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Text by
David A. Hansen FAIA LEED AP
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06 Preface David A. Hansen, FAIA, LEED AP 10 Biography
Built Projects or in Construction
12 Experience Center
24 University of Dubai
Neom City, KSA
Dubai, UAE
36 Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University Riyadh, KSA
56 Bank Al Etihad Amman, Jordan
62 King Abdulla Financial District Riyadh, KSA
72 HIKMA Pharmaceuticals HQ Amman, Jordan
80 Ithra Innovation Center
88 Riyadh Transportation Control Center
94 Dubai Cruise Terminal
100 Prototype Transit Station
108 Private Aviation Terminal
On the Boards
114 Sabic Museum
122 2020 Expo Pavilion
132 Dubai Global Connect
142 Millitary Headquarters
152 Riyadh Archive Building
160 Jandariyah Event Center
168 Business Bay 5 Star Hotel
176 Dammam High Rise
180 Wadi Hanifa Private Villa
188 Duqm Wadi Seaside Resort
196 Hyperloop
206 Security Headquarters
214 Gold Souq
218 Royal Diwan
224 C4 office building
232 C5 office building
238 Al Maktoum International Airport Terminal
246 Al Maktoum International Airport Concourse
252 Aspire Zone Foundation
260 Gulf Seaside Resort
264 Ibn Battuta E4 Tower
268 Dubai Islamic Bank HQ
276 Riyadh Mixed-use Tower
Appendix
284 Project index
302 Acknowledgments
303 Photography credits
Dammam, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Dubai, UAE
Riyadh, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Dubai, UAE
Dubai, UAE
Gulf region, Middle East
Riyadh, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Dubai, UAE
Dammam, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Duqm, Oman
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Riyadh, KSA
Fujairah, UAE
Riyadh, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Riyadh, KSA
Dubai, UAE
Dubai, UAE
Gulf region, Middle East
Gulf region, Middle East
Dubai, UAE
Dubai, UAE
Riyadh, KSA
Preface
David A Hansen, FAIA, Architect
My first monograph, Reshaping Corporate Culture, concerns itself with the many corporate and commercial projects that became a main focus of my practice at Perkins&Will during the 1990s through the mid-2000s. This second book will focus on the more diverse project types, forces, and environment that existed around my decision in 2007 to relocate to Cairo while blending the design responsibilities of Perkins&Will with those of Dar Al Handasah.
David Hansen
From there to here…
My career started in the early 1970s at the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). Significantly, in early 1980 a large project we were designing in Kuwait with our local A/E firm, Pan Arab Consulting Engineers (PACE), later led them to inquire if I would be interested in their Chief Architect position and the ultimate goal of leading them to become a true international practice. SOM viewed this as an important opportunity, and subsequently seconded my position to PACE.
Thus, with the lure of immersing in a new and decidedly different culture and also having creative autonomy in my design role, I agreed to a four-year stint based in Kuwait but also encompassing the London, Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain offices of PACE as well. In late 1986, when I was finishing this tour and primed to return, I was sought out by the Chairman of Perkins&Will (P&W) to become a Design Principal in their Chicago office with the stated goal of reigniting their design reputation. I accepted the challenge which brought me back to Chicago and it is a position I hold to this day.
When first practicing as an architect during the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was evident that the tools of architecture were fundamentally changing, yet the base practice hadn’t been subject to the same intense overall revision. Computerization was becoming an undeniable force. Most architects still drafted their drawings by hand on mylar and designers sketched their ideas in books or on tracing paper. However, in the next decade the pace of change greatly increased, thus leading most large offices to fully embrace the advantages being offered by technology.
As a Design Principal for several decades in the Chicago practice of P&W, I thought I had experienced all that the world of planning and architecture had to offer. Over that time I was fortunate enough to have worked on hundreds of prestigious projects, many of which were located internationally: from
Seoul, Beijing, and Mumbai to Gabon and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like most American architects, we worked from our domestic offices and tried to assimilate as much regional context and local culture by incorporating research sprinkled with periodic trips before starting on an international project. However, depending on project budgets and schedules, actual site visitation and local data collection wasn’t always an option; especially where fast burn international competitions were concerned.
Open to change…
With my earlier Kuwait experience, I quickly became the P&W expert in Middle East planning and global design. Subsequently I was often paired with Dar Al Handasah (Dar) an international multi-discipline, sister company to P&W within the Dar Group. I continued in this manner until 2007, working out of Chicago for the conceptual and design development of a variety of international project types with P&W providing conceptual design and Dar usually providing the engineering aspects and being the architect of record. Another fortuitous aspect of the P&W/Dar relationship was our relative global positions which allowed development and coordination to be done on a 24-hour basis between participating time zones and disciplines.
Thus, we both prospered being able to provide a strong, long term working relationships with Dar Al Handasah and many of the top-flight international consultants associated with us through the Dar Group. What sometimes seemed to be absent on my side, due to location, was the rigorous personal experiences of place, culture, and indigenous traditions.
What changed in 2007 was that Dar had just won the 50,000 student campus of Princess Nora University (PNU), a project with a staggering 2½ year start of programming to end of construction schedule. Dar felt the 33,000,000 SF Women’s University in Riyadh needed me to assume the Director of
Design position for the project, but also offered beyond that the additional position as Design Director of the Dar Al Handasah office, in Cairo. In the end, the agreement was conditional on simultaneously remaining a Design Principal of P&W for its offered advantages. Thus, in accepting the position and the requisite move to Cairo, I was again thrust into an evolving architectural reality, featuring many changes in personnel as well as change in both regional and design cultures. In addition, the time demanded for each phase had greatly reduced while the expectations of deliverables for clients has dramatically increased. To meet these demands, full computerization had become essential to both the conceptual design process and project delivery if we were to maintain this acceleration without a subsequent loss of quality. Nowhere in the world was this condition more evident than in the Middle East. Cities like Dubai and Riyadh have high expectations in both the quality of Design and reduced time spans for design development and construction phases.
Somethings change; some remain the same…
My design process has always emphasized sketching as a way of conceptually melding visual aspects of a project with the more ethereal parameters and criteria of program, adjacencies, and site and the client’s visions and goals. Translating these through quick sketches allowed me to take developmental leaps and instantly portray to team members (as well as clients) the essence of a design. This allowed me to easily communicate to our younger architects who were increasingly proficient in CAD software, but also quickly becoming reliant on the computer for design development and construction drawings. In their favor, it can be said that all design professionals know that continuous leveraging of evolving technology enhances the analytics and thus the quality of their design approaches. A good example of this is providing accurate solar studies and the exact orientation and geometries of related shading devices within a project. Though architecture must stay abreast
of technology, I also still believe in the “Old School” maxim that emersion within the culture, traditions, environment, and regional context of a specific project is essential and greatly enhances related design solutions. In a similar way, emersion also contributes to finding innovative, sustainable solutions that enrich the project in a more holistic and authentic way.
Thus, moving from Chicago to the Middle East became imperative if I were to continue with the regional typologies, size, and the complicated projects I had come to embrace. It also became obvious to me that since my building aesthetics were primarily project based (and not stylistically predetermined), I again required emersion and not just acquaintance to a project site. Stated another way: It’s my firm belief that architectural design without primary embedded criteria and rational constraints in its process becomes sculpture, employing aesthetics, space, and volume, but without the true core of function and utility. And though I consider Architecture an art, it seems that art could be placed just about anywhere. Its illusive underpinnings mediating the differences or correctness of location and expression. Thus, the connection or the contrast to its context is not that critical. Architecture, on the other hand, must exist and be developed within the public realm alongside, quite possibly, greater determinants than those of the building itself.
What is consistent throughout my practice and the projects in both monographs of my work is sustainable outcomes. My very first project completed in the Middle East was Umm Al Qura, a large ground up university campus in KSA that was designed to integrate, among other features, natural daylighting and augmented wind towers. And though constructed more than five years before LEED was established, it would today be LEED Gold. Another project, WW Grainger Headquarters (cover
project of my first monograph) also predated sustainability, yet was given a retroactive LEED Gold certification a decade after design, construction, and occupation. Every project we design, whether seeking certification or not, is developed with a LEED scorecard as one of its base criteria with the idea that as technology innovates, architects and the building industry must also innovate to go beyond mere sustainability to net zero and continue to push to seek net positive architecture.
Dar flexes its design muscles…
During the subsequent years leading up to the publishing of this monograph, the thriving Cairo Design office morphed into a specialized Design Studio located in Dubai; this to take advantage of the ever-increasing amount of projects that demanded the immediate attention of an International Designer and an equivalent manager based locally to the clientele and geographic epi-center of the projects. With this balance in Dubai and together with the strategic cooperation of both P&W and Dar, I continue a career that equally challenges and inspires me. With this as background, the projects selected in this monograph share traits and are drawn from a variety of architectural typologies and locations—built works and those in construction. In addition I’ve selected projects still “On the Boards” since much can be gleaned from the day to day design development and iteration of options that are so often required at the front end of projects. It should be said that on these projects, I continue to rely on a team of cooperating professionals working with me, sharing ideas, as well as developing and refining the design through all phases.
David A. Hansen, FAIA, LEED, AP Perkins&Will / Dar Al Handasah
Biography
David A. Hansen, FAIA, is an award-winning architect whose 42 years of experience has been emphasized in worldwide master planning of corporate, commercial, residential, hospitality, and institutional projects. Known in the industry as a skilled authority in master planning and design, his talent has been sought globally and has spearheaded well over 27 million square meters of market facilities in just the past 10 years alone.
Respected by clients for his success in translating functional requirements into beautiful, flexible design solutions, David has worked with and forged significant relationships with Fortune 500 clients.
They include, but are not limited to, clients such as Kraft, Sears, W.W. Grainger, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, and Discover Card. Internationally, David’s work includes major commissions for Samsung in Korea, Mori Trust’s Shindome Tower in Tokyo and a number of large-scale projects for The Reliance Group in Mumbai and New Mumbai, India. He has also been pivotal in the master planning and architectural design of numerous urban centers as well as college and university campuses worldwide.
This experience includes the University of Colorado Medical Center near Denver, Colorado, Singapore University, and, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Umm Al Qura University near Mecca, and the King Saud Abdul-Aziz Medical Universities in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al Hasa as well as the new Princess Nora bin Abdul-Aziz Women’s University in Riyadh.
Recent experience in the Middle East brings major projects with Dubai Airports, the university of Dubai, numerous projects with Aramco in Khobar, KSA, as well as extensive experience with retail, high-rise office, and mixed-use, hotel, residential, and resort projects in the Gulf, Europe, and Africa. David has also participated extensively in master planning projects, among
others, for Al Shaab Master Plan, Kuwait City, Kuwait, Baku Park, Baku, Azerbaijan; Fujairah Urban District, Luanda, Angola, Mina District Doha Port, Doha, Qatar; and Ru’a Al Makkah in KSA and Medina, KSA. In the Middle East, David’s work includes major commissions in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Many of his relationships and understanding of the Middle East developed when he spent four years directing a major A/E firm in Kuwait prior to joining Perkins&Will as a Design Principal.
He has participated in both professional juries and the lecture circuit for numerous years at various design symposiums and universities. His work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Sao Paolo Biennale, the World Architectural Foundation, the GSD at Harvard University and the Washington Design Center in Washington, DC. He has also been published broadly in Architecture, Architectural Record, Architectural Review, and L’Arca, amongst others, and he has written numerous articles for architectural journals.
In 2006, the international architectural publisher, Images, published a monograph of his work in the area of corporate, civic and commercial practice, called “Reshaping Corporate Culture”, that spans nearly two decades of his career at Perkins&Will. David Hansen received his Bachelors in Architecture from the University of Illinois and served as an adjunct professor in their Graduate Level, Integrated Design Studio for 12 years and as a design critic for the Chicago Studio of the School of Architecture of Virginia Tech.
David joined Perkins&Will as Design Principal in 1986, and in 2008 relocated to Dubai.
In 2008, Mr. Hansen was invested as a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects.
EXPERIENCE CENTER
Neom
City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The Experience Center project will be the initial contact and information source for most first-time visitors and investors looking into NEOM and what opportunities it represents as a city of the future. The overall master plan of the area accommodates the Experience Center, Agricultural Center, the air taxi outdoor experience area, the extensive outdoor plant nurseries and parking. Situated within a natural wadi directly above NEOM’s Silver Beach development, its iconic form provides a landmark with commanding views to below.
Conceptually, the new Pavilion at Silver Beach is experienced as a journey. A journey that houses the Experience Center and the Agricultural Center and takes both the external experience and the internal experience into account. The building‘s location is sited toward the back and the higher elevation of the site. This allows the visitors a longer and more interesting arrival sequence that highlights the natural ramping identity of the building’s form.
Thus the building itself becomes the architectural vehicle that allows visitors to walk along a curvilinear path above the internal displays while capturing glimpses of these various displays and events below. At the main entry drop off, visitors can choose whether to take the exterior ramp or go directly inside. The two journeys are quite different and yet integrated to increase the visitor’s options. Both are designed to delight and enhance the understanding of the purpose and conceptual underpinnings of NEOM.
The geometry of the signature ramping system starts near the main entrance and curves sinuously around the Experience Center while also entwining the future Agricultural Center to create a grand promenade. This landscaped walkway will allow visitors an elevated entry height to observe the site where NEOM will establish the city of the future. The ramp winds and reconnects to the main entrance internal atrium allowing visitors to use vertical circulation up and then wander back down to grade if desired. The smooth curvilinear forms and powerful expression of the building at once feels comfortable with the environment while also contrasting with the rugged landscape of the wadi and mountains beyond. This dichotomy creates an instant landmark for the region and NEOM.
DAVID A. HANSEN, ARCHITECT
DAVID A. HANSEN, ARCHITECT
PRINCESS NORA UNIVERSITY
Riyadh, KSA
Located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) is a new, world class university campus for 50,000 full-time, undergraduate women. At 2,000 acres (800 hectares) and 33 million square feet of space, including support facilities, PNU is the largest facility of its kind in the world. Soon after the structure of the initial master planning and some of the early building imagery produced for the client by Joseph Hajjar, the Director of Architecture at Dar and his team, it was handed over to me to finalize the curriculum, create a working program for the master plan, and develop all buildings and infrastructure.
As overall Design Director of the PNU master plan and the vast array of campus facilities, one of the primary challenges was to maintain a design consistency throughout the campus, even though we enlisted five separate offices of Perkins&Will and three offices of Dar Al Handasah. By necessity, this also involved moving to Cairo, and incidentally, taking on the additional role of Director of Design for Architecture in Dar’s Cairo office, along with my Design Principal role at P&W. At one point, we had over 150 architects and more than double that amount of engineers working out of eight offices, so obviously, the final product isn’t and should not be referred to as the creation of one person. Many dedicated architects and engineers contributed in both major and minor ways to make the project a success.
DAVID A. HANSEN, ARCHITECT / FROM
Passive strategies such as optimum solar orientation and wind towers that naturally cool outdoor courtyards are integral to the design. Additionally, PNU’s institutional philosophy is focused on the health and well-being of its students and the development of a sustainable campus community.
Extensive open space is provided with access to the outdoors and visual connection to gardens. Healthy interiors are highlighted by excellent indoor air quality through the use of air quality monitoring systems and low emitting materials and finishes. The campus is remarkable not only for its size, speed of design, and construction but is exemplary due to the fact that all major buildings on the campus were pursuing LEED certification, something very few projects in Saudi Arabia have done. At that point in time PNU boosted the number of LEED registered and certified projects by two-fold in Saudi Arabia. Though complicated by the LEED certification process and the strong cultural overlays, as well as providing the campus through a Design Build process, in the end we were rewarded for our extensive efforts with four gold multi-building complexes, six silver building complexes, and a number of certified buildings. The design and construction approach was straight forward
and utilized locally practiced construction methods as a prerequisite, given the two-year construction schedule.A rich and diverse character was produced using a system of repetitive, modular components across the campus. Using local building techniques, the campus structures are cast-in-place concrete frames with a combination of flat slabs or hollow core planks fabricated at the on-site batch plant.
The exterior skin systems throughout the campus are an edited palette of locally quarried stones and glass fiber reinforced concrete panels and custom designed screens, also fabricated on-site. Imported curtain wall systems and high performance glazing are standardized across the entire campus, with graphic patterned hardscape. Pergolas, shade trees, and processional rows and Bosque’s of palms align to define the major pedestrian axis within the academic core. As the campus becomes less dense at the perimeter, the landscape density also decreases.
BANK AL ETIHAD
Amman, Jordan
The site is ideally located on the edge of Abdali, Amman’s new downtown destination that provides the Jordanian capital with the central business, social, and residential needs of a regional business and tourism hub. Abdali is a unique endeavor in urban planning where business, living, and leisure smoothly intertwine to create a model of contemporary lifestyle in the Kingdom and the region and one quite well suited for the new Etihad Bank HQ.
The master plan and municipal regulations laid out the base siting parameters, however, it was important to seek how context, passive solar orientation, and site access might shape the building approach. Though the surrounding buildings in Abdali are still in development, further analysis utilizing a three-dimensional stacking and blocking study allowed for a response to proposed adjacent structures. Thus patterns could be formulated showing views to and from the building as well as daily solar penetration to the site. In addition, the location offered several amenities that were advantaged in the early planning such as primary views to the site and access to an adjacent park that fronted on the building.
DUBAI GLOBAL CONNECT
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Historically, trade has been the backbone of Dubai since it was a small pearl-trading seaport. While excellent services and institutions have made Dubai an international business hub in recent years, it will need enabling infrastructure to maintain its global status. Dubai has attracted global attention with Dubai Expo 2020, which is expected to draw new industries to further build upon its existing trade legacy. The aim is to strategically exploit Dubai’s location, to make it a natural trade gateway, connecting buyers and sellers from all over the globe.
The aim of DGC is to capitalize on Dubai’s global position to provide an integrated platform for international buyers and sellers to ”meet” from all over the globe to trade without barriers. The conventional trading method, based on source manufacturing, has shifted to accessibility and ease-of-business. Dubai Global Connect aims to bring back the human interaction factor to the trading process.
DGC is a one-stop business-to-business international trade hub designed on flexible and modular principles. DGC will be fully-integrated with supporting facilities such as AMIA, Jebel Ali Port and Dubai Logistics City, directly connecting people to all modes of freight transport.
MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
Gulf region, Middle East
There has been continuous human habitation of the Gulf region for some 50,000 years. During this time, the region saw the migration of tribes, waves of invasions from without, and bands of nomads and traders coming through the Gulf by both land and sea. Although the region was primarily peaceful, the area suffered occasional hostility over the years, which created a basic need for protection. Like other primary needs, protection has always been a human need, no matter the culture or the country.
In the early days of the Gulf this protection took the form of walled citadels or forts. The materials for constructing these defences were limited to the local materials of mud-bricks, wood, and stone. Thus, fortifications took their form from the combining of the available material in the most efficient way. The most iconic and memorable form that is identified in these forts is the corner tower that when adapted as a singular form becomes a watch tower. These towers which were a truncated cylinder were perforated with slot windows, which allow light into the interior while providing a sheltered, defensive position. We have incorporated into our conceptual form the contemporary interpretation which gives not only an identifiable massing, but a fenestration pattern and texture to the overall expression.
The dramatic curvilinear roof forms create not only the exterior arrival identity but also a dynamic and appropriate experience upon entering. The unique horseshoe-shaped vehicular drop off area assures passengers the minimal walking distance to the terminal.
The skylight patterns, color palette, and materiality of the terminal are harmonious and similar to the concourse areas and bring a continuity to the overall airport experience.
All parking shading structures as well as partial roof forms will contain photovoltaics providing some of the energy needs for the airport.
A Jumah Mosque is located in front of the terminal, in a garden setting that also accommodates food and beverage venues for meeters and greeters of the arriving passengers.
240 DAVID A. HANSEN, ARCHITECT
DAVID A. HANSEN, ARCHITECT
The residential floors below are stacked and bundled into a series of shimmering rectilinear solids that hug the corners. An organizing assembly of contiguous vertical and horizontal glazed channels separate these solids and creates an elegant and restrained façade. Enhancing the dynamic balance of the façade, vertical rows of protected balconies align and shift from the glazed façade to the glazed channels. The overall patterned effect is to produce a new holistic and timeless iconography.
The podium base houses the lobby, retail outlets, parking, building and residents’ services and provides at its top level an elegant and relaxing retreat. This level offers a swimming pool, separate kids’ pool area, spa and health club facilities, as well as a café dining experience with views to the pool deck.
At the base of the podium, the residents lobby looks out on its very own park. This landscaped oasis is for residents only and features a jogging track, kids play area, and shaded seating areas nestled in abundant trees, shrubs, and seasonal flowers.
