King Salman Park: Riyadh's Desert Megaproject Reimagines Urban Space

This video explores King Salman Park in Riyadh, a desert megaproject that reshapes the landscape with a circular park and green fingers, while building an underground traffic network to keep the space continuous and car‑free. It highlights the scale of earthmoving, the on‑site nurseries that will produce roughly a million trees, and the climate‑control ambitions that aim to cool the city. A cultural anchor, the Museum of World Cultures, sits beside the vast park, combining engineering ambition with public spaces and learning.

• king-salman-park is a 12 square kilometer park in the city center, five times larger than Central Park
• traffic is rerouted underground to preserve uninterrupted green space
• on-site nurseries will produce tens of thousands of plants daily and grow the majority of trees on site
• advanced irrigation, mulch strategies, and wadi water systems are designed to combat extreme heat

Overview

The King Salman Park project in Riyadh is presented as the world’s first mega urban park, a flagship urban design and civil engineering undertaking that aims to transform one of the hottest cities on Earth. The park covers roughly 12 square kilometers in the heart of the city and will eventually host around one million trees. It is designed to lower city temperatures, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and provide a large, walkable green space for residents and visitors. The scope includes significant topographical changes, large scale earthworks, and smart city concepts integrated into the park’s master plan.

Scale and Topography

To avoid a flat, uninteresting space, the planners sculpted the land by cutting and filling up to 20 meters in either direction. 54 million cubic meters of earth were moved, and 8 kilometers of Riyad stone were used to shape 4.5 kilometers of wadi space. The project required mechanically stabilized soil walls (MSC walls) and geogrids to retain massive earth volumes and to create level changes that support surface infrastructure, roads, and underground utilities. These topographical changes form the park’s core landscape and are designed to blend with the desert environment while enabling water features and wetlands.

Mobility and Traffic Strategy

A defining feature is the subterranean road network that diverts traffic away from surface park areas. By routing east-west and north-south arteries underground through tunnels, the park can remain a continuous green space without surface highways breaking it into fragments. The tunnels had to be completed before surface landscaping could begin, with temporary diversion roads created inside the park to keep traffic moving during construction. This approach minimizes surface disruption and protects the park’s legibility and walkability.

Design Team and Master Plan

A world‑class team, including the master plan and green fingers, was assembled to connect large-scale concepts across a circular loop of parkland. The green fingers transport people and water, linking hubs that provide parking and public transport access. The design also includes wadis, sunken tree‑lined features that double as stormwater collectors and wetlands, creating micro‑habitats within a harsh desert climate.

Cultural and Institutional Anchors

At the center of the park sits a 110‑meter tall Museum of World Cultures, a cultural anchor that doubles as a wayfinding landmark for Riyadh. It is designed to host a national theatre, libraries, cinemas, exhibition halls, and research institutes, forming a cultural complex that complements the surrounding green spaces and institutions within the park ecosystem.

Nurseries, Planting, and Biodiversity

Two large nurseries were established on site: an acclimatization nursery and a production nursery spanning about 1 million square meters. The operation is highly mechanized and capable of producing around 65,000 plants per day, allowing hundreds of thousands of saplings to move quickly to planting zones. The project aims to plant about a million trees in total, with roughly 55–60% of species indigenous to the region. The on‑site nurseries will also host a public visitor nursery with learning spaces and QR code plant identification, turning planting into a community activity.

Water, Irrigation, and Cooling Strategy

Water management is central to the project. The wadis collect urban stormwater and support re‑used water and wetland features. The soil is stabilized to support proper water infiltration and retention. High‑efficiency irrigation targets both the surface and the root zones, while mulch—volcanic rock, bark, or stone mulch—reduces evaporation. The scale of the park and its water management systems is expected to contribute to cooling the surrounding urban area, a critical feature in a city where summer temperatures routinely exceed 45 degrees Celsius.

Livability and Economic Vision

King Salman Park is framed as Riyadh’s backyard and a catalyst for making the city more livable. The project supports a broader goal for the city to be among the world’s top ten most livable by 2030, with a large share of residents within 30 minutes of the park. The park’s development reflects a broader move toward sustainable urban design, green infrastructure, and public health benefits associated with access to large green spaces.

Conclusion

Beyond its size and engineering complexity, the project is pitched as a long‑term urban and social asset whose success will be measured by how well it integrates with daily life in Riyadh, how it cools the city, and how generations will benefit from a shaded public space that is literally built to endure. It demonstrates the ambition of a megaproject that blends topography, water management, transport engineering, and cultural institutions to redefine a desert city’s relationship with public space.