Rua Al Madinah

The Rua Al Madinah project is a mega mixed-use real estate project in the holy city of Al-Madina Al-Munawarah in Saudi Arabia. It aims to ‘enrich the experience of visiting Medina as a modern Islamic and cultural destination’¹. The project is a flagship project of the Rou’a Al Madinah Holding and an important part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030’s plan to increase the capacity for hosting Hajj and Umrah pilgrims to 30 million by 2030^{2 i} .

Covering an area of 1.5 km^2, just 1 km east of the east wing of Masjid an-Nabawi, the project’s masterplan aims to develop a ‘comprehensive hospitality and retail ecosystem and uplifting the services provided to pilgrims and visitors’³. The master plan includes commercial, residential, and hospitality projects, focused on ‘creating a space that is both spiritually enriching and architecturally significant’⁴. In particular, it includes the construction of up to 47,000 hotel rooms, addressing the need for the accommodation of the increasing number of pilgrims and tourists​​⁵. The retail area will cover more than 95,000 square meters⁶, while 63% of the total area of the site has been allocated for green and open spaces.

In terms of built form, the project is sensitive to building heights, ensuring access to views of Masjid an-Nabawi⁷. Additionally, the project incorporates pedestrian corridors, with up to 60 meters in width, allowing direct and easy access to the mosque’s squares⁸. These corridors are part of a unique superblock design, which separates pedestrian areas from vehicular traffic, improving safety and accessibility⁹. This layout is intended to enhance mobility and connectivity to car parking facilities for visitors, and to shared services and loading facilities for the buildings¹⁰​​.

Environmental sustainability is a key aspect of the project, which adopts modern green technologies to make Al-Madina more eco-friendly¹¹. This includes an underground system for solid waste collection in public spaces, central plants for waste collection in each superblock, energy-efficient shading systems, and interactive cooling mechanisms that reduce energy consumption¹². Additionally, the project plans to utilize solar panels for renewable energy, contributing to a greener environment in Al Madinah¹³​​. In this sense, the project intends to be luxurious and sustainable at the same time, so it enriches the visitor’s experience, while also contributing to the economic and environmental well-being of the city¹⁴.

Rua Al Madinah was launched in 2022 by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman¹⁵. The project is being implemented by Rua Al Madinah Holding, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) involved in real estate development in Al-Madina^{16 ii}. The value of the total project is reported to be almost SR140 bn ($37 bn)¹⁷. In 2023, Parsons Corporation announced that it will provide construction project management consultancy for the project¹⁸. According to the company, the ‘project represents the first phase of Madinah Central Area mega developmentⁱⁱⁱ and is projected to add $37 million to the GDP and will create 93,000 new jobs’¹⁹.