King Abdullah Financial District Conference Center

One of the five programmed “Attractor Parcels” within Henning Larsen’s urban plan for KAFD features the Financial District’s international conference center. HM White has assembled highly acclaimed horticultural and garden wall assembly specialists to assist in developing a structural landscape for SOM’s iconic building design. Extensive collaborative research has conceived precedent setting modular vegetated roof and wall growing systems that are embedded within the building’s framework and skin. HM White has developed a hypertufa substrate growing medium to work across the building’s varied planar interior and exterior surfaces to evoke familiar and revered regional wadi and cliff landscapes and their growing conditions. The revolutionary building/landscape design has warranted it as the planned and celebrated location for King Abdullah’s KAFD development dedication speech.

Henning Larsen Architects' masterplan unites the Arabian urban traditions with the modern metropolis giving the Saudi capital Riyadh a public open space and a characteristic skyline with a new outstanding landmark. Henning Larsen Architects has devised a set of guidelines for sustainability. The heart of the district is a transformation of the Arabian wadi Hanifa transversing the area.

The district will become an active and attractive urban space comprising financial institutions, residential and recreational areas, shops, restaurants, hotels, and conference- and sports facilities. The district will feature something as unique as a Saudi Arabian monorail connecting the various areas of the district. All buildings and monorail stations are linked together by air-conditioned footbridges above street level enabling walking distance to all meetings in the Financial District – quite extraordinary for Riyadh SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENY During the building phase Henning Larsen Architects acts as consultants ensuring that the proposed scheme achieves a standard that will be seen as a world-class example of sustainable development. By optimising the building proportions the outdoor temperature has been lowered by 6-8 degrees Celsius. Also the use of light facade materials maintaining humidity, vegetation and water features in the landscape help achieve the lower temperature.