KAUST stands for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
It is not only a university, not only a campus- it is a state within the state.
KAUST spreads to 36 square kilometers which is about the size of Lastovo or 1000 Diocletian's Palaces.
(Lastovo is a beautiful island and Nature Park in central Dalmatia. Diocletian's Palace is the birth place of Split, capital of Dalmatia and UNESCO heritage site)
It is situated at the Red Sea, some 80 km north of Jeddah, 150 north of Makkah. The campus started as a vision of then new king Abdullah and was built in 3 years (for comparison, Diocletian's Palace took 10 years) and inaugurated in 2009.
Apparently King Abdullah had another vision, called King Abdullah Economic City which is being built only 30ish km to the north of KAUST and supposed to have population of 2 million people by 2030.
Legend has it that when KAUST was under construction, 50 000 people were working on it and the site had more cranes at once than anywhere else in the world. Together.
Not at all surprising because it was built in the middle of the desert so one can only imagine what a huge engineering enterprise that must have been. That meant- no roads, no plumbing, no nothing. Just desert.
It is not only a university, not only a campus- it is a state within the state.
KAUST spreads to 36 square kilometers which is about the size of Lastovo or 1000 Diocletian's Palaces.
(Lastovo is a beautiful island and Nature Park in central Dalmatia. Diocletian's Palace is the birth place of Split, capital of Dalmatia and UNESCO heritage site)
It is situated at the Red Sea, some 80 km north of Jeddah, 150 north of Makkah. The campus started as a vision of then new king Abdullah and was built in 3 years (for comparison, Diocletian's Palace took 10 years) and inaugurated in 2009.
Apparently King Abdullah had another vision, called King Abdullah Economic City which is being built only 30ish km to the north of KAUST and supposed to have population of 2 million people by 2030.
Legend has it that when KAUST was under construction, 50 000 people were working on it and the site had more cranes at once than anywhere else in the world. Together.
Not at all surprising because it was built in the middle of the desert so one can only imagine what a huge engineering enterprise that must have been. That meant- no roads, no plumbing, no nothing. Just desert.
Student Center, note the lounge area
Administration building
Offices in the front, labs in the back
Some rough estimations (personal communication) say that there is currently 5000 people residing at campus where much more accommodation is provisioned, so it is still growing into its infrastructure.
All the faculty members, students and service personnel together with their families live on campus.
KAUST has its own public transportation, hospital, police, schools, daycare, gas station, yacht club, marina, swimming pool, other recreational facilities, burger king, supermarkets and the only cinema in Saudi Arabia. Ah, yes, and the University. In other words, pretty much everything shy of a ski-resort.
No comments:
Post a Comment