Qiddiya Investment Company, in conjunction with Bjarke Ingels Group, recently unveiled the master plan for a new “Giga-Project” that will become the “Capital of Entertainment, Sports, and the Arts” in Saudi Arabia.
The project will bring together the elements for an active, healthy lifestyle and will be arranged in a way that complements the natural landscape to create a series of pedestrian-oriented spaces. The new green-belt network will carry visitors throughout the property on roads, bike paths, and walkways built within the enhanced landscape environment. Only 30% of the project site will be developed with the rest dedicated for natural conservation.
The Resort Core will be the project’s heart and include four gated attractions around a central specialty retail, dining, and entertainment district and a portfolio of resort hotel offerings. An outdoor entertainment venue capable of hosting events from 5,000 to 40,000 people and punctuated with skating and skiing facilities is also included.
The Eco Core is designed around a series of nature and wildlife encounters, an ecologically-sensitive golf course, outdoor sporting adventures, and unique hospitality offerings that take advantage of the desert environment. A Golf and Residential Neighborhood will connect to the 18-hole golf course and also includes resort hotel and spa and equestrian facilities that can all be accessed from villas, townhomes, and private retreats.
The Motion Core will sit to the southeast of the Resort Core and comprise events, experiences, residential offerings, and hospitality offerings that are driven by the science and technology of people in motion.
See Also: The Challenge Museum includes a two minute walk through farmland to reach the building
Six Flags Qiddiya will offer a family-oriented park with rides and attractions distirbuted throughout six themed lands. A second water-oriented feature park will include an integrated resort hotel. A “Speed Park” focuses on the world of motorsports with equal emphasis on the spectator and the driver. This feature will include tracks, showrooms, retail, a driver’s club, and a luxury hotel.
Sitting 200 meters up on the edge of the Tuwaiq escarpment is the City Centre, a mixed-use village dedicated to sports and the arts. The City Centre is home to a collection of sports venues such as a 20,000 seat cliff-top stadium, an 18,000 seat multi-purpose indoor arena, an aquatic center, and a sports hub capable of hosting individual sports activities and events. The City Centre connects to the entertainment core below by a funicular transportation system.
Qiddiya will also feature a creative campus with workspace, media production, and education facilities; a grand mosque; retail, service, and dining options in a mixed-use, high street setting; a private school; a sports medicine hospital; a variety of residential offerings; and a “Race Resort” with homes and club facilities that access a 15 kilometer performance driving course and on and off-road driving experiences.
All together, Qiddiya will be organized around five development nodes that each serve a unique purpose. Phase one of the project, which includes Six Flags Qiddiya, is slated to open in 2022.
Related Stories
| May 20, 2011
Hotels taking bath out of the bathroom
Bathtubs are disappearing from many hotels across the country as chains use the freed-up space to install ever more luxurious showers, according to a recent USAToday report. Of course, we reported on this move--and 6 other hospitality trends--back in 2006 in our special report "The Inn Things: Seven Radical New Trends in Hotel Design."
| May 18, 2011
Design diversity celebrated at Orange County club
The Orange County, Calif., firm NKDDI designed the 22,000-sf Luna Lounge & Nightclub in Pomona, Calif., to be a high-end multipurpose event space that can transition from restaurant to lounge to nightclub to music venue.
| Apr 12, 2011
Retail complex enjoys prime Abu Dhabi location
The Galleria at Sowwah Square in Abu Dhabi will be built in a prime location within Sowwah Island that also includes a five-star Four Seasons Hotel, the healthcare facility Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and nearly two million sf of Class A office space.
| Mar 11, 2011
Holiday Inn reworked for Downtown Disney Resort
The Orlando, Fla., office of VOA Associates completed a comprehensive interior and exterior renovation of the 14-story Holiday Inn in the Downtown Disney Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The $25 million project involved rehabbing the hotel’s 332 guest rooms, atrium, swimming pool, restaurant, fitness center, and administrative spaces.
| Mar 11, 2011
Guests can check out hotel’s urban loft design, music selection
MODO, Advaya Hospitality’s affordable new lifestyle hotel brand, will have an urban Bauhaus loft design and target design-, music-, and tech-savvy guest who will have access to thousands of tracks in vinyl, CD, and MP3 formats through a partnership with Downtown Music. Guest can create their own playlists, and each guest room will feature iPod docks and large flat-screen TVs.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 9, 2011
Igor Krnajski, SVP with Denihan Hospitality Group, on hotel construction and understanding the industry
Igor Krnajski, SVP for Design and Construction with Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, N.Y., on the state of hotel construction, understanding the hotel operators’ mindset, and where the work is.
| Feb 15, 2011
Iconic TWA terminal may reopen as a boutique hotel
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to squeeze a hotel with about 150 rooms in the space between the old TWA terminal and the new JetBlue building. The old TWA terminal would serve as an entry to the hotel and hotel lobby, which would also contain restaurants and shops.
| Feb 11, 2011
Kentucky’s first green adaptive reuse project earns Platinum
(FER) studio, Inglewood, Calif., converted a 115-year-old former dry goods store in Louisville, Ky., into a 10,175-sf mixed-use commercial building earned LEED Platinum and holds the distinction of being the state’s first adaptive reuse project to earn any LEED rating. The facility, located in the East Market District, houses a gallery, event space, offices, conference space, and a restaurant. Sustainable elements that helped the building reach its top LEED rating include xeriscaping, a green roof, rainwater collection and reuse, 12 geothermal wells, 81 solar panels, a 1,100-gallon ice storage system (off-grid energy efficiency is 68%) and the reuse and recycling of construction materials. Local firm Peters Construction served as GC.
| Jan 25, 2011
AIA reports: Hotels, retail to lead U.S. construction recovery
U.S. nonresidential construction activity will decline this year but recover in 2012, led by hotel and retail sectors, according to a twice-yearly forecast by the American Institute of Architects. Overall nonresidential construction spending is expected to fall by 2% this year before rising by 5% in 2012, adjusted for inflation. The projected decline marks a deteriorating outlook compared to the prior survey in July 2010, when a 2011 recovery was expected.
