KAUST

An ambitious plan for a world-class research university in Saudi Arabia's desert spurs an unprecedented building project.
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Josephine Minutillo
Project Credits

Project:King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Architect: HOK
Architect of record: Oger International
Engineers: Walter P. Moore (structural); RWDI (environmental, daylighting, and wind); AEI (m/e/p and energy modeling); Vanderweil (m/e/p); HOK Engineering
Consultants: Front (facades); Solar Design Associates (alternative energy)
General Contractor:Saudi Oger

Sources

Concrete: GRC System Building
Rain screen: Hunter Douglas (terra-cotta); Intermarmor (limestone)
Stone-Glass Cladding: Cricursa (library)
Glass: Saint Gobain; Pilkington; Cricursa
Elevators:ThyssenKrupp
Demountable partitions: Clestra
Interior solar shading: Hunter Douglas
Raised flooring: Tate
Resilient flooring: Forbo; Johnsonite
Solid surfacing: Corian
Wall coverings:Armstrong; Knoll
Plumbing fixtures: American Standard

A comprehensive irrigation plan allocates water-reclamation loads from condensate, storm, gray, and black water to satisfy a majority of the irrigation requirements, which would have been less if HOK's original xeriscaping design was implemented. An on-site desalination plant creates potable water from the sea, though the process is energy-intensive.

Since opening its doors in September 2009, KAUST has become the first built project in Saudi Arabia to achieve LEED certification, and the largest in the world to attain LEED Platinum. Though this is a major accomplishment in some respects, and definitely a step in the right direction for a country whose oil-based economy has served it very well until now, there is an inherent irony in the story. Creating a city out of nothing so remote from much of its own country's population, and farther still from the professors and students with whom it wishes to collaborate, defies the very notion of sustainability. Filling the campus with high-energy-intensity lab buildings - despite the well-intentioned research conducted within them - in one of the world's most extreme climates, seems counterintuitive; blanketing parts of its desert site in turf grass and adding a golf course, downright absurd.

These were decisions beyond HOK's control. It was charged with making the design, construction, and operation of the buildings themselves as sustainable as possible within the project's accelerated time frame. Despite the fact that construction of the buildings used more than 16 million cubic feet of conventional concrete and all of the buildings' interior spaces require air-conditioning, the project still managed to garner the highest possible LEED rating, which speaks to obvious shortcomings of LEED, not HOK's sustainable-design efforts. KAUST's administrative buildings are said to use up to 40 percent less energy than the U.S. standard, its lab buildings 20 to 25 less - statistics that clearly point to deficiencies in construction here in the United States, not in Saudi Arabia.

MAKING IT WORK

KAUST's advanced research and laboratory facilities were designed to usher in a new, postpetroleum age of scientific achievement.

Photo: © JB Picoulet

A fast-track project for a desert startup led to collaboration around the globe.

Abbie Gregg is the owner of AGI, an Arizona-based firm that provides engineering and consulting services for advanced technology industries. She and her staff traveled frequently to Saudi Arabia to provide on-site support for construction of KAUST's state-of-the-art research and laboratory facilities.

Josephine Minutillo: How did you get involved with KAUST?
Abbie Gregg: HOK invited us to join the team in 2008 to assist with the design of an advanced fabrication clean room. We subsequently designed or consulted on the design for a thin film lab, hazardous material storage and dispense rooms, a photovoltaic research lab, and a mechanical and electrical utility room.

JM: You traveled there much more than the architects did. Why?
AG: We were hired to supervise on a daily basis. We had people on the ground all the time to assist with the clean-room construction and tool installation, which has a fairly large scope in terms of mechanical, electrical, and even plumbing and architectural hookup. We also assisted Aramco in purchasing the equipment. It was a fairly unique project. I don't believe they have any other equipment like this in all of Saudi Arabia.

JM: What were the specific challenges of being a woman on this job?
AG:There were lots of things that had to be dealt with in terms of protocol and getting the visas, and in terms of understanding the behavior in advance so that we would know what to expect. Even more so in Jeddah, where we stayed and which is about an hour away from the site. We wore the abaya all the time. That was certainly challenging - being on a construction site in a cloak when it is 130 degrees. We were told that there were about 20,000 male workers. The only women that were there on a regular basis were from AGI. A female architect employed by the construction company, Oger, visited the site periodically.

JM: Was it difficult then for some of the men who are not used to working with women to collaborate with your team?
AG: It is a very respectful culture. Everyone wanted to do a good job. There was some trepidation because they weren't familiar with most of this high-tech construction and didn't necessarily know what the end result would look like. But since it was a fast-track project, you couldn't afford to wait around. Because HOK and the engineering firms were not on-site, much of the responsibility and decision-making went to Aramco and Oger. I would say that they were glad to have people around from our firm - men, women, whomever - who had the insight and the experience and could answer their questions.

JM: Would you do it again?
AG: Absolutely. It was an eye-opening, firsthand experience with the Arab world, and with super-large, green-site construction. It was also extremely multicultural. The contractor was a French company, several subcontractors were from Lebanon, and the subcontractor we supervised was from Germany. The construction workers were from Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We worked closely with Professor Xixiang Zhang from China, the director of the Advanced NanoFabrication Center. Japanese providers brought in some of the critical tools. There were workers and people to interact with from all over the world, which makes communication an interesting challenge. It forces you to listen very carefully to what's being said.  

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in November 2010

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