RAILWAY
STREET
شارع سكة الحديد والمباني التراثية بالمنشية
A historical street,
brought back to life.
Railway Street runs through Al Manshiyah, the quarter that grew up beside AlUla’s Hejaz railway station. The brief was to make it a place for culture, community and connection: walkable pavements and shade for the people who live there, heritage façades restored with traditional materials, light poles as heritage accents — and a destination for visitors, with cafés, shops and squares along the way.
The studies, the street and façade design, the shop fit-out proposals, the technical drawings and the BOQ (bills of quantities) for Railway Street — from the 2023 moodboard and scope to the 2025 revision — were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.
- Moodboard & scope
- Street & public-realm design
- Façade retrofit & shop fit-outs
- Technical drawings & MEP coordination
- BOQ — bills of quantities
- Visualisation
Shops in Phase 1, Cluster 1 — restaurant, café, bike hub, padel shop, mini market and retail.
Buildings retrofitted (40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 48), three of them listed heritage.
Public-realm squares, shaded by palms and pergolas.
Design revisions submitted to the Royal Commission, November 2023 – February 2024.
The padel courts, café and bike hub on the same street have their own page: Train Station Road ↗
Beside the Hejaz
railway station.
Al Manshiyah District, Street 9075 — the old railway quarter between AlUla’s centre and the oasis. The red line is the street; the numbered points come from the project’s own GPS and the 2025 site survey.
- 1Railway Street — Phase 1, Cluster 1
- 2Building 1 (2025 survey)
- 3Building 2 (2025 survey)
- 400 m walking radius
- Address
- Street 9075, Al Manshiyah, AlUla 43521
- Cluster
- Urban Oasis — MP2 / SEED 2
- Heritage
- Buildings 41 and 44: significant modern heritage · Building 43: significant urban heritage
The buildings
as found.
Plain earth-plastered shop houses with timber shutters, a few odd green windows and bare side walls — modelled as they stood before the design began, so that every change could be measured against them.
Studies.
The street re-planned, cut through and lit; one shop house taken apart. Select a study.
The façades.
Each building keeps its footprint, volume and plaster, as the Royal Commission’s design review asked. What changes is the street face: stone-clad shopfronts with glazed doors, balconies with carved balustrades and lanterns, a breeze-block screen over the stair, and the air-conditioning units hidden behind screens. Drag the slider.
As foundProposedElevations.
The building fronts drawn one by one — heritage-style towers and balconies, the single-storey shop rows and the arcaded fronts along the street.
Materials
& colours.
Inspired by the railway station and the street’s own houses: earth-red and white lime plaster, beige stone, carved hardwood, terracotta breeze blocks, dark bronze and Corten, sandy paving and desert grasses. The paint colours were matched to RAL samples approved on site with the Royal Commission in February 2024.
The screen family.
A small kit used along the whole street: carved breeze-block patterns for balconies and parapets, and timber screen boxes that hide the air-conditioning units on the façades.
The street.
Shade trees and grasses in raised planters, timber poles with lanterns, café tables on the widened pavements and a cycle lane — the street at dusk, when AlUla comes outside.
Two squares.
Two small public squares open off the street: palms, low planters, timber benches and slatted pergolas that throw stripes of shade.
After dark.
Warm light from the lanterns, the shop windows and the terraces — the street is designed for the cool of the evening.
From above.
The whole stretch at night: the line of lit terraces and poles along the street, the squares, and the oasis gardens beyond the houses.
Scope.
What Phase 1, Cluster 1 covers.
Heritage façades restored with traditional materials: crack repair, plaster and paint to match, doors and windows restored, AC units removed from the façades.
Restaurant, café, bike hub, padel shop, mini market and retail, in wood, rammed earth and Corten inspired by the railway station.
Widened pavements, planted verges, cycle lane, crossings, two shaded squares and wayfinding.
Timber light poles with lanterns, benches, café furniture, planters and shade pergolas.
Building drawings and MEP plans for buildings 40, 41, 45 and 48, CNC, breeze-block, AC-cover and signage drawings, and the bills of quantities.
Client: Royal Commission for AlUla. Design and build: AMSY Group (2023–2025). Sources: Railway Street final stills (2023–2024), beauty composites, project studies and the 2025 site analysis. Visualisations communicate design intent and do not document completed construction.
The studies, the street and façade design, the shop fit-out proposals, the technical drawings and the BOQ (bills of quantities) for Railway Street — from the 2023 moodboard and scope to the 2025 revision — were prepared by Mohamed Bider for AMSY Group.