King Abdullah Financial District
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The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is a mixed-use financial district located near King Fahad Road in the Al Aqeeq area of
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
Managed by the King Abdullah Financial District Development and Management Company (KAFD DMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kingdom's
Public Investment Fund The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billi ...
, the district was previously being managed by the Rayadah Investment Corporation on behalf of the Pension Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The district is the largest LEED certified financial centre in the world.


Structure

The project consists of more than 83 buildings, including 61 towers, and combines residential solutions, work and entertainment over a space of more than 1.6 million square meters. It will provide more than 3 million square meters of space for various uses, 62,000 parking spaces and accommodation for 12,000 residents. In 2011, it was the largest project in the world seeking green building accreditation. Bombardier won a $241m contract to build an automated
monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...
for the development.Saudi Urban Projects Are a Window to Modernity
''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', December 12, 2010.
The design guidelines do not separate the genders in the district. The KAFD master plan was designed and overseen by Danish architectural firm
Henning Larsen Architects Henning Larsen Architects is an international architectural firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1959 by Henning Larsen, it has around 750 employees. In 2008, it opened an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in 2011, an office in Munich, ...
. International architecture firms such as HOK, Omrania, SOM, CallisonRTKL, Gensler, and Foster + Partners were commissioned to design individual buildings in the district, such as the 380-meter PIF Tower (HOK and Omrania). Additional design work was provided by
W Architecture and Landscape Architecture W, or w, is the twenty-third and fourth-to-last letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. It represents a consonant, but in some languages it ...
. The CEO of the company, KAFD DMC, i
Gautam Sashittal
The project was at one point estimated to cost 29 billion
Saudi riyals The Saudi riyal ( ar, ريال سعودي ') is the currency of Saudi Arabia. It is abbreviated as or SAR ''(Saudi Arabian Riyal)''. It is subdivided into 100 halalas ( ar, هللة '). The currency is pegged to the US dollar at a constant rate ...
($7.8 billion). Upon completion, KAFD is expected to host round 50,000 residents. As Riyadh is characterized by its high temperature, a solar system will be installed to cool the passenger bridges that are going to act as a network that connects 30 building together. The project is considered to be long overdue and needed for a city of the size and position of Riyadh. The key issue with the project was timing as it was announced and incepted during the 2008 financial crisis. A number of local and international commentators highlighted the potential oversupply issue with the project. However, others, such as Hans Mueller in Saudi Real Estate Companion, believe that the market will be able to absorb the supply in the medium term. The first phase was expected to open by July 2017.


Transport

The district will be served by the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station on the under-construction
Riyadh Metro The Riyadh Metro ( ar, قطار الرياض ', ) is a rapid transit system under construction in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. It is part of the King Abdulaziz Project for Riyadh Public Transport and will consist of six metro lines ...
. The station covers an area of 45,000 m2 and is located at the east of the Northern Ring Road. It will connect to metro lines 1, 4, 6, and the KAFD monorail. The station is designed by
Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects is a British architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid (1950–2016), with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London. Architectural work Conceptual projects *Price Tower extension hybrid project (2002), Ba ...
from the UK and is one of four major stations on the metro network. Within the area there will also be a , six station monorail system. In addition all buildings will be linked by an air-conditioned skywalk system enabling pedestrian access across the entire development.


See also

* List of things named after Saudi Kings


References

{{coord missing, Saudi Arabia Year of establishment missing Buildings and structures in Riyadh Geography of Riyadh Economy of Riyadh Finance in Saudi Arabia Proposed infrastructure in Saudi Arabia Financial districts