KAUST

In 2009, the King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah wanted to develop a cutting edge facility, which would not only pioneer co-education in Saudi Arabia, but would attract students from all over the world to its prestigious state-of-the-art campus. At about the midway point of the ambitious timeline for the project it ran into difficulties. Linesight’s reputation for quick turnaround and fast track solutions was one of the reasons the client brought us on board at this juncture.

Adaptable Services to Meet Evolving Needs 

The project comprised of just over 20 buildings and was located approximately 80km from Jeddah. The initial fast-tracked procurement meant that there were some issues stemming from the lack of process and sufficient controls. When Linesight came on board to project manage, we were able to rectify any issues by going through the accounts in detail and streamlining. Saudi’s complex visa program resulted in many of the team having to work remotely in our Paris office. However this did not cause any further complications to the project as we were on site constantly ensuring the build was delivered on time and to standard.  

Cutting Edge Facilities 

• The labs were equipped to the highest standard, and specifically geared towards specialist fields such as nanotechnology and heavy tech.
  
• The facilities married efficiency with sustainability, by utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, such as a solar energy cooling system throughout the campus.

Coordinating 18,000 Men 

• For over 18 months, there were 18,000 workers on-site 24 hours per day
• $5 billion spent on the development over an 18 month period
• The largest project undertaken in the world at that time