Aerial masterplan of Zone 1, East An Naseem: parks, mosques, schools and parking marked across the neighbourhood

Green Riyadh,East An Naseem

Green Riyadh is a city-wide programme under Vision 2030 to improve the public realm across Riyadh by planting 7.5 million trees. The East An Naseem project includes nearly 100 new parks alongside improvements to existing parks, streetscapes, schools, mosques, healthcare facilities and government buildings. The design combines planting, paving, lighting, shade and recreation throughout the district.

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Type: Public realm
Year: 2020 to 2022
Role: Project lead
Contribution: Led design and delivery across the whole project, managed the landscape team, coordinated all project consultants and oversaw submissions through client approval.

Map of the city of Riyadh with East An Naseem highlighted

Project context: the East An Naseem project area in two parts, zone A and zone B, within the surrounding street grid

Analysis

Location

East An Naseem is a residential district in eastern Riyadh.

Project context

To reduce the risk of quality issues, the project was divided into phases, zones, and smaller design packages to maintain delivery phases and consistency.

Catchment diagram for neighbourhood parks, from the Green Riyadh design guidelines

Strategy

Planting strategy

Developed planting palettes for different zones to provide shade and reduce irrigation demand, excluding thorny and poisonous species from schools. With support from BIM personnel, developed a Revit script to populate planting areas and generate schedules automatically, substantially reducing drafting time and project costs.

Neighbourhood park

The distribution of neighbourhood parks follows the Green Riyadh design guidelines for providing a park within a 300-metre radius of homes.

Aerial masterplan of Zone 1: parks, mosques, schools and parking marked across the neighbourhood

Zone 1 illustrative masterplan, with blow-up areas 1 and 2 marked

Blow-up area 1: neighbourhood park and residential block interface, proposed street and park layout

Neighbourhood park programme: entrances, events lawn, gathering plaza, play, fitness, picnic areas, mosque seating plaza and planting buffer

Neighbourhood park concept plan with key

Aerial visual of the neighbourhood park beside the mosque

Design development

Masterplan

The masterplan develops parks and streetscapes together, extending public realm improvements through the district. Planting, paving, lighting and pedestrian access are coordinated across individual sites and their adjoining streets.

Zone 1

The illustrative masterplan brings together the proposed park layouts and streetscape improvements for the Zone.

Blow-up area

The enlarged plan develops the relationship between a neighbourhood park and surrounding residential blocks, considering park entrances alongside the proposed streetscape.

Park activities

A central lawn forms the basis of the design, gathering areas, children's play area and shaded seating spaces.

Park plan

The detailed layout showing all the activity zones and their relationship with the proposed overall strategy.

Park view

Parks 1–6

The individual park layouts adapt the design to different plot shapes, varying the arrangement of recreation areas and open space.

Parks 7–12

The twelve detailed park designs range from 3,370 to 17,036 m², with layouts developed to suit the available space.

Visual of a neighbourhood park: children on spring riders, outdoor fitness and food trucks around a tree-shaded plaza

Visual of a tree-lined promenade under a shade structure, with a giant chess board and seating

Visual of the events lawn beside the mosque, with families picnicking, a volleyball game and a small stage

Visual of a play area among trees and low planting, with a climbing frame and shaded seating

Night visual of a planted street in East An Naseem, trees lit from below