Toronto firm revives Saudi oasis
A series of natural stone weirs was built to introduce oxygen into the water as it passes over and through them and helps reduce the amount of pollution in the wadi.
MORIYAMA & TESHIMAA Toronto architectural firm has completed an unprecedented urban renewal project in the Middle East, with far-reaching implications for the world’s cities.
Moriyama & Teshima Planners converted what was essentially a giant open sewer through Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, into a water-purification system and recreational wetlands.
The project “eloquently demonstrates an alternative ecological way of urban development,” one international jury member said in presenting the firm with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture at a ceremony in the Arabian emirate of Qatar this week.
“We really have pulled something off,” company vice-president Drew Wensley said Thursday by phone from Kuwait.
“We’ve been invited (twice) to present the project at the United Nations,” he said of company president George Stockton and himself. “The UN really sees urban centres now as points of attention because they all have the same problems in terms of crowding, water quality and the environment. . . .
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