International Architecture Awards Tell a friend
ARCHIVE 2025
International Architecture Awards
Architects: LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) / Alexander Rieck, Tobias Wallisser, Chris Bosse
Project Team: Stephan Albrecht, Nuno Galvao, Rashmi Katkar, Costa Krautwald, Matthijs la Roi, Bodo Schröder, Eckart Schwerdtfeger, Miroslav Strigac, Jan Veselsky, Niclas von Taboritzki, Paolo Alborghetti, Aida Ramirez, Marrujo Julian Wengzinek, Erik Didar, Oana Muresan, Simone Tchonova, Alina Turean, Tetyana Zabavska
External Architectural Consultants: Scott Cahill and Frank Theyssen
Architect of Record: Al Omran Planning, Architecture and Engineering
Client: KACST - King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
General Contractor: ABV Rock Group Co. Ltd.
Structural Engineers: B+G Ingenieure Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH
MEP: GEG / Battle McCarthy
Landscape: Battle McCarthy
Lighting: Seam
Fire Safety: BB7
Lift and Escalators: The Vertical Transport Studio
Research: Fraunhofer IAO
Wayfinding: Space Agency
Cost Consultant: Bruce Shaw
Wayfinding: Space Agency
Photography: Taufik Kenan
The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) is Saudi Arabia's national science agency—a large and complex organization working across diverse research areas, including nanotechnology, astronomy, agriculture, and the environment. As a site for the cross-disciplinary development of the technological transformation of Saudi society, LAVA designed a 17-storey headquarters—the Innovation Tower—whose spatiality enables cross-pollination between teams and provides a new organizational structure composed around a set of atria, opening a new era of innovation and collaboration.
Drawing from Saudi Arabia's cultural heritage, LAVA, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, responded to the common spatial organization issue of low interaction among employees of large institutions through the conception of repeatable meeting units, or 'voxel.' The architectural tradition of courtyard houses, known as 'riads'—inward-facing residences, characterized by few windows to combat intense heat and a central shaded courtyard for gatherings—served as the blueprint. Historically, communal settings as a space for discussion to unfold has been a central aspect of Islamic societies. While verbal communication is integral to both cultural life and work culture, previous regional office designs often overlooked this spatial significance.
The Innovation Tower translates these traditional cultural approaches to communication into a contemporary office tower. The voxels were arranged through parametric planning: intricate stacks of five voxels rotate in interplay to fill the tower envelope. The resulting multi-level social environments cultivate informal, serendipitous meetings to strengthen collaborative creativity in the accelerating demands of the post-digital age. This departs from the conventional approach of a single central atrium and hierarchical layout in tall office buildings, offering boundless spatial possibilities. The atria are made possible by positioning the cores on the Eastern and Western sides of the tower, limiting the amount of solar gain whilst creating daylight for the escape staircases and the service areas.
An estimated 70% of services and materials required for the creation of the building are sourced from the local region, providing foundation for the central sustainability pillars of the project—encompassing the economic, social and ecological. The facade pattern of windows and fiber-reinforced concrete elements coordinates with the atria, where glass balustrades, full-storey glass walls, and interior glass partitions reduce solar gain and manage light to the interior spaces. Orienting the whole campus, the atria are alternately aligned toward the south and north, providing bi-directional skyline views of Riyadh. Rather than creating homogeneous spaces, the resulting massing provides various qualities on each level, fueling unique approaches to creativity and productivity: bountiful opportunities for interaction are balanced with zones for private retreat and contemplation, supported through climatic, acoustic, and material treatment.
With workplace trends moving towards increasingly digital communications and remote work, predictions show that future workers will primarily be missing out on the benefits of casual in-person collisions. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology moves instead into a new paradigm: merging scientific research, intuitive knowledge, and the latest technologies, a complex, open environment manifests that challenges such trends. As an iconic embodiment of Saudi Arabia's innovative aspirations, the Innovation Tower is a new landmark in form and purpose for the region, rooted in the vast Islamic history of pioneering scientific achievement.
