Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in Riyadh, largest university designed for women in the world, offers state-of-the-art educational facilities in all major academic disciplines to over 60,000 female undergraduate students.

The university covers a built-up area of 32 million sq ft (3 million sq m).

Designed by global award-winning architecture and design firm Perkins+Will, in collaboration with Dar Al-Handasah (Shair and Partners) (Dar), all the facilities at PNU were built concurrently.

Perkins+Will and Dar created a women-only environment for the majority of the campus (only the medical centre and limited areas of the research centre are co-ed), a statement said.

Regional architecture and cultural tradition inspired the use of latticework partitions or mashrabiy'yah to strategically screen students for privacy in exterior spaces and allow more visibility within the campus, it said.
 
The highly collaborative project, led by design director Pat Bosch, involved approximately 150 Perkins+Will professionals from five offices, integrating multiple practice disciplines from architecture and interiors to branded environments and wayfinding.

Perkins+Will designed PNU's Health Sciences and Research Campus, Academic Medical Campus, Academic Campus, K-12 schools, and Sports and Recreational facilities. The master plan, administrative core and residential buildings, a campus-wide monorail, and the overall infrastructure were designed by Dar Al-Handasah, the architect and engineer of record, which also dedicated 150 people to the project.

The majority of the PNU campus buildings are registered with the USGBC's Leed rating system, with certification goals of Leed Gold and Leed Certified.

"This project was of great significance personally and professionally," said Bosch. "This is the kind of transformative design project our firm aspires to deliver: to make a difference and help partner with a country's leadership's vision."  -TradeArabia News Service