被限制在电线和大门之后，但在几十年内，工业化和预制建筑技术已成为沙特政府提供大量经济适用房的标准方法。