Theme Week Saudi Arabia – Jeddah

28 April 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Jeddah Montage © MrJoker07/cc-by-sa-4.0

Jeddah Montage © MrJoker07/cc-by-sa-4.0

Jeddah is a city in the Hijaz Tihamah region on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. With a population currently at 4.2 million people, Jeddah is an important commercial hub in Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is the principal gateway to Mecca, Islam‘s holiest city, which able-bodied Muslims are required to visit at least once in their lifetime. It is also a gateway to Medina, the second holiest place in Islam. Historically, Jeddah has been well known for its legendary money changers. The largest of said money changers at the time (the late Sheikh Salem Bin Mahfouz) eventually founded Saudi Arabia’s first bank, the National Commercial Bank (NCB).   read more…

Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia

13 January 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Design & Products Reading Time:  9 minutes

© kingdom.com.sa

© kingdom.com.sa

Jeddah Tower, previously known as Kingdom Tower and Mile-High Tower, is a skyscraper under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at a preliminary cost of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion). If completed as planned, the Jeddah Tower will reach unprecedented heights becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometer-high mark. Initially planned to be 1.6 km (1 mile) high, the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height. The design, created by American architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai, incorporates many unique structural and aesthetic features. The large, outdoor sky terrace will overlook the Red Sea from over 610 metres (2,000 ft) height and have an area of over 697 square metres (7,500 sq ft). The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest man in the Middle East, grandson of Ibn Saud, and nephew of the Kings of Saudi Arabia after him. Al-Waleed is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) which is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), which was formed in 2009 for the development of Jeddah Tower and City.   read more…

Mecca in Saudi Arabia

15 June 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

The Masjid al-Haram and Kaaba © Ariandra 03/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Masjid al-Haram and Kaaba © Ariandra 03/cc-by-sa-3.0

Mecca is a city in the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of that kingdom’s Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during the hajj (“pilgrimage”) period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah.   read more…

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

1 April 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Energy, Building Automation, Green Buildings, Green Technologies, House of the Month, Intelligent Buildings, Sustainability, Environment, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Aboluay/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Aboluay/cc-by-sa-4.0

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is a private research university in Saudi Arabia. The University’s core campus, located on the Red Sea at Thuwal, is sited on more than 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi), encompassing a marine sanctuary and research facility. The university is 20 km away north of the King Abdullah Economic City. KAUST is part of a small number of highly planned, specialized, research and technology-intensive municipalities in the world that incorporate a living environment, similar to Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates or Tsukuba Science City in Japan.   read more…

King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia

23 September 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Green Buildings, Green Technologies, Intelligent Buildings, Living, Working, Building Reading Time:  8 minutes

Overview @ kaec.net

Overview @ kaec.net

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is a megaproject announced in 2005 by Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the then king of Saudi Arabia. With a total development area of 173 km² (66.8 sq mi), the city is located along the coast of the Red Sea, around 100 km north of Jeddah, the commercial hub of the kingdom, the city will also be approximately an hour and 20 minutes away from the holy Islamic city of Mecca and 3 hours from Medina by car and an hour away of all Middle Eastern capital cities by plane. The total cost of the city is $86 billion (around SR 207 billion), with the project being built by the Tadawul-listed company Emaar Properties, a Dubai-based public joint stock company and one of the world’s largest real estate companies, and SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) which is the main facilitator of the project. The city is divided into six main components: Industrial Zone, Sea Port, Residential Areas, Sea Resort, Educational Zone, and a Central Business District (CBD) which includes the Financial Island.   read more…

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