Assalamu Alaikum - King Salman Park: Riyadh’s New Green Heart
Assalamu Alaikum, thought I’d share some news about a major project changing Riyadh’s landscape.
In the centre of Riyadh, an old airbase is being turned into a vast green oasis that aims to reshape the city’s environment and social life. King Salman Park, recently nominated for a regional architecture award, shows what thoughtful urban design can do even in a harsh desert setting.
The design team wanted to change that former airbase and its flood-prone desert ground into living, breathing nature right in the city. As one of the architects explained, the goal was to create a forest with a thousand gardens beneath its canopy - a place that makes the city more liveable and invites families to spend time in the green and reconnect with nature.
Spanning about 16 square kilometres, the park is meant to be one of the largest urban parks in the world, and it’s pushing planners to rethink how to build in extreme climates. Understanding Riyadh’s wadis and landscape was a big part of the plan; the designers created a manufactured wadi as the park’s main organising feature.
Another challenge was linking the park to the city itself. Rather than isolating the park, the plan uses “green fingers” that weave the park into the urban fabric so people can easily move between neighbourhoods and green spaces. There won’t be fences around it - the idea is that the park is part of the city, not a separate island.
Water management is a key innovation. The project will use treated city wastewater - polished to a very high quality - to irrigate the park, solving waste issues while providing a sustainable water source for the ambitious planting.
They also rebuilt the soil, digging down to break up compacted ground and creating “regenerative soil” with added sands, pumice, biochar, and helpful microorganisms. This engineered soil soaks up rainwater and supports a wide variety of plants.
The park is planned to be mostly ready by 2030, with parts opening earlier. It’s expected to host over 700 plant species, up from around 100–120 currently common in Riyadh; about half of those are native to Saudi Arabia, and many will be new to local horticulture. The aim is to make a place where people and families can genuinely enjoy nature.
Design features include valleys, small mountains, water bodies, and elevation changes to create different microclimates. Buildings are meant to blend into the landscape - for example, the Museum of the Earth is designed to read like a natural canyon at first sight. Bridges and rest areas are shaped to feel organic rather than artificial.
The philosophy isn’t to create an amusement zone, but to offer manufactured nature where visitors can explore, relax, and feel connected to the environment.
May Allah bless efforts that improve people’s wellbeing and the environment. If you’re interested, keep an eye out for parts opening before 2030 - it sounds like a place families could really enjoy.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/