Diriyah at Outernet

Challenge

Diriyah, just west of Riyadh, is the birthplace of the first Saudi state and one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious cultural and urban developments. With its UNESCO World Heritage Site at At-Turaif at the center, Diriyah is being reimagined as a global destination. To connect with international audiences and investors, Diriyah Company created a four-day takeover at Outernet in London – Europe’s largest immersive venue.

Solution

Journey helped tell the future story of Diriyah in the ‘Now Trending’ zone at Outernet, creating a panoramic immersive film that transported visitors from central London into the landscapes, neighborhoods and experiences of Diriyah. The film introduced the destination’s masterplan through a vivid journey across culture, hospitality, retail, residences and commercial spaces.

As well as the panoramic film, Journey designed a physical representation of a majlis, the traditional Saudi space of welcome, conversation and hospitality, within Outernet’s atrium. The installation brought a tactile and architectural counterpoint to the digital experience, inviting visitors to pause, gather and encounter Diriyah’s cultural story in a more intimate way.

The immersive film

The film was designed to communicate the scale and vision of Diriyah while preserving a strong sense of place. It needed to feel cinematic, culturally grounded and commercially effective, helping audiences understand not only what Diriyah is becoming, but why it matters.

The film brings together completed and future landmarks across the destination, including At-Turaif, Bujairi Terrace, the Diriyah Arena, King Salman Square, Wadi Hanifah, the Ritz-Carlton Residences and more than 12 forthcoming districts.

Beginning with a global perspective, the story moves from London to Saudi Arabia before arriving at Diriyah itself. From there, the journey flows through heritage landscapes, retail environments, hospitality spaces, residential neighborhoods and commercial districts, using scale, movement and architectural detail to position Diriyah as a human-centered city rooted in culture.

Showcased at Outernet London, the film introduced global audiences to Diriyah’s future through an immersive digital environment designed for maximum visibility, dwell time and shareability.

Retail

Retail was presented as a defining part of Diriyah’s future visitor experience, centered around King Salman Square and a network of streets, plazas and lifestyle destinations. The film moves through animated retail environments that combine luxury, culture and everyday public life, showing how commerce will be woven into the city’s walkable fabric.

The sequence highlights the relationship between contemporary retail design and Najdi-inspired architecture, using storefronts, shaded streets and activated public spaces to show Diriyah as a place for discovery, gathering and exchange.

Hospitality

Diriyah’s hospitality offer was shown through a series of luxury hotel and leisure environments, including resorts, branded residences and destination dining experiences. These scenes help communicate the breadth of the development, from intimate courtyards and terraces to large-scale cultural and entertainment districts.

The film positions hospitality as both a commercial driver and an expression of Saudi welcome, connecting global luxury with the cultural values of generosity, gathering and place.

Residences

Residential scenes were used to describe Diriyah as a lived-in city rather than a collection of isolated destinations. The film moves through neighborhoods, homes, landscaped streets and communal spaces, showing how residents will experience the development at a human scale.

These sequences emphasize walkability, comfort, privacy and connection to landscape, presenting Diriyah as a place where heritage-led design supports contemporary urban living.

Commercial Offices

Commercial office environments were included to communicate Diriyah’s role as a future business destination. The film shows modern workplaces integrated into the wider urban plan, with offices positioned close to hospitality, retail, residences and civic spaces.

Rather than presenting commercial space as separate from the rest of the city, the sequence shows how work will be embedded within Diriyah’s broader daily rhythm, supporting collaboration, accessibility and a strong sense of place.

The commercial sequences also helped international audiences understand Diriyah’s economic ambition, placing the development within the wider context of Riyadh’s growth and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

Why feedback matters

Working with Diriyah Company and its partners, Journey used immersive visualization as a way to test, communicate and refine the story of the destination. The film was not only a presentation tool, but a way to help audiences, stakeholders and investors understand the experience of Diriyah before it is fully realized.

By translating masterplan information, architectural intent and cultural context into a cinematic spatial journey, the Outernet activation gave viewers a direct sense of scale, atmosphere and future possibility.

The project demonstrates how immersive media can support destination storytelling at a global stage, helping complex developments become more tangible, memorable and emotionally resonant.