Al Qairawan

Location

Riyadh, KSA

Client

Confidential

Sector

Mixed Use

Size

Confidential

Scope

Architecture

Status

Ongoing

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.