Category: insights

Inside the Presidential, Royal and Bridal Suites at the Hilton Riyadh

. Exclusive, sumptuously designed suites provide the highest level of luxury hospitality at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences.   Asked to design hospitality environments of unsurpassed elegance, Omrania and David Wrenn Interiors accepted the challenge of designing the Presidential, Royal, and Bridal Suites at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences. These lavish, exclusive suites…

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A new gateway development takes shape in Makkah

. Omrania is honored to serve as the lead design consultant for the new “KAAR Gateway” mixed-use development in Makkah.   Sited at a crucial juncture near the Masjid Al-Haram (Great Mosque), this six-building development stands at the edge of the King Abdul Aziz Road (KAAR) urban development project that will dramatically modernize Makkah. In…

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SEC Headquarters Features High-Performance Building Envelope Design

. Conceived as a new model of energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable design in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Headquarters includes a 1.2-megawatt rooftop solar array and a high-performance building envelope that minimizes solar gain while filtering daylight within the work environment.   From conception through construction, Omrania worked with the client, SEC,…

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Water, water, everywhere?

. In the third part of our four-part series, we explore the critical issue of water scarcity and how the built environment has contributed and might contribute less to the diminishing of our most precious naturally occurring commodity; not oil or gold, but water.   By: Marcus Leyland – Chief Architect   As an arid…

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Discover the future King Salman Park

. Designed as the largest urban park in the world, King Salman Park will be a world-class public space and green district in the heart of Riyadh.   Discover the future King Salman Park: A naturally cool environment. An organic place, always active, always changing. A place for sports, recreation, culture and arts. A space…

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The Key to Building Durability: Commissioning and Maintaining the Envelope

. This is the fourth in a series on the relevance of Operations & Maintenance (O&M) in architecture. In preceding posts, we explored the broad reasoning behind building maintenance, the three principle approaches, and cost-effective means of implementation. Here in part 4, we look at how properly commissioning and maintaining the building envelope—guided by scientific…

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The future of the BIM interface, part 3: optimizing construction

. In previous posts, we defined the importance of selecting the optimal BIM interface and discussed several applications useful to pre-design and design development. In this post we review several of the established and more recent BIM interface applications that can help optimize bidding, procurement, construction, final handoff, and post-occupancy.   Optimizing bidding and pre-construction…

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Pragmatic Sustainability for Desert Climates

. In the second of our four-part series, we explore the critical issues as they contribute to Sustainable design in the Middle East, and specifically within Saudi Arabia. In particular, we examine notions of the cultural appropriateness of the meaning of Sustainability.   By: Marcus Leyland – Chief Architect   In the first preceding part…

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Value-Driven Maintenance: A Roadmap for Implementation

. In preceding posts, we explored the broad reasoning behind building O&M and the three principal approaches. In part 3, we map out practical implementation of O&M plans.   Deferred building maintenance is a worrying trend because the cost can be as much as 30 times that of early intervention. With budgets squeezed, it may…

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Contemporary Workspace Design: An Open and Shut Case

. Attracting and retaining innovative talent is a major consideration for employers today, adding to long-standing challenges for office designers. Increasingly, concerns of maximizing square footage and productivity are augmented by considerations of employee wellness and promoting flexibility and creative collaboration. Technology giants like Google have gone all in on the workplace-as-playground, but some employee-centric…

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Inside the Hotel Rooms and Apartments at the new Radisson Blu

. The guest rooms of the new Radisson Blu Hotel & Residence offer an upscale hospitality experience combining contemporary global style with touches of the Middle East.   Inside the new Radisson Blu Hotel & Residence, guests can enjoy world-class sophistication and comfort with a hint of local flavor. The 110 elegantly designed rooms and…

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