Jacobs-AECOM Joint Venture — Design Engineering for The Mukaab

Jacobs Engineering and AECOM formed a joint venture to deliver design services for The Mukaab and its surrounding podium areas — complementing AtkinsRealis’s role as lead architect. This partnership brings two of the world’s largest engineering firms to the project, providing the structural, mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering capabilities required to build a 400-meter cube structure with 2 million square meters of interior space.

Joint Venture Partners

Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: J) is a global professional services firm with approximately $16 billion in annual revenue and 60,000+ employees. The company provides engineering, technical, professional, and construction services across infrastructure, advanced facilities, and environmental sectors. Jacobs’ relevant capabilities include building engineering, complex facility design (data centers, advanced manufacturing, defense facilities), and infrastructure design (transportation, water, environmental).

Jacobs’ strength lies in technical complexity — the company designs facilities that push engineering boundaries, from advanced defense installations to semiconductor fabrication plants. These projects share characteristics with The Mukaab: extreme precision requirements, technology integration at building scale, and coordination between multiple engineering disciplines within a single structure. Jacobs’ experience designing controlled environments — cleanrooms, laboratory facilities, data centers — provides transferable expertise for The Mukaab’s climate-controlled interior with its temperature, humidity, and air quality management requirements.

AECOM (NYSE: ACM) operates as one of the world’s largest infrastructure consulting firms with approximately $14 billion in annual revenue and 50,000+ employees. The company’s capabilities span infrastructure design, construction management, environmental services, and architectural engineering. AECOM’s portfolio includes stadium design (multiple FIFA and Olympic venues), master-planned developments, transportation infrastructure, and environmental remediation.

AECOM’s stadium design experience is directly relevant to The Mukaab’s entertainment venue portfolio and the 45,000-seat New Murabba stadium. The firm has designed venues for FIFA World Cups, Olympic Games, and major professional sports leagues, providing expertise in large-venue engineering, crowd management systems, acoustic design, and event infrastructure that translates to The Mukaab’s concert hall, opera house, and immersive theater.

Scope of Engagement

The scope of the Jacobs-AECOM engagement covers the engineering that makes The Mukaab’s architectural vision structurally viable. The cube’s unprecedented dimensions — 400 meters in every direction — create engineering challenges including extreme gravitational loads, complex thermal management in Riyadh’s climate, structural integration of the holographic dome and Spiral Tower, and the foundation system supporting the building on the excavated site where 14+ million cubic meters of earth have been removed.

Specific engineering disciplines within the JV’s scope include:

Structural Engineering: Designing the structural system for a 400-meter cube — walls, roof, foundation, interior columns and floors, and the structural supports for the holographic dome and Spiral Tower. The structural system must accommodate the building’s own weight, live loads (occupants, equipment, vehicles), environmental loads (wind, thermal expansion), and dynamic loads (entertainment attraction ride systems, crowd movement).

Mechanical Engineering: The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system for a 2 million square meter interior in Riyadh’s climate represents one of the world’s most demanding mechanical engineering challenges. Cooling capacity must address external heat gain through 960,000 square meters of facade, internal heat generation from lighting, electronics, and occupants, and the multi-sensory immersion system’s requirement for dynamic temperature zones within the atrium.

Electrical Engineering: Power distribution throughout a 400-meter building serving entertainment venues, residential units, hotel rooms, retail, commercial offices, and the holographic dome and AI-driven facades. The electrical system must deliver reliable power to technology-intensive entertainment systems while maintaining the redundancy required for a residential building (where power interruptions affect occupied homes).

Fire and Life Safety: Fire engineering for a unique building type — a 400-meter enclosed structure containing residential units, hotel rooms, entertainment venues, retail, and a vast open atrium. Evacuation planning, fire compartmentation, smoke management, sprinkler systems, and emergency communications must account for the building’s unprecedented scale and the diverse occupancy types within a single structure.

Civil Engineering: Site engineering including the foundation system, below-grade parking and services, surface water management, and integration with New Murabba’s district-level infrastructure (roads, utilities, public transit connections). The excavation of 14+ million cubic meters of earth created the site conditions that the civil engineering team must work within.

Three-Layer Design Governance

The joint venture’s design work runs parallel to Falcon’s Creative Group’s experience design and AtkinsRealis’s architectural direction, creating a three-layer design governance structure. Coordination between these entities is critical for successful delivery — entertainment attraction infrastructure must integrate with structural systems, and the immersive technology deployment must align with mechanical and electrical engineering layouts.

The coordination challenge is substantial. Attraction ride systems impose dynamic loads that structural engineers must accommodate. The holographic dome requires structural support at specific heights and positions that constrain the structural frame layout. Multi-sensory immersion systems require mechanical ductwork and electrical capacity that competes for space with structural elements and architectural finishes. Spatial computing infrastructure requires telecommunications pathways throughout the building that must be coordinated with electrical and mechanical routing.

Modern building information modeling (BIM) technology enables three-dimensional coordination between design disciplines, identifying spatial conflicts before construction. The Mukaab’s scale makes BIM essential — at 2 million square meters, manual coordination between architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, and experiential design disciplines would be impossibly complex. The digital model serves as the coordination platform where AtkinsRealis architectural intent, Jacobs-AECOM engineering solutions, and Falcon’s Creative Group attraction requirements converge.

Industry Track Record and Capability

Together, the JV provides the engineering depth that The Mukaab’s scale demands. Combined, Jacobs and AECOM employ approximately 110,000 people globally, with engineering capabilities spanning virtually every building type and infrastructure category. Their combined Middle East portfolios include major projects in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and other GCC states — providing familiarity with regional construction practices, climate conditions, regulatory frameworks, and supply chain logistics.

The joint venture structure allows each firm to contribute its distinctive strengths. Jacobs’ technology-oriented engineering capabilities (complex facilities, controlled environments, systems integration) complement AECOM’s infrastructure-oriented capabilities (large venues, master-planned developments, transportation). The JV can scale its team to match The Mukaab’s requirements — drawing from 110,000 combined employees to staff the engineering effort at whatever level the project demands.

The construction timeline and technology readiness dashboard track the progress of these interdependent design workstreams, monitoring how engineering decisions by the Jacobs-AECOM JV affect the feasibility of AtkinsRealis’s architectural design and Falcon’s Creative Group’s experience concepts. The construction progress tracker monitors construction milestones that reflect the JV’s engineering deliverables.

Joint Venture Scope and Responsibilities

The Jacobs-AECOM joint venture provides design services for The Mukaab and its surrounding podium areas — the buildings and infrastructure that connect The Mukaab to the broader New Murabba district. This scope encompasses structural engineering, mechanical systems design, electrical systems, plumbing, fire protection, vertical transportation (elevators, escalators), and the integration of building systems with The Mukaab’s immersive technology infrastructure.

The engineering challenges specific to The Mukaab include structural design for a 400-meter cube (a geometry without direct precedent in supertall construction), foundation engineering for a 160,000 square meter footprint, integration of the holographic dome structure within the cube, climate control for 2 million square meters of interior space in Riyadh’s extreme heat, and acoustic isolation between 80+ simultaneously operating entertainment venues.

The podium areas — buildings surrounding The Mukaab that house additional residential, commercial, and entertainment functions — require their own engineering solutions while connecting seamlessly to The Mukaab’s systems. Utility networks (power, water, data, waste) must scale from individual podium buildings to the district-level infrastructure serving 19 square kilometers. Transportation networks (pedestrian, vehicular, potentially automated) must connect podium areas to The Mukaab and to Riyadh’s broader transportation system including the Riyadh Metro.

Engineering Expertise and Portfolio Relevance

Jacobs Engineering brings a global portfolio spanning infrastructure, buildings, and technology projects. Relevant experience includes complex building projects in the Gulf region, major transportation infrastructure, and technology-intensive facilities. Jacobs’ expertise in integrating building systems — HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire safety — with specialized technology requirements aligns with The Mukaab’s need for conventional building systems that coexist with unprecedented entertainment technology.

AECOM’s portfolio includes large-scale urban development projects, sports and entertainment venue design, and infrastructure engineering. AECOM’s experience with stadium design, convention center engineering, and integrated resort development provides relevant expertise for The Mukaab’s entertainment venue infrastructure. The firm’s work on major Gulf development projects — including infrastructure in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar — provides regional construction experience applicable to Riyadh’s conditions.

The joint venture structure enables each firm to contribute its strongest capabilities. Jacobs’ strengths in technology integration and building systems engineering complement AECOM’s strengths in large-scale development and venue design. Together, the JV provides comprehensive engineering coverage across The Mukaab’s diverse requirements — from the precision acoustic engineering required for the concert hall and opera house to the heavy structural engineering required for the 400-meter cube frame.

Integration with Design Partners

The Jacobs-AECOM JV coordinates closely with AtkinsRealis (lead architect) and Falcon’s Creative Group (entertainment experience designer). This three-way design coordination — architecture, engineering, and entertainment — determines how The Mukaab’s physical structure supports its experiential ambitions. Engineering decisions about structural member placement affect sight lines within the holographic dome. HVAC system routing affects acoustic performance in the concert hall. Electrical capacity planning determines whether the dome’s display technology can operate at full brightness simultaneously with all other building systems.

The construction progress tracker monitors engineering milestones alongside architectural and construction progress. The technology readiness dashboard tracks how engineering integration affects technology deployment schedules. The economic impact dashboard models engineering costs within the $50 billion total project investment.

Technology Integration Engineering

The JV’s engineering scope extends beyond conventional building systems to encompass the technology infrastructure that defines The Mukaab’s entertainment proposition. The holographic dome requires structural support for display technology weighing potentially thousands of tons across a 340-meter span. The AI-driven facades require electrical distribution, data networking, and cooling systems integrated into the building envelope. The multi-sensory immersion systems require acoustic engineering, HVAC coordination, and structural provisions (mounting points, cable pathways, equipment rooms) throughout the building.

This technology integration engineering represents a discipline that conventional building engineering firms rarely encounter at this scale. Theme park engineering firms (including Falcon’s own engineering capabilities) design technology integration for individual attractions. Building engineering firms design building systems for conventional structures. The Mukaab requires building-scale engineering that incorporates entertainment-grade technology integration — a hybrid discipline that the Jacobs-AECOM JV must develop or acquire for this project.

Sustainability Engineering

The JV’s engineering scope includes sustainability considerations that affect long-term operational costs and regulatory compliance. The Mukaab’s massive energy demands — climate control for 2 million square meters in Riyadh’s heat, plus power for display technology, lighting, audio, and building systems — create sustainability challenges that engineering design can mitigate. High-efficiency HVAC systems, building envelope thermal performance, renewable energy integration (solar panels on podium rooftops and parking structures), water recycling systems, and waste management infrastructure all fall within the JV’s design responsibility.

Saudi Arabia’s evolving sustainability regulations — aligned with the Kingdom’s carbon neutrality target for 2060 — will increasingly require energy-efficient building design. Engineering decisions made during the design phase determine The Mukaab’s energy performance for decades of operation. The JV’s sustainability engineering expertise directly influences whether The Mukaab operates as an energy-intensive environmental concern or a showcase of sustainable entertainment infrastructure.

Project Scale in Engineering Context

For both Jacobs and AECOM, The Mukaab represents one of the largest single-building engineering projects in their respective portfolios. The combined engineering value — encompassing structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, vertical transportation, technology integration, sustainability, and specialty systems — creates a contract of substantial financial significance for both firms. The project’s extended timeline (construction through 2040) provides sustained engineering engagement across design, construction administration, and commissioning phases — a multi-decade professional services relationship that anchors both firms’ Gulf regional practices.

The JV’s engineering work continues through the construction suspension period — design refinement, specification development, and technology integration engineering do not require active construction on site. This continued engineering work ensures that when construction resumes, the design documentation is complete, specifications are finalized, and contractor packages can be tendered without design-driven delays. The engineering readiness achieved during the suspension period may ultimately accelerate post-resumption construction, turning the pause into a design maturation opportunity rather than pure delay.