The award, launched by the Architecture and Design its first edition in December 2023 to honor urban projects committed to the standards of the Environmental and Urban Charter, to enhance the quality of life and support innovation and sustainability in the Kingdom, based on the adoption of the Charter, and to contribute to motivating practitioners and specialists to produce high-quality outputs.
The award comes to contribute to the realization of the Charter's objectives by promoting urban projects of excellence, as it includes three tracks: (built projects) for project owners and design companies, (unbuilt projects) for design companies, and (student projects) for university students, taking into account the detailed conditions related to each track, and subjecting the entries to evaluation according to clear criteria.
The King Salman Urban Charter announced in November 2021, translates the march of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in developing a contemporary national urban approach that enhances the national urban identity.
The launch of the Charter initiative was accompanied by the organization of exhibitions and meetings introducing the Charter and many activities and public meetings on architecture and design in various cities and regions of the Kingdom, in addition to participating in several international events and occasions.
The award seeks to achieve several main objectives, the first of which is to promote the recognition of outstanding local projects that adopt ”authenticity, continuity, human centricity, livability, innovation, sustainability“, and the second is to motivate companies, practitioners and students to incorporate the values of the Charter into their work and outputs
The vision of the award is to raise awareness of the Charter's impact on the architecture and urban design sector, improve the quality of life by encouraging innovation and sustainability, and support individual talents and contributions in the urban sector, targeting individual architects and designers, owners of urban projects, architectural firms and offices, and university students.
The journey of the award extended over six months and went through four stages, starting from the participation and registration stage in the award in its various tracks, followed by the screening and evaluation stage of the entries according to the announced criteria and conditions, then the nomination and arbitration stage for qualified entries that passed the evaluation and met the required conditions and criteria through a jury composed of local and international experts and specialists in the field of architecture and design to determine the winning projects, ending with the closing ceremony to announce the winning projects and celebrate them and crown them with the Charter Award.
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The Architecture and Design Authority announced the shortlist of nominated architectural projects for the King Salman Urban Charter Award, which included a group of pioneering projects that were selected based on criteria derived from the Charter's values.
King Salman Urban Charter Award
The projects fell under the main tracks of the award, including the “built projects” track, which targets the distinguished urban environment that has been designed, implemented and put into operation, while the second track focuses on “unbuilt projects”, which includes designs for the distinguished urban environment of projects that have not been completed on the ground, and the third track is limited to “university students” projects“ who are creative in the fields of the sector, as this category concerns their graduation projects that achieve urban excellence.
The Authority explained that the built projects track includes eleven projects nominated for the award, including: The headquarters of the General Administration of the Social Development Bank in Riyadh, the Najdara Resort project, Al Muqarnas Tower, the Convention Center in Riyadh, Al Gharaa Mosque in Medina, and the SABIC building in Jubail.
The list also includes the King Abdulaziz World Cultural Center (Ithra) in Dhahran, Tatweer AlUla's Banyan Tree AlUla, Abdulrahman Al-Sudairy Cultural Center's Dar Al-Rahmaniya building in Al-Ghat Governorate, the Grand Mosque at King Abdullah Financial Center, and the Innovation Tower at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
The unbuilt projects track included four distinctive projects: Abha International Airport project, followed by the Retal Mosque project in Dammam, in addition to the Sports Track project and the Mehrab project in Medina.
As for the university students” projects track, the shortlist for this track included eight nominated projects, namely: “The Hub” project designed by student Huda Al-Qahtani at Prince Sultan University, “The Hub” project designed by student Abdulrahman Al-Shehri at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, “Co-Rise” project designed by student Kholoud Al-Harthi at Prince Sultan University, and “Sea Loop” project designed by student Faisal Rabie at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University.
The list also included the “AlUla Historical Museum” project designed by student Khadija Al-Kaf at Dar Al-Hikma University, the "Waj Historical Museum" project designed by student Ahmed Al-Talhi at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, the "King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language" project designed by student Abdulaziz Al-Taleb at King Saud University, and finally the contemporary neighborhood design project designed by student Sadeem Al-Jabreen at Sheffield University in Britain.
