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King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station

  • Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 2012 – 2024
  • Arriyadh Development Authority
  • Complete
  • 45000m2
  • Levels: 5 above ground and 2 below ground (car parking)
  • Total: 6 train platforms
  • Metro Lines served: Blue Line (Line 1), Yellow Line (Line 4) and Purple Line (Line 6)

The Riyadh Metro network commenced passenger operations on Sunday, December 1st 2024 with the opening of its Blue, Yellow and Purple lines (Lines 1, 4 and 6), alleviating traffic congestion, shortening travel times and improving quality of life for Riyadh’s growing population. As the world’s longest driverless transit system, the transformative network spans over 176 kilometres across 6 lines and 85 stations, connecting key districts, business centres, and cultural landmarks in Saudi Arabia’s capital city.

The Riyadh Metro network commenced passenger operations on Sunday, December 1st 2024 with the opening of its Blue, Yellow and Purple lines (Lines 1, 4 and 6), alleviating traffic congestion, shortening travel times and improving quality of life for Riyadh’s growing population. As the world’s longest driverless transit system, the transformative network spans over 176 kilometres across 6 lines and 85 stations, connecting key districts, business centres, and cultural landmarks in Saudi Arabia’s capital city.

An automated rapid transport system planned by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC), Riyadh Metro meets the needs of residents and visitors alike. With a capacity of 3.6 million daily passengers, the network will reduce the number of car journeys throughout the city and encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport.

The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), serves as the key interchange on the new network, connecting the KAFD terminus, King Khalid International Airport, and providing access to the skybridge for the local KAFD monorail. The station’s six rail platforms over four levels connect with bus and park-and-ride services to create an important multi-modal transport hub for the city, as well as new indoor and outdoor public plazas for the financial district.

Contributing to the identity of Riyadh’s new metro system, the KAFD Metro Station’s design prioritizes connectivity. The station's predicted rail, car and pedestrian traffic has been modelled, mapped and structured to optimize internal circulation and avoid congestion. The resulting configuration is a three-dimensional lattice defined by a sequence of opposing sinewaves (generated from the repetition and frequency variation of the station’s daily traffic flows), which act as the spine for the building’s circulation.

These sinewaves extend to the station’s exterior clad in ultra-high-performance concrete panels. The façade’s geometric perforations reduce solar gain as a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional environmental sheltering within the region’s vernacular architecture. The composition of the station’s façade echoes the patterns generated by desert winds in sand, where multiple frequencies and reverberation generate the complex repetition of patterns evident in the natural world.

The KAFD Metro Station is composed as a set of elements that are highly correlated through repetition, symmetry and scale. The design was continually optimized by ZHA throughout its development to increase structural efficiencies and environmental performance while also simplifying the construction process without compromising spatial quality; seamlessly integrating the self-supporting structure of its external envelope with the station’s internal structure which supports the train platforms and viaducts.

Providing optimal comfort at minimum energy demand, the station combines effective passive design features with a high-efficiency cooling system that is powered by renewables and automatically adjusts to differing passenger levels throughout the day, while sliding door panels on each platform retain cool air within the station. The KAFD Metro Station has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification by the US Green Building Council.
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Architect

Zaha Hadid Architects

Design

Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher

Project Principal

Gianluca Racana

Project Director

Filippo Innocenti

Project Architect

Gian Luca Barone

Project Associate

Fulvio Wirz

Construction Support Leads

Marco Amoroso, Domenico di Francesco

Construction Support Team

Vincenzo Caputo, Abdel Halim Chehab, Marko Gligorov, Stefano Iacopini

Project Team

Marco Amoroso, Vincenzo Caputo, Abdel Halim Chehab, Lee Cubeddu, Rawan Al-Derjem, Domenico Di Francesco, David Fogliano, Manuele Gaioni, Marko Gligorov, Subharthi Guha, Alexandros Kallegias, Lisa Kinnerud, Alexandre Kuroda, Stefano Iacopini, Carolina López-Blanco, Jamie Mann, Mohammadali Mirzaei, Arian Hakimi Nejad, David Wolthers, Nicola McConnell, Mario Mattia, Massimo Napoleoni, Niki Okala, Carlos Parraga-Botero, Sohith Perera, Izis Salvador Pinto, Carine Posner, Neil Rigden, Paola Salcedo, Nima Shoja, Thomas Sonder, Vincenzo Reale, Kate Revyakina, Roberto Vangeli, Seungho Yeo

Competition Team

Alexandre Kuroda, Fei Wang, Lisa Kinnerud, Jorge Mendez-Caceres

Structural Engineer

BuroHappold

Building Services Engineer

BuroHappold

Transport and Civil Engineers

BuroHappold

Fire Protection & Life Safety Engineer

BuroHappold

Acoustic Consultant

BuroHappold

Sustanability Consultant

BuroHappold

Façade Engineering

Newtecnic

Design Management

AECOM

Specification

AECOM

Cost

AECOM

Signage & Way Finding

Transport Design Consultancy

Safety Assesment

BH with Transsol

Owner

Riyadh Development Authority (RDA)

Owner Engineer

Riyadh Metro Transit Consultants (RMTC)

Main Contractor/Client

BACS Consortium

Independent Checking Engineer

Buro Veritas

Independant Safety Assessor

TÜV Rheinland / ISARail Group

Transit Systems

Line 1 Siemens (BACS), Line 4&6 Alstom (FAST)

Viaducts

AECOM & TriPod-ssd (Line1), Atkins (Line 4&6)

Automatic Fare Collection

Indra

Structure Contractor

Saudi Lebanese Tarouk Contracting

MEP Contractor

Zamil

Interiors Contractor

DEPA

Elevators and Escalators

ThyssenKrupp

Façade Contractor

Permasteelisa Gartner Saudi Arabia

Landscape Contractor

DEPA