The 330-Metre Spiral Tower
At the center of The Mukaab’s holographic dome stands what NMDC describes as the world’s first fully enclosed skyscraper — a 330-metre spiraling tower composed of stacked organic forms that serves as the primary hospitality, dining, retail, and observation structure within the cube. This skyscraper-within-a-skyscraper concept creates a vertical hospitality ecosystem surrounded by simulated environments that change from the Serengeti to New York City on a programmed schedule. Experience Studio CEO Christopher Johnson has confirmed the project pushes boundaries in LED and holography technology, positioning the spiral tower as the physical centerpiece around which the Mukaab’s digital environment revolves.
The spiral tower occupies the central position within the Mukaab’s 2-million-square-metre interior, surrounded by the holographic dome that covers the cube’s interior surfaces. This positioning means every level of the tower offers views into the dome’s simulated environments — a design that transforms what would be conventional high-rise hotel windows into portals to digitally rendered worlds. No existing skyscraper globally offers this relationship between interior physical space and surrounding immersive digital environment.
Architectural Design
The spiral tower’s structure draws on organic architectural principles, with stacked forms that create a continuous ascending path from ground level to the rooftop garden. Designed by AtkinsRealis as part of the overall Mukaab concept, the tower integrates with the holographic dome surrounding it — the dome provides the visual environment, while the tower provides the physical infrastructure for hospitality, dining, observation, and retail experiences.
The organic stacking creates multiple levels of terraces, balconies, and viewpoints that offer different perspectives on the dome’s simulated environments. A restaurant positioned at the 200-metre level experiences the holographic display differently from a retail space at the 50-metre level, creating natural variety in the guest experience without requiring separate ticketing or access controls. The spiraling ascent creates a journey metaphor — ascending through the tower moves guests through progressively more dramatic perspectives on the dome environment.
The tower’s monumental scale — 330 metres within a 400-metre cube — leaves 70 metres of vertical clearance between the tower’s peak and the cube’s ceiling. This clearance provides the space necessary for the holographic dome’s upper projection surface and creates a visual framing effect where the tower appears to float within the simulated environment rather than touching the structure’s boundaries.
The structural engineering required to support a 330-metre tower within a 400-metre cube represents extraordinary technical complexity. The tower must be structurally independent from the cube’s exterior shell while connected to shared building systems — HVAC, power, water, data — through the cube’s infrastructure. AtkinsRealis’ engineering scope encompasses this structural independence, ensuring that the tower’s vertical loads transfer to its own foundation system rather than the cube’s wall structure.
Five Hospitality Functions
The spiral tower concentrates five hospitality functions that collectively generate revenue streams across multiple segments.
Hotel Rooms and Suites: Upper tower levels contain hotel rooms and suites that offer the most immersive accommodation in the Mukaab. Rooms face the holographic dome, providing views into simulated environments that change on a programmed schedule. These represent the highest-tier luxury hotel offerings within the structure, commanding ultra-luxury pricing ($500-2,000+ per night) justified by the unprecedented room experience. The hotel component integrates with the AI concierge and smart room technology systems, allowing guests to personalize their dome-facing view through room controls.
Restaurants: Dining venues span multiple levels, from immersive fine dining experiences at upper levels to casual and fast-casual options at lower levels, all surrounded by the dome’s visual display. Upper-level restaurants pair cuisine with panoramic holographic environments — a tasting menu accompanied by environmental storytelling as the dome transitions between landscapes across courses. Saudi Arabia’s restaurant scene, expanding at 25%+ annually, confirms market demand for premium dining experiences, and the Mukaab’s immersive platform provides differentiation that no competing Riyadh venue can match.
Observation Decks: Ticketed public access to panoramic views from the tower’s upper reaches creates a tourism revenue stream independent of hotel operations. Observation deck visitors experience the dome environment from elevated vantage points unavailable to ground-level visitors, creating premium ticket pricing for the most dramatic perspectives. The observation deck model — proven at venues from the Burj Khalifa to the Empire State Building — generates reliable revenue from both tourist and local visitor markets.
Luxury Retail: Lower and mid-level positions within the tower host luxury retail experiences within the immersive environment. The 500,000+ square metres of reimagined retail planned across the Mukaab and district includes premium retail expected to attract global luxury houses. Retail within the spiral tower benefits from high foot traffic between hotel, restaurant, and observation deck visitors, creating exposure and impulse purchase opportunities.
Rooftop Garden: The tower’s peak features an outdoor green space with panoramic views of both the dome interior and the Riyadh skyline beyond. This rooftop garden provides the only outdoor natural environment within the Mukaab cube, offering dining, relaxation, and event space that contrasts with the simulated environments below. For guests seeking natural rather than holographic outdoor experience, the rooftop garden provides an essential respite.
Revenue Analysis
The spiral tower represents a concentrated revenue asset within the larger Mukaab structure. Hotel RevPAR for tower rooms should significantly exceed district-wide averages due to the unique immersive positioning — comparable premiums at existing immersive venues suggest 40-60% RevPAR uplift over standard luxury positioning. Current Riyadh luxury market performance benchmarks — $180-220 ADR, 65-70% occupancy, $125-155 RevPAR — provide the baseline, with tower rooms potentially achieving ADR of $500-2,000+ depending on the brand and room category.
Restaurant revenue per seat benefits from the spectacle factor, with dining experiences positioned as destination attractions rather than hotel amenity dining. Immersive dining globally commands $300-500+ per cover, significantly above the $100-200 range for equivalent non-immersive fine dining. Multiple restaurant tiers within the tower diversify revenue across price points and dining occasions.
Observation deck ticketing provides predictable, weather-independent revenue uncorrelated with hotel occupancy cycles. The Mukaab’s observation decks benefit from the dome environment — visitors observe simulated environments in addition to Riyadh city views — creating a differentiated observation experience that supports premium ticket pricing above conventional observation deck benchmarks.
Operational Complexity
For the brands competing for spiral tower positioning, the commercial opportunity is substantial but operationally demanding. Managing hospitality services within a vertical structure surrounded by holographic technology requires specialized workforce skills and technology maintenance capabilities that go far beyond conventional high-rise hotel operations.
Vertical logistics — moving guests, staff, supplies, and waste through a 330-metre tower — require elevator systems, service corridors, and back-of-house infrastructure designed for hospitality operations at height. The F&B supply chain must deliver ingredients and supplies to restaurants at multiple levels while maintaining food safety and quality standards during vertical transport. Housekeeping and maintenance teams must service rooms at height while navigating the building’s organic spiral architecture.
The integration with the holographic dome adds technology management responsibilities to conventional hotel operations. Room systems must synchronize with dome displays, climate must be coordinated between the tower’s interior and the dome’s environmental simulation, and maintenance of dome-facing windows and surfaces requires specialized equipment and procedures.
Saudization requirements apply to all tower operations, requiring Saudi national employment across hospitality, technology, and maintenance roles. The estimated 25,000-40,000 hospitality roles across New Murabba’s full pipeline include specialized positions unique to the spiral tower — holographic environment coordinators, immersive dining experience designers, vertical logistics managers — that require training programs not yet developed in the Saudi hospitality education system.
For investment analysis see our branded residence economics, RevPAR benchmarking, and market performance dashboard. For construction timeline see operations coverage.
Riyadh Luxury Market Performance Context
Current Riyadh luxury hotel market performance provides the commercial context for this analysis. The capital operates 40,000+ hotel rooms across all categories, with the luxury and ultra-luxury segments commanding average daily rates of $180-220. Occupancy rates average 65-70% across the premium segment, generating revenue per available room of $125-155. Year-over-year ADR growth of 8-12% confirms demand expansion exceeding supply growth — a dynamic that supports new investment and operational positioning.
Saudi Arabia’s total hotel inventory exceeds 350,000 rooms across the Kingdom, with a national development pipeline of 50,000+ rooms. The hospitality sector grows at 12-15% annually, with $25+ billion in hospitality investment pipeline deployed across the country. The premium segment outperforms the market average by 15-20%, demonstrating that ultra-luxury positioning within developments like the Mukaab can achieve superior unit economics. The Saudi Tourism Authority targets tourism contributing 10% of GDP by 2030, with 150 million annual visits nationally and 1 million+ tourism jobs created.
Demand Catalyst Analysis
Multiple demand catalysts support the commercial viability of New Murabba’s hospitality proposition. Expo Riyadh 2030 expects 40+ million visitors during the six-month event period, creating accommodation demand that far exceeds current supply. The event’s location in Riyadh directly benefits hotels across the capital, with New Murabba’s Phase 1 positioned to capture this demand if construction timelines are met.
FIFA World Cup 2034, with matches at New Murabba’s 45,000-seat stadium designed by Arup (selected July 2025), creates massive short-term accommodation demand. Match-day hotel demand at FIFA events typically requires 80,000-120,000 room nights per host city, creating revenue spikes at significant multiples above standard ADR.
The Saudi headquarters mandate has accelerated corporate relocations to Riyadh, generating sustained business travel demand. Foreign direct investment growing at 20%+ annually brings international business travelers. Riyadh Season entertainment programming draws millions of domestic and regional visitors annually, with New Murabba signing a sponsorship agreement for the 2024 Season. Religious tourism expansion — Hajj and Umrah capacity increases — drives visitors through Riyadh as a leisure extension point.
The MICE segment — meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions — provides additional demand with Saudi Arabia’s MICE market valued at $3.5+ billion annually and growing 15-20% year-over-year. Events including the Future Investment Initiative (6,000+ delegates annually), LEAP Technology, and the Future Hospitality Summit confirm Riyadh’s emergence as a top MICE destination in the MENA region.
New Murabba Development Context
The New Murabba masterplan provides essential context for understanding the scale of this opportunity. The development encompasses 19 square kilometres at the intersection of King Khalid Road and King Salman Road in northwest Riyadh. Developed by New Murabba Development Company under the Public Investment Fund at an estimated cost of $50 billion, the project is led by CEO Michael Dyke with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as PIF board chair.
The masterplan includes 25+ million square metres of total floor area, 104,000+ residential units across 18 communities, 9,000-10,100 hotel room keys, 980,000 square metres of retail space, 1.4 million square metres of office space, and 620,000 square metres of leisure assets. The development projects a population of 400,000+ residents and targets 90 million international and domestic visitors annually.
The Mukaab — a 400-metre cube meaning “The Cube” in Arabic, located in the Al-Qirawan district — encompasses 2 million square metres of interior floor space with 1.7 million square metres designated for hospitality. The structure features the 330-metre spiral tower, the holographic dome with multi-sensory immersive technology (visual, audio, olfactory, haptic, and AI control layers), and golden triangular exterior panels reinterpreting Najdi architectural heritage through contemporary materials.
Design firms include AtkinsRealis (primary Mukaab architecture), Jacobs-AECOM joint venture (infrastructure and district design), KPF (first residential community), and Arup (45,000-seat stadium). The NAVER Cloud Corporation partnership brings South Korean smart city technology for AI-driven building management, guest services, and environmental controls.
Construction status as of early 2026: excavation 86% complete (October 2024) with 10+ million cubic metres of earth moved, extensive pile foundations completed, construction paused beyond excavation and foundations in January 2026 for financial and technical review. Original 2030 completion revised to phased delivery through 2040 — Phase 1 for Expo 2030, Phase 2A for FIFA 2034, Phase 2B for 2035, Phase 3 for 2040 including new airport and high-speed train station.
Competitive Landscape
Understanding the competitive landscape is essential for positioning analysis. Diriyah Gate, developed across 11+ square kilometres, has confirmed 38 prestigious hotel brands including Aman (78 rooms, 34 branded residences in Wadi Safar), Four Seasons Hotel Diriyah, Raffles (Wadi Hanifah), Armani Hotel, Park Hyatt, Rosewood, Six Senses, Capella, The Langham, and The Chedi. The development encompasses 100+ restaurants anchored by the UNESCO-listed At-Turaif heritage site.
NEOM, the futuristic megacity in northwest Saudi Arabia, has confirmed multiple hotel brands including Hyatt, though its plans have been significantly scaled back from original scope, with The Line substantially reduced. Red Sea Global targets luxury eco-tourism on the Red Sea coast but has also been scaled back amid reassessment. Qiddiya, the entertainment mega-destination south of Riyadh, has been prioritized for continued development with hotels and entertainment complexes.
The Mukaab’s competitive differentiation — immersive holographic technology, the spiral tower concept, multi-sensory environmental simulation — creates a hospitality category distinct from all competing developments. This technology differentiation may allow brands committed to other projects to position within the Mukaab without triggering geographic exclusivity conflicts, as the product category is sufficiently different to justify dual-market presence.