Bespoke Vistamatic vision panels have been specified for the Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh, which will comprise 32 campuses, and will ultimately accommodate over 40,000 students and 12,000 employees, boasting a 700-bed teaching hospital, plus research centres for nanotechnology, information technology, and bioscience.
The facility is expected to cover 8 million m2. Contractor Saudi Oger, undertaking part of the US$ 5.3bn Princess Nora contract, specified almost 400 Vistamatic bespoke panels for installation in what is said to be the first women’s university in Saudi Arabia, and the world’s largest womenonly university. Vistamatic appointed agent, R.S. Agencies, in conjunction with Anemostat, USA, handled communication and management of the contract. King Abdullah officially opened the new campus on 15 May 2011, less than three years after laying the foundation stone. The project team commissioned US architects Perkins Will, Chicago for the architectural design, ‘based on their prolific experience in the design and build of some of America’s most prestigious healthcare facilities’. Overseas interest has, Vistamatic says, seen the company’s export division ‘increase exponentially’ over the past two years. The firm’s goal over the coming years will be ‘to increase our brand recognition overseas, and cater to the ever more demanding standards the EU requires’.
