King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station | Zaha Hadid Architects

The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station will serve as a key interchange on the new Riyadh Metro network for Line 1, as well as the terminus of Line 4 (for passengers to the airport) and Line 6. The local monorail can also be accessed from the station via a skybridge.

With six platforms over four public floors and two levels of underground car parking, the KAFD Metro Station will be integrated within the urban context of the financial district, responding to the functional requirements of a multimodal transport centre and the district’s future vision. The project extends beyond the simple station typology to emphasize the building’s importance as a dynamic, multi-functional public space; not only an intermediate place perceived through quick transitions, but also a dramatic public space for the city. The design places the station at the centre of a network of pathways, skybridges and metro lines envisaged by the KAFD master plan. Connectivity diagrams and traffic across the site have been mapped and structured to clearly delineate the pedestrian routes within the building, optimize internal circulation and avoid congestion. The resulting configuration is a threedimensional lattice defined by a sequence of opposing sine-waves (generated from the repetition and frequency variation of station’s daily traffic flows) which act as the spine for the building’s circulation.

These sine-waves are extended to the station’s envelope and strictly affiliated to its internal layout, translating the architectural concept to the exterior. The façade patterning reduces solar gain while it’s geometric perforations contextualize the station within its cultural environment.

The overall composition resembles patterns generated by desert winds in sand dunes, where multiple frequencies and repetition generate complex natural formations. The King Abdullah Financial Disctrict Metro Station applies a discrete subset of elements which are correlated through repetition, symmetry and scaling; optimizing the design while simplify technical challenges without compromising spatial quality or design ambition.

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KAFD Metro Station Project Team
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
ZHA Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
ZHA Project Principal: Gianluca Racana
ZHA Project Director: Filippo Innocenti
ZHA Project Architect: Gian Luca Barone
ZHA Project Associate: Fulvio Wirz
ZHA Construction Support Leads: Marco Amoroso, Domenico di Francesco
ZHA Construction Support Services: Vincenzo Caputo, Abdel Halim Chehab, Marko Gligorov,
Stefano Iacopini

ZHA Project Team: Marco Amoroso, Vincenzo Caputo, Abdel Halim Chehab, Lee Cubeddu,
Rawan Al-Derjem, Domenico Di Francesco, David Fogliano, Manuele Gaioni, Marko Gligorov,
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 Yeo

ZHA Competition Team: Alexandre Kuroda, Fei Wang, Lisa Kinnerud, Jorge Mendez-Caceres
Structural Engineer: BuroHappold
Building Services Engineer: BuroHappold
Transport & Civil Engineers: BuroHappold
Fire Protection & Life Safety Engineer: BuroHappold
People Flow: BuroHappold
Acoustic Consultant: BuroHappold
Sustainability Consultant: BuroHappold
Lighting Consultant: BuroHappold
Façade Engineering: Newtecnic
Design Management: AECOM
Specification Consultant: AECOM
Cost Consultant: AECOM
Signage & Way Finding: Transport Design Consultancy
Safety Assessment: BH with Transsol
Development Engineer: Riyadh Metro Transit Consultants (RMTC)
Main Contractor: BACS Consortium
Independent Checking Engineer: Buro Veritas
Independant Safety Assessor: TÜV Rheinland / ISARail Group
Transit Systems: Line 1 Siemens (BACS), Line 4&6 Alstom (FAST)
Viaducts: AECOM & TriPod-ssd (Line1), Atkins (Line 4&6)
Automatic Fare Collection: Indra
Structure Contractor: Saudi Lebanese Tarouk Contracting
MEP Contractor: Zamil
Interiors Contractor: DEPA
Elevators and Escalators: ThyssenKrupp
Facade Contractor: Permasteelisa Gartner Saudi Arabia
Landscape Contractor: DEPA