The campus of the King Abdullah Oil Research and Development Center on the airport outskirts of Riyadh serves as a gateway to the capital of Saudi Arabia. Its purpose is to find the most efficient ways to generate and use energy, and not only related to oil. Its campus covers seven hectares - however, the five components of the Center of buildings are combined into a single compact structure - cellular and partially modular. Hexagonal prismatic "honeycomb" allows you to significantly save building material, it is easy to connect spaces with each other (in comparison with the more usual quadrangular sections), to expand the complex depending on the need - both as a whole and each of the five parts separately.
The complex consists of a knowledge center, a computer center, a conference center with an exhibition hall and an auditorium for 300 seats, a scientific library with a fund of 100,000 books, and the Musalla prayer hall. In the middle there is a courtyard, where the ceilings are supported by steel columns. it serves as a connection between the parts of the building in the temperate season, and in the hot months it is replaced by an underground tunnel.
Courtyards have been created in each section - instead of one or another honeycomb to provide the interior with natural light filtered through the filters. They are oriented to the north and northwest - the safest directions from heat and sun, while on their south side there are “wind traps” aimed at the prevailing north wind.
Overall, the facility is closed to the south and faces west and north towards the researchers' housing estate and towards future campus expansion, respectively. In the interior, the tiers offset from each other made it possible to create visual connections between the floors.
The Center complex received, as originally planned, the "platinum" LEED certificate. Its eco-friendly components include 45% less energy consumption than standard (due to the building's mass, orientation, efficient façade, 5,000 megawatt-hour / yr solar panels in the south-facing convention center). All drinking water in the Center is purified and reused on site, and 100% of the water for irrigation of landscaping (the landscape was in charge of the GROSS. MAX bureau) is not originally drinking water. 40% of building materials are produced within a radius of 800 km, 30% of materials are made from recycled materials.
