KAFD ENVIRONS STUDY

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Coen + Partners

Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia and the political and administrative center of the totalitarian monarchy. The city was modernized in a campaign from 1953, when a western grid plan was imposed on the city, which had previously developed from a narrow, spatially isolated town. Most large Saudi Arabian companies establish their headquarters or a large office in the city, which has created significant growth of high rise developments concentrated in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), which is known as the business hub of the city. The King Abdullah Financial District Environs Study is a masterplan and series of urban design concepts that form public space and a surrounding mixed-use residential development. The plan includes a central spine of pedestrian and urban transit networks that connect KAFD to the rest of Riyadh, with retrofitted buildings that include room for bikes, and a daylit urban wadi that collects gray water and runoff from the site and development that is cleaned and then used as a public amenity in ponds that create significantly cooler microclimates across Stardune Plaza, a series of metal canopies in a central park. The metal canopies were inspired by star sand dune formations in the Rub ‘ al Khali desert, formed by winds blowing in all directions. The dunes form as linear bands, and the metal canopies mirror the desert formations, lining the parkway and providing shade, with perforated metal inspired by traditional Islamic patterns. The canopies create shaded public space for the call to prayer, supported by steel pipe trusses that do not require structural columns that would interfere with the design.

2017
1200 acres
2100 feet above sea level

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