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Architecture

King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station

  • Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 2012 – 2023
  • Arriyadh Development Authority
  • Under Construction
  • 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)

With Riyadh’s population more than doubling since 1990 to over 6.5 million and expected to reach 8.53 million residents within a decade, the Riyadh Development Authority (RDA) is building the Riyadh Metro, an entirely new public transit system for the city with 6 main lines covering 176 km and 85 new stations. Anticipated to transport 3.6 million passengers a day in full capacity mode by 2030, Riyadh Metro will contribute to reducing the number of car journeys throughout the city by almost 2 million car trips every day.

KAFD Metro Station will serve as a key interchange on the new network for the Blue Line (Line 1) with the terminus of the Yellow Line to the airport (Line 4) and the Purple Line (Line 6) as well as a skybridge connecting to the local KAFD monorail. With six platforms over four public levels and park-and-ride facilities, the station will be an important multimodal transport hub and a new public space for the city that is wholly integrated within the district.

The station’s design prioritizes connectivity. Predicted rail, car and pedestrian traffic across the site 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 sine-waves (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 sine-waves extend to the station’s exterior where façade patterning reduces solar gain and geometric perforations contextualize the station within its environment. The overall composition echoes patterns generated by desert winds in sand, where multiple frequencies and reverberation generate complex repetition in natural formations.

Designed by ZHA supported by the RDA Architects team, the KAFD Metro Station is composed from a subset of elements that are highly correlated through repetition, symmetry and scale to simplify technical challenges without compromising spatial quality or design ambition. Targeting LEED Silver certification, the station’s design integrates future possibilities for additional renewable energy capabilities that can achieve LEED Gold accreditation.

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 Team

Marco Amoroso, Vincenzo Caputo, Abdel Halim Chehab, Domenico Di Francesco, 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, 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 Yeoz

Competition Team

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

Structural Engineer

BuroHappold Engineering

Building Services

BuroHappold Engineering

Transport and Civil Engineering

BuroHappold Engineering

Acoustic Engineer

BuroHappold Engineering

Fire Engineer

BuroHappold Engineering

Sustanability Engineer

BuroHappold Engineering

Façade Consultant

NewTecnic

Design Management

AECOM

Specification

AECOM

Cost Consultant

AECOM

Signage & Way Finding

TDC

Transit Systems

Siemens & Alstom

Contractor

BACS