Metro Station in Riyadh

In order to improve the quality of life, a new metro system for the Saudi Arabian capital will be created. Gerber Architekten won the competition for the Metro Station in 2012. The design of the station reinterprets the Arabian desert landscape, recalls a minimalist dune and thus establishes a dialogue between tradition and future. This new oasis becomes a communicative meeting place of the city. The sculptural form creates a park which gradually rises upwards in gentle waves to become the roof of the Metro Station. This dune park will answer the pressing need for more green urban space in Riyadh.

The main planning approaches are – beyond addressing the technical and functional complexity of an underground-station – to link the two crossing underground lines and combine them with a shopping mall. A further significant design objective is to ensure ease of access and orientation inside the building, which goes down to 30 metres below the ground, and to make the movement of people and trains inside the station clearly visible. The trains arrive through futuristic glass tubes and use the very latest in technology, developed and manufactured by Siemens. The completion of Metro Station is being coordinated with the overall network and final completion date is to be confirmed.

Sustainable development (notably urban public transport and coordinated links with city-regional transport networks) is of great importance for the future viability of Riyadh and therefore the construction of this metro network is expected to be completed in the next four years. The Olaya Metro Station is situated on one of Riyadh’s most important traffic junctions; between Olaya Street, King Fahad Road and the King Abdullah Freeway. The 200 metre long by 100 metre wide site offers the opportunity to add a further landmark to this dynamic urban axis; continuing the sequence of the King Fahad National Library along with the Faisaliyah and Kingdom Towers.

Olaya Metro Station offers the city of Riyadh the amenities of a major transportation hub together with public gardens. A symbiosis is formed between the two: the dune park benefiting from accessibility by public transportation, while the Olaya Metro Station gains a significant destination in the form of the gardens. This public space provides a spacious landscape with graceful paved areas all naturally shaded by palm trees combined with water features, picnic areas, seating amphitheatres, wireless internet coverage and a terraced terrain for sitting or strolling. For the first time an urban city space will be accessible by public transport; combined with the landscape architecture (also by Gerber Architekten), the overall concept of the Olaya Metro Station mediates between traditional and modern elements and creates an inclusive urban public space.