DAMMAM: The Dammam Municipality has called on the services of international consultancy firm Hollandia LiL Bi'A to design and implement a landscape project encompassing 10 major traffic plazas in the Eastern Province. With an average area of one square kilometer per project site, the Dammam Metropolitan City Gates Project is of a magnitude that it will completely change the ambience of the Dammam-Alkhobar area.
The company overseeing the project, Hollandia LiL Bi'A, is a Riyadh-based company with offices in the Netherlands and Malaysia. The firm is run by the design-duo Marlon van Maastricht, a landscape architect and Vincent Engel, an architect. Nicknamed “The Orange Twins,” due to their ties with Holland, they work with an international team of planners, architects and engineers specialized in master planning, landscape architecture and environmental management. This has equipped van Maastricht and Engel with the background and expertise required to assist the Dammam Municipality in undertaking such an ambitious project.
“The experience and perception of the public domain is primarily guided by what you see when you look out of your car-window. A park or plaza is a destination which the public only visits once in a while over the weekend or during a holiday. The infrastructure though is what we use daily and what gives us an impression of a whole region while passing by,” explained van Maastricht. “To be honest, at this moment the infrastructural experience in the Eastern Province doesn’t reflect the booming industrial richness and cultural heritage of the largest coastal oil metropolis in the world. That’s a missed opportunity. When you drive through Dammam you should feel the history of the area. This is the domain of the world’s largest oil producer. It’s a coastal city with the longest container-port on the globe — 25 km total. Dammam hosts the only operating passenger and freight railway in the GCC. This is just some of the history that Hollandia LiL Bi'A is going to visualize through the Dammam Metropolitan City Gates Project.”
Hollandia LiL Bi'A kicked off the Dammam Metropolitan City Gates Project in the fourth quarter of 2008. The innovative, ambitious landscape development concept has already been enthusiastically approved by the Dammam Municipality. Hollandia LiL Bi'A and the Municipality quickly determined that the full potential of a public project of this magnitude and importance could only be realized by involving local enterprises. With that in mind, a decision has been made to provide opportunities for Saudi companies to participate in the project as a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The Dammam Municipality and Hollandia LiL Bi'A are in the process of inviting all the major companies and entities that have been a part of the success of Dammam, Alkhobar and the Eastern Province to supply the Dammam Metropolitan City Gates Project with their historical, cultural and industrial artifacts. Sponsorship is also being sought to assist with the funding of certain aspects of the construction of the 10 individual project sites.
“The beauty of this project is that we will actually provide a new function for old machinery, equipment and even fixtures that are lying unused at the moment,” said Engel. “Drilling equipment, airplanes, train carriages, cranes, industrial pipes, trucks, masonry — all can be reused with their incorporation into this project. We will see what is offered and promise not to let anything go to waste. These artifacts have a lot of charm and give the region its identity. By recycling them we are not only doing Mother Nature a big favor, we also create an excellent set of design components. In combination with a modern design approach this will result in a landscape treatment that no one has ever seen before. We will turn the whole Eastern Province into an open air museum for Saudi identity and modern landscape architecture!”
Hollandia LiL Bi'A invites companies from various sectors, such as oil and gas, telecom, banking, construction and transportation to come together with entities such as the Saudi Ports Authority, The Saudi Railways Organization and the Royal Saudi Air Force in coordination with the Dammam Municipality to see this project through to success. Several government organizations have already confirmed to Hollandia LiL Bi'A their full support and are in the process of determining which items of historical and cultural interest would be most appropriate to donate to the landscape project.
“We want to send a message to the world that it is not only the responsibility of governmental agencies to take care of municipal areas, but that businesses and organizations that exist within these cities must also play a constructive role,” remarked van Maastricht. “With cooperation between public and private entities we hope to show that it is possible to create a public project of this size and scale with a budget that allows extras due participation of local businesses. A simple project with grass and flowers would cost SR30/m2. We would hope to go above that due to the support of the Saudi private sector.”
Following on a successful presentation to the Dammam Municipality this week, Hollandia LiL Bi'A will present their landscape development proposal for the Dammam Metropolitan City Gates Project to the public on March 10 in the new auditorium of the Dammam Municipality. For further information on corporate participation in the project, send an e-mail to [email protected].