Knowledge Economic City KEC
Madinah, KSA
133,000 SM
Planning, architecture, interiors
The city’s first transit-oriented development, this project creates a vibrant retail destination with a well-balanced mix of retail, and food and beverage options for residents, travelers, and pilgrims. The design is founded on the principles of connectivity, continuity, and arrival and sustainability. The development’s placement adjacent to the Madinah Station of the Haramain High-speed Railway network positions the development as the major hub for pilgrims arriving and departing from the city, while the site’s linear nature offers an opportunity to welcome pedestrian traffic from the venues surrounding the site.
Madinah Gate is the culmination of a journey that has evolved through the centuries from its humble beginnings of caravans to buses and automobiles, and now to the technologically advanced highspeed rail system. The Hajj, the pilgrimage between the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, is one of the five pillars of Islam. The development was created within the context of this journey, highlighting the need for Madinah Gate, a new hub poised to both usher in and send forth travelers, pilgrims, and residents. As the first modern-day transit-oriented development in the city, Madinah Gate links the history of the journey, the Holy City’s rich culture and heritage, and its people and communities.
Our design for the development represents the “essence of the Madinah landscape:” elements of the region’s desert, oases, mountains and volcanic features are translated into a modern urban context as landscape features, details, materials and colors. Warm stone and local materials mirroring the aesthetic of Madinah are juxtaposed by a dynamic triangular pattern inspired by traditional craft and architecture, continuing the legacy of the region’s identity.
Along the linear site, buildings are clustered as islands, creating terraces with individual dining and entertainment offers, with a hotel forming a landmark on the boulevard.
The development provides an iconic, attractive, and welcoming “front door,” integrating hospitality, retail, and transportation facilities. The project is a key element of the master plan underway for Knowledge Economic City, which will serve as an example of sustainable economic growth and diversification for other Economic Cities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council. The development will ease access to the bus terminal and train stations, while generating activity through anchors and entertainment tenants, engaging Medina’s role in the lives of travelers, pilgrims, and residents.
Our design approach takes the landscape into consideration, maximizing the sustainable options available to the site. Utilizing sun radiation simulation, building heat mapping guided placement of 2,250 square meters of PV Panels.
A comfortable microclimate was achieved through passive cooling strategies including wind channeling across the open retail corridors and cross ventilation through courtyard entrances.
Grading of the hardscape preserves storm water, enabling passive irrigation and directing overflow to the city network. Water can also be harvested during the rainy season in underground tanks.
Madinah Gate is featured in an interview with Design Middle East magazine and heralded as the first Saudi transit-oriented mixed-use development to connect with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's high-speed rail station and align with the master plan for the Islamic World District.
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