An artist’s impression of the KAEC station ... a futuristic blue and silver design.
New stations to ease pilgrims’ progress
01 June 2011
CONSTRUCTION is due to start shortly on the four major new stations along the state-of-the-art Haramain High-speed Railway (HHR) in Saudi Arabia, which will provide a vital new service for the millions of pilgrims travelling between Makkah and Madinah during the Hajj.
The main contracts worth SR9.38 billion ($2.5 billion) for the stations have already been awarded by the Saudi Railways Organisation to two consortia led by Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) and Saudi Oger, respectively.
The high-speed Haramain Railway will link Islam’s holiest cities of Makkah and Madinah to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, a key entry point for millions of pilgrims, and to King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), currently under construction in Rabigh.
The SBG consortium, which includes Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi, will build the Makkah and Madinah stations, while the Saudi Oger-led group including Italy’s Astaldi, Ansaldo, Singapore’s ST Electronics and El Seif and Atkins will be responsible for the construction of the stations in Jeddah and at KAEC.
The designs of the four stations have been carried out by a joint venture (JV) team of Foster + Partners and Buro Happold, in collaboration with local architect Dar Al Riyadh.
“The stations are conceived not only as gateways to their respective cities but also as civic social centres, filled with places to meet, shop, eat and shelter from the sun beneath their rhythmic arched roof canopies,” says a spokesman for Foster + Partners.
Mouzhan Majidi, chief executive of Foster + Partners, says: “The HHR project is remarkable, especially when you consider the fast-track programme. We are aiming to complete four major new stations in almost four years.”
Each station uses the proposed modular design in different ways, with variations in colour, to signify the four cities served while remaining emblematic of the HHR system. The terminal stations of Madinah and Makkah are characterised by a rich colour palette: the Makkah station references the gold leaf of the decorated Kaaba and the city’s significance as a holy site, while Madinah station’s vivid green colour draws inspiration from the Mosque of the Prophet. The Jeddah station features a shade of purple, which has a particular resonance with the city and KAEC’s station is a futuristic blue and silver, representative of its role as a modern new city.
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The station at Makkah ... characterised by a rich colour palette. |
“The two termini and two through stations are designed to provide a comfortable, uplifting experience for passengers. Climate-controlled concourse spaces provide respite from the desert climate. The design concept draws on Islamic architecture and takes the traditional gateway arch form as the basis for its roof design,” says the spokesman.
The design, common to all stations, features a sequence of 25-m-high arches rising from the concourse, complemented by smaller 9-m-high arches at platform level. Supported by freestanding structural trees, repeated on a 27-m square grid, the arches connect to form a flexible vaulted roof that can be configured to deal with passenger flows from all directions and which can be extended in the future if required.
Each station is oriented according to the path of the sun, turning from Madinah station, which faces east, to the north-facing Makkah station. Their changing position is articulated through openings in the roof, in which light tubes draw daylight down to the concourse level and animate the space. At night, spotlights between the perforations give the impression of stars in a night sky.
Following the ‘kit-of-parts’ approach, each station has a combination of different facades according to its orientation – solid facades are used where visibility is not essential, in order to reduce solar gain. The glazed entrances to the concourse and the platforms are concealed behind a combination of external mashrabiya and the deep overhanging roof canopies, which provide additional shade.
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Jeddah station ... awarded to the Saudi Oger-led consortium. |
“By following the direction of the trains, the arrangement of spaces helps passengers navigate the stations intuitively, with few level changes. Arriving passengers pass through a dramatic triple-height atrium, while a departure lounge below the vaulted roof maintains a visual connection with the platforms,” the spokesman says.
A large circular chandelier defines the entry sequence for each station. Its glowing band is made up of a series of connected prisms, which are designed to catch the light passing through the openings in the roof.
The prisms then reflect and refract the light onto the soffit and the concourse floor, creating patterns of illumination and shade that change as the sun moves across the sky. Further spherical chandeliers, suspended between the arches, provide focused lighting, mediating between the scale of the roof and concourse level and accentuating the rhythm of the structure.
“Altogether, the large, flexible stations will cover an area more than 30 times the size of London’s Trafalgar Square and will accommodate an anticipated 60 million passengers by 2012 – approximately six times the number of passengers that take the Eurostar from St Pancras each year. This is expected to increase to 135 million passengers by 2042,” the spokesman concludes.
The Foster + Partners and Buro Happold JV was appointed to carry out the design work at the end of March 2009. By the beginning of April, it had mobilised a team and set up a joint office.
The scheme went to tender in spring 2010 and will be on site soon. “This has been helped by our excellent relationship with the client, who has shared our vision to create an exceptional series of buildings,” says Majidi.
Jerry Young, Buro Happold’s project principal for the Haramain project, says: “While this has been one of the most exciting and challenging projects for the practice, the collaborative working methods adopted by the joint venture team from the outset have been instrumental in the JV meeting the quality, cost and time targets set by the client and should be a model for the future design of similar projects.”
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The Madinah station ... a rendition. |
The four stations form Package Two of the Phase One of the HHR project. A fifth station will be located within the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, which is currently being expanded.
Saudi Arabia has two major rail projects under way: the HHR, which will link Makkah with Madinah via Jeddah by a railway of 450 km long, and the North-South Railway, linking Riyadh in the centre of the country via Qassim, Hail, Al-Jawf, to Al-Haditha, with branches to Ras Al-Zour and Jubail to bauxite and phosphate mines in the north. The latter will be mainly used for minerals, but general freight and passenger transport is also planned.
SRO is currently studying bids for the second and final phase of the HHR project which includes the construction of the railway tracks, installation of signal systems and telecommunications as well as the procurement of rolling stock equipment.
It will include infrastructure maintenance for the project for 12 years. A contract award is expected next month (July).
