RMJM Presents Mixed-Use Development in Al Qairawan, Riyadh
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – RMJM has revealed a mixed-use development in Al Qairawan defined by a façade-driven architectural strategy that reinterprets local identity through a contemporary lens.
The project is characterised by a layered, tectonic composition that responds directly to climate, scale, and urban context. Drawing on Salmani architectural principles, the façades employ vertical fins, perforated screens, deep reveals, and stepped massing to create a dynamic interplay of light and shadow while enhancing solar control and visual depth. Warm, earthy tones and textured materials echo the region’s architectural heritage without resorting to literal historic reference.
Massing is articulated as a family of volumes rather than a singular object, allowing variation in height, rhythm, and proportion across the site. Recessed terraces, green pockets, and articulated corners soften the towers’ verticality and introduce moments of porosity within the built form. Distinctive crown elements complete the skyline composition while reinforcing each building’s architectural identity.
At podium and street levels, architecture and landscape are tightly integrated. Shaded colonnades, perforated canopies, and layered thresholds define a sequence of public and semi-public spaces, creating a continuous pedestrian experience that mediates between interior programmes and the surrounding city. The ground plane is conceived as an extension of the architecture itself, prioritising human scale, climatic comfort, and spatial continuity.
The development represents RMJM’s approach to context-responsive architecture, where façade, massing, materiality, and public realm are conceived as a single architectural system, contributing to Riyadh’s evolving urban and architectural language.
About RMJM
Founded in 1956 by Sir Robert Matthew and Stirrat Johnson-Marshall, RMJM has evolved into one of the most globally connected and culturally diverse architecture practices in the world. With studios across five continents, RMJM unites a collective of thinkers, designers and specialists driven by a shared purpose: to shape environments that empower vision and unlock human potential.
As Architects of Ambition, we work with clarity and intention – balancing global perspective with local insight, and precision with imagination. Our networked approach enables us to respond faster, think deeper and design with a level of refinement that has defined RMJM for more than 69 years.
Today, RMJM continues to build on its legacy with an architectural language rooted in intelligence and timeless design principles.
For further information, please contact:
Kateryna Novoselova
Group Marketing and Development Director
E: [email protected]
