Winner of the International Design Competition which involved the creation of a masterplan, architectural and landscape design concept for a world-class visitor destination for the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The brief called for a Botanical Garden seed bank, visitor attractions and back-ofhouse facilities sufficient to accommodate up to 45,000 visitors per day.

The team’s response challenged the idea of creating a conventional botanical collection. Working with Buro Happold, The Eden Project and The National History Museum, our response proposed a paleobotanic timeline, creating authentic interpretations of ecosystems that existed on this precise site in past epochs.

The scheme aims to become a unique educational device in the explanation of global climate change and desertification.

The core building is formed as a crescent and encloses the wadi garden  a celebration of the current native ecology of the central region.

This 22 hectare structure encloses seven controlled environments, each of which presents a glimpse of the ecosystems that occurred here, culminating in the garden of choices an exploration of the options available to produce genuinely sustainable development in the future.

The scheme will be a carbon-neutral exemplar project, harvesting stone, gravels, rainwater and sun power to sustain the development and operation of the facility.