Inside the 14 km² masterplan.
Diriyah is not planned as a single resort or heritage park. It is a new mixed-use urban system built around At-Turaif, intended to become a permanent part of metropolitan life in Riyadh.
Heritage as the organising centre
Diriyah Company, owned by the Public Investment Fund, is coordinating a 14 km² programme of homes, offices, retail, hospitality, museums, educational institutions, infrastructure and public space. At-Turaif remains the protected historic heart, but most of the programme is new and distributed through districts with different functions and delivery timelines.
The first operational sequence opened to the public in December 2022. At-Turaif provides the historical and museum route; across the wadi, Bujairi Terrace constructs a contemporary arrival through dining, landscape and pedestrian space. The visual relationship between them reveals the project’s central mechanism: heritage is not only conserved, but used as the civic and identifying element around which the new destination is organised.
From destination to city
The residential and employment scale changes the nature of the project. The approved Diriyah 1 and 2 masterplans state more than 18,000 residential units, over 1.6 million square metres of office GFA and more than 566,000 square metres of retail GFA. Diriyah Square is planned as the principal commercial and mixed-use centre; the Northern and Qurain districts introduce a university, libraries, museums, academies, offices and homes; the Media and Innovation District adds a cluster for creative and technology industries.
This programme clarifies what the development is for. Diriyah uses a place of national historical importance as the basis for a new cultural, residential and commercial centre on Riyadh’s western edge. Tourism matters, but it is not the whole project. The larger ambition is to create a city used daily by residents, workers, students and visitors.
How it is being delivered
Delivery is proceeding through large infrastructure packages and independently commissioned districts rather than the linear sequence of one building. Beneath Diriyah Square, a 10,500-space access and parking system is under construction; a later contract covers 73 buildings and 400 retail units across roughly 365,000 m² of built area. Roads, utilities, electricity substations and district cooling are being delivered alongside the visible assets. The promise of a pedestrian city at ground level therefore depends on extensive vehicle and technical infrastructure placed beneath and around the new districts.
Wadi Safar must be read separately. Diriyah Company’s latest material describes it as a distinct masterplan of roughly 62 km², focused principally on hospitality, residences, golf, equestrian facilities and landscape. It is not part of the 14 km² urban Diriyah masterplan, although it has the same developer and is often communicated alongside the main project.
Diriyah uses a protected historic settlement as the civic and economic centre of an almost entirely new urban programme.
This overlap, rather than any single landmark, is what makes Diriyah significant. Its result should be judged by whether the districts work as a continuous city, rather than only as a coordinated collection of destinations, hotels and cultural institutions.
Saudi2030 synthesis based on Diriyah Company, PIF and public material from project consultants. Figures reviewed in August 2026.
