Arab Saudi want to redesign the al-Haram mosque complex to host more than triple the current 900,000 capacity. King Abdullah has approached 18 architects including Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster to “establish a new architectural vision” for the complex and the whole city.
Sources close to the project told The Architect’s Journal the scheme is likely to be phased, the first stage taking the al-Haram mosque capacity to 1.5 million.
Other sources describe the project as divided into two “tracks”, one looking at various alternatives for the northern expansion of the al-Haram complex, and the other at the al-Haram itself.
