The 2 projects form part of the Security Forces Medical Centre masterplan, which includes a 1,200-bed single-room hospital with 46 operating theatres and a GFA of 500,000 sqm. The wider 1.2 million sqm development also features residential apartments, doctor villas, community amenities, mosques and sports facilities, all connected through landscaped parks and supported by a full range of service and utility buildings.

The hospitals demonstrate how identical briefs can lead to 2 very different outcomes.

As Director Drue Newcomb explains:

“The core building, including the medical facilities, car parking and mosque - remained the same, but the sites were completely different.

In Riyadh, we had to design around a wadi. While Jeddah sits in a high seismic zone, meaning larger movement joints and internal adjustments were needed, and with a far more humid climate, its MEP systems had to be designed accordingly.

Furthermore, due to the master planning adaption to the site, the utility tunnels connect from opposite sides of the plots in Riyadh and Jeddah.”

Both projects are currently under construction, each adapting to its landscape, climate and conditions, proving that even when the brief is the same, the design never is.

Architecture can’t be copy-and-pasted.

Context always matters.