BASIC CONCEPTS
Summary :
Riyadh North proposes a livable, sustainable, and intelligent city.
It focuses on livability of a city while providing various opportunities for safe, healthy, and
entertaining life experiences within the abundance of landscaped areas, public facilities, and
gated communities.
It also demonstrates sustainability in various ways, in green city concept in its master plan, in
energy efficiency and water reclaiming, and in social and economic self-sufficiency.
Additionally, Riyadh North aims at the intelligence in city building to make it a smart city. It
incorporates creative technologies with all facets of urban life, service, and maintenance.
The master plan of Riyadh North intends to represent this three-fold concept in every detail of
planning, design, and construction.
Livable City Riyadh North is a liveable city enabling residents and visitors to enjoy mixed- use amenities and various joyful urban experiences. A large area is reserved for landscape , water features and golf course to which residents have easy access. Hospital provide quality medical services, and sports facilities and other amenities offer a number of opportunities for various urban activities and entertainments. Neighborhoods are gated communities with various maintenance and safety measures, making each neighborhood a safe and secured places to live in. Various neighborhood facilities within the neighborhood center such as police offices, clinics and libraries facilitate the livability of the community.
Sustainable City Riyadh North is a place where nature meets with up-to-date intelligence technologies. The smartness is in every aspect of urban life and city management, such as; Home automation and Wi-Fi technologies offering high level of interconnectedness and ubiquitous environments; IP TV and smart phone connection enabling e-learning educations, cultural programs, and entertainments; The city’s U-management System controlling urban management activities related to energy use, waste recycling, water efficiency, and safety and security.
Intelligent City Riyadh North aims to be fully self sufficient in using and generating energy and other resources. This green city concept in terms of resource efficiency includes on-site generation of solar energy (PV farm and BIPV), water recycling and waste cogeneration. The social sustainability is important as well in that the design principles of gated community applied to the residential areas intend to provide a place of sustainable living with the sense of community and social cohesion. Economically, Riyadh North focuses on mixed use development, particularly in commercial, business, light industrial, and other public zones, which will provide a considerable number of employment opportunities and economic vitality for the city.
LIVABLE CITY
Green Area & Waterscapen
Shaded Pedestrian
Pedestrian Orientation Vibrant mixed use character of these public amenities is encouraged by shaded elevated decks and well landscaped and interconnected open spaces, which will substitute for dependence on automobile transportation. This climate-protected pedestrian network will also increase the livability of Riyadh North. Gated Community Plan The clusters of gated communities in Riyadh North also provide livable environments with neighborhood green areas, social gathering places, and self-sufficient neighborhood centers. Recent technologies of safety and security measures are also provided to increase the livability of the neighborhoods.
Sustainable city:
Green City Concept Riyadh North aims to be an ecological living machine. The Aqua Green concept in its master plan is realized in many forms including landscaped areas (green axis, parks, golf course, etc.), networks of water reservoirs and water flows, greenways, and eco-health corridor. Ponds act as living machines where urban ecology is constantly maintained realized (pond area is totally120,000㎡, holding 100,000 tons of water). Given the hot and arid climate, many parts of open spaces such as parks, walkways, plazas, and decks are shaded with water spaces nearby, which will provide natural cooling and evaporation effect. Ground surfaces are covered with pervious materials and greens which prevent from heat island effect. Wind breaks are installed , along the site boundary and at the central Canal Park, considering occasional hazardous winds (e.g., sandstorms). At the human scale, the network of urban open spaces (central green axis, parks, streets, etc.) will allow for visual openness and residents healthy uses as well as proper amount of wind flows across the city.
Energy Efficiency and Generation Efficiency technologies, designs, and materials used in planning the city make Riyadh North a sustainable city in terms of resources use. Energy use is carefully monitored and controlled using smart technologies and U- management system site wide. Alternative energy is provided mostly from solar energy , photovoltaic power generation (PV Farm and BIPV). Each residence also has solar panels at the roof (about 60 panels on 90 square meters roof) supplementing the need for home electric power. Waste/trash is collected site wide and sent to incineration to generate additional energy. Water resources are also meticulously controlled using water efficiency technologies (faucets, sub grade irrigation, etc.) and water recycling (sewage treatment, ponds as reservoirs, etc.). The water treatment facility recycles 80% of daily consumed water and use ecological ponds as water reservoirs. Gas consumption is also included in the energy efficiency program performed in gas supply network and U-management system.
Neighborhood Self-sufficiency (Gated Community)Gated communities in Riyadh North provide neighborhood self-sufficiency and residential satisfaction. Schools, clinics, fitness centers, village offices, and other facilities are clustered within each neighborhood center. Neighborhood parks and plazas are also provided nearby. These amenities will meet residents’ daily needs while enhancing social networks and interaction among residents. The neighborhood design will meet the requirements of CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design), which will facilitate community sense in each gated community. Careful design in terms of location and linkage of the neighborhood centers with commercial and public facilities of Riyadh North will supplement the community ’ s everyday residential needs.
Economic Vitality Riyadh North is a economically sustainable city, with employments and workplaces in various commercial and business facilities within the site (business centers, commercial facilities, sports facilities, etc.). Light Industrial Zone will also open a number of jobs to Riyadh North residents. The city of Riyadh North itself becomes producers as well as consumers, reducing economic dependence on outside world and recycling the economic gains to its own development and to the region. This vitality will make Riyadh North economically stable and sustainable.
Intelligent city:
Smart City Riyadh North pursues ubiquitous intelligence technologies in all possible aspects, from residential life and operation of public facilities to city management and energy efficiency. Home automation system is installed in every residence of Riyadh North to make it a smart home. Smart home features include such technologies as digital door lock, TV phone, CCTV, home network system, video phone, home audio system, and health check network and nurse call. These technologies will ensure residents’ everyday experience of convenience and security. For commercial and public buildings, intelligent building system is installed and will provide up-to-date services for conveniences and security purposes. This includes disaster prevention system, IT networking, parking control and safety, and automated security system. The city as a whole has the satellite and Wi-Fi coverage. Wireless internet access is available anytime, anywhere, providing the entire city with a ubiquitous environment.
Creative Technology The goal of making Riyadh North a smart city becomes possible by employing creative technologies, including a city wide innovative intelligent traffic safety system such as SAHIR (His royal highness Prince Salman has approved SAHIR which will dramatically reduce traffic violations and accidents in the increasing number of automobiles in Saudi Arabia). Smart grid and other similar recent technologies will be employed as well for energy efficiency and power use control. The U-management, a site wide ubiquitous management system, enables a small number of management staff to control such a variety of management activities related to energy, waste, water, and security in the most efficient way.
Intelligent Safety and Security Control Gated communities in Riyadh North provide neighborhood self-sufficiency and residential satisfaction. In addition to the site wide traffic and management control, Riyadh North adopts various measures of intelligent safety and security control which ensure home life safety and neighborhood security in its gated communities. CPTED, a soft technology in which neighborhood crime is prevented in neighborhood design methods, is employed in both neighborhoods and public facilities. Parking spaces are also equipped with security target hardening technologies. Not only visual monitoring and security guarding is provided but also various security apparatus such as panic control system is employed in neighborhood and public parking spaces.
Residential Health and Civic Services Intelligence Recent intelligence technologies and smart service devices are actively employed for home medical care services (home health check and monitoring network, home hospital intelligence, emergency communication, indoor air quality control, etc.). Similar characters of up-to-date technologies will be used for community civic services and administrative office works for residents (public administration process innovation, internet-based public service network, etc.). Online seal service and electronic documentation system will also ensure convenient public administration related to residents’ daily needs.
