HHR KAEC Station, Saudi Arabia

Spanning Ancient and Modern

To bring the new stations to life, architects Foster+Partners, headed by Sir Norman Foster, drew on Islamic architecture and took the traditional gateway arch form as the basis for the roof design. The design for KAEC station features a sequence of 25 metre high arches rising from the concourse, complemented by smaller 9 metre high arches at platform level. Supported by freestanding structural trees, repeated on over 42 separate 27 metre square grids, the arches connect to form a support for the roof that spans an immense internal space.

Making It Happen

To transform the architect's vision into reality, BFG designed, built and installed a complete composite structural roof system including a suspended aluminium soffit ceiling and an anti-glare natural light system -- all at a height of 30 metres above ground level. Given its location, and bearing in mind the effects of the harsh Saudi summer, the maximum unsupported span of 14.8 metres was designed to withstand intense temperature variations, high winds and heavy sand-laden loads.

One of the most unique and innovative features of BFG's solution was the panel configuration, designed to achieve the architect's vision of an inverted spherical trough of 27 x 27 metres.

BFG's Contribution

• Fabrication and installation of 1848 individual epoxy FRP roof panels covering 34,000 square metres of roof, with additional panels for walkways, edge coping and joint caps with provision to accommodate structural movement. Each panel has spherical curvature, and is a self standing structural Sandwich FRP composite with glass epoxy FRP construction with a structural and thermal insulating core.
• Panels covered with a complex mosaic of hexagonal stainless steel faced ceramic tiles with a distinctive bronze colour finish -- all fixed in place with non-shrinking grout.
• Design, supply and installation of all upper and lower support brackets from high quality stainless and high tensile steel.
• Manufacturing and installation of a custom-designed aluminium suspended ceiling, coated in a bronze anodised finish.
• Production and installation of skylights and glazing, using a unique anti-glare system fabricated in Italy.

Dedicated Fabrication

The project scope was to supply 42 large-scale FRP composite roof modules, each 27 metres square. The scale of supply required a dedicated facility -- and significant investment in plant and people. BFG developed an ultra-modern 20,000m2 fabrication facility in Hidd, Bahrain, hiring a dedicated team of technicians that reached 400 at the peak of the project. The manufacturing process involved state-of-the-art vacuum based moulding with continuous impregnation technology -- a unique and proprietary high productivity process developed by BFG.