Construction costs drop

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is paying as much as 15 per cent less towards construction costs as cuts in state spending reduce pressure on supplies of building materials and labour in the kingdom.

Fahd Al Rasheed, group chief executive of Emaar the Economic City (EEC), the developer of KAEC, said construction firms’ pricing had become more competitive, leading to a drop in costs of 10 per cent to 15 per cent per sq m. 

Also, with fewer government contracts, capacity has improved, leading to contractors lowering their margins to compete for new work, he said.

EEC is developing KAEC a massive business, industrial and residential zone on the Red Sea coast near Jeddah, with backing from the government.

Kapsarc named smartest building

ing Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (Kapsarc) has been named Saudi Arabia’s ‘smartest’ building by technology giant Honeywell at its Smart Building Score Awards event held in Riyadh.

The Kapsarc modular complex, designed by the world-renowned architect late Zaha Hadid, achieved the highest evaluation amongst all entries from Saudi Arabia, with impressive scores across all three smart building categories, said Honeywell.

The Honeywell Smart Building Score Awards programme assesses the smartness of buildings across the region based on three key indicators of smart buildings – how green, safe and productive they are.

The awards also recognise the region’s leading smart buildings, including the smartest airport, hotel, hospital, educational and retail facilities as well as the leading high-rise office and residential buildings.

KAEC launches community villa plots

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), a special economic zone on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, has launched the sale of land plots for villas at the Al Murooj district of the zone.

Strategically located in the heart of KAEC, Al Murooj is the most prestigious of its coastal communities spread over an area of 4.9 million sq m. It consists of three areas: the Beach Community, the Golf Community, which includes an 18-hole championship golf course, and the Manazel Community.

Plots are being offered at the gated Beach Community which is spread over 900,000 sq m, as well as the Golf Community, where 235 villa plots with direct golf course frontage are being offered as part of the ‘Golf Community 3’. 

The gated Golf Community offers maximum privacy and security, and features Spanish and Mediterranean-inspired architectural designs.

Thyssenkrupp’s iwalk wins award

Thyssenkrupp won the ‘2016 Project of the Year’ award for its innovative ‘iwalk’ moving walkways, which were installed at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah.

These awards are organised by Elevator World, a leading publisher for the international building transportation industry.

The projects were judged by a panel of experienced industry professionals and experts which took into account several factors such as innovation, originality and creativity, challenges overcome, installation methods and techniques, the use of advanced technology, and overall quality of presentation.

The iwalk establishes a new benchmark in the industry by revolutionising the way moving walks are devised, manufactured and installed. The concept reduces installation space to a minimum without compromising capabilities. It offers greater comfort and more safety for users and helps ease planning, integration and operation for architects, general contractors and the final operator at the same time, says Thyssenkrupp.

In addition to 22 iwalks, Thyssenkrupp supplied and installed 36 elevators, 28 escalators, six inclined moving walks and one outdoor moving walk at the airport.

Saudi Ewaan eyeing prefab projects

audi-based Ewaan Global Residential Company is looking at implementing projects that focus on precast and prefabricated houses as well as green buildings in the kingdom, in a bid to offer Saudi citizens affordable homes, reported the Saudi Gazette.

Ewaan CEO Fadi Qassim pointed out the need to develop new solutions rather than the traditional construction to cut costs and save labour.