King Abdullah Financial District Hotel, Saudi Arabia

In a recent development, Saudi Oger Ltd, a construction and project development company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has commissioned Goettsch Partners (GP), a Chicago-based architecture firm, to design a new five-star hotel in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh. Saudi Oger is also the contractor of the 214-key business hotel project, chosen by its project developer Rayadah Investment Company.

The hotel

The project is sited on Parcel 1.08, one of the first ten parcels under development in the massive new master-planned district. The hotel building features a 17-storey tower, a three-storey podium and a four-storey underground structure for hotel functions and parking. On completion the hotel will have a big business centre, executive club, signature restaurants, a lounge, a resort-style spa and a health club. It is speculated that the project is to be operated as a Wyndham property.

Located on the east side of the upcoming district, the King Abdullah Financial District hotel sits adjacent to a wadi; a dry, manmade riverbed that organises the district’s developmental activities and provides the main pedestrian circulation and recreational promenade. To the west, the site faces a public square.

King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD)

Announced in 2006, the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is a nearly 400-acre area north of central Riyadh that will include more than 32 million square feet of development at full build-out.

Estimated at a cost of SAR28bn, the district is expected to be a key financial centre in the Middle East and is conceived as part of Riyadh’s overall economic diversification plan. The KAFD is designed to include premier office space, housing, a financial academy and recreational facilities.

The Saudi Public Pension Agency is the land owner and prime developer through its Rayadah Investment Company. Omrania & Associates, a local firm, is providing architectural and engineering advice to the owner on ten design-build parcels, including the hotel site.

Architect

Especially designed to attract more customers, the prism-shaped tower has a nine-storey opening. This open space separates programmatic functions and allows for views and light to penetrate the mass of the building. The podium structure houses the hotel amenities and conference facilities, and links the building to its surroundings at the pedestrian level. The podium incorporates a stretched multi-purpose hall, restaurants, a spa, outdoor gardens and a rooftop terrace.

According to the KAFD master plan guidelines, each building façade that faces the wadi must be faceted in its design. To adhere to this the hotel’s slender north façade has been designed with an undulating skin. Its south façade features a similar expression for consistency while giving the building a dynamic, ever-changing and vibrant appearance from each perspective.

The north façade is composed of a semi-transparent aluminium and glass curtain wall with two layers of ceramic frits that create a moiré effect. In an effort to optimise this effect, the pattern changes from a smaller pedestrian scale on the tower’s lower levels to a larger urban scale as it ascends the building’s full height.

The project architect has not only focused on the design but also on climatic conditions. To mitigate extreme heat conditions throughout the year, the south façade is designed to be mostly opaque, clad in stone with 150-millimeter-wide, single-level slots that rhythmically alternate up the tower.

On the podium, these slots become windows to allow for select light and views. Both the north and south building façades will be lit at night in order to give the hotel a distinctive appearance and character within the larger development.

The tower’s long east and west façades feature a saw-toothed design with continuous slab edges. This pattern reveals the scale of the rooms while providing maximum shade from the extreme desert sun and still allowing measured light and views.

LEED certification

Designed to achieve LEED certification, the project incorporates many state-of-the-art sustainable strategies, including energy modelling, daylight control and solar shading, photovoltaic panels on the roof and proximity to alternative transportation systems within the KAFD. The approximately $130m project is currently in the schematic design phase and is scheduled for completion in 2011.