At least three contracting companies are preparing to submit bids for the main construction package on Riyadh’s $200m King Abdullah International Gardens.

The bidders include local contracting companies Saudi Oger and Saudi Binladin Group as well as South Korea’s Samsung Corporation.

The main construction package includes all external construction services on the 1.6 million square-metre site as well as the 100,000 sq m building. The deadline for tender submissions is 16 May. 

The local Omrania & Associates is providing site management and construction supervision. The municipality of Riyadh is the client.

Detailed design, construction documentation and other building services were carried out by a joint venture between UK consultants Barton Willmore and Buro Happold.

Barton Willmore provided masterplanning, architecture and landscape design services, while Buro Happold provided structural engineering, building services and infrastructure engineering design.

The joint venture team was also responsible for the design of the infrastructure for King Abdullah International Gardens. This included earthworks, roads, footpaths, car parks, sewerage treatment systems as well as other utilities such as electricity, telecoms, gas and water (MEED 3:3:10).

The project’s centrepiece will be a 40-metre-high crescent-shaped plant laboratory and indoor botanical garden. The building’s roof will have a span of up to 90 metres and will be the world’s largest tensile fabric-covered structure.