Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has nearly completed the King Abdullah Financial District subway station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of 85 planned metro stations set to serve the city and scheduled to open next year.
The 45,000-square-meter project – designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher – won a competition held in 2013, and will be one of the largest in the network, serving as an interchange between three different lines. The King Abdullah Financial District is one of the fourteen giga-projects under development in Saudi Arabia, comprising sixty-one buildings including towers and skyscrapers.
The six platforms are arranged over five floors and encased by a steel structure characterized by a series of curved shapes inspired by the mashrabiya panels, as well as by the desert dunes and the waves obtained from the mapping of the projected pedestrian paths.