Arch2O.com

Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
Oman is an Arabian Gulf country, neighboring the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Allies and Morrison, which is a British-based architectural firm, has designed a new city ‘Madinat Al Irfan’ for the Arab country on an area of 624 hectares.
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The firm is challenging the ?identikit urbanism? through Madinat Al Irfan masterplan, aiming to establish “a place that feels as if it has always been there”.
Courtesy of Allies and Morrison
Allies and Morrison won a competition to design the new city in 2014. Madinat Al Irfan will be located around a ?wadi? – meaning a desert valley in Arabic- between Oman?s capital, Muscat, and the nearby city, Seeb. The core of the project will be the ?wadi? which will encompass a park of a 108-hectare area, at the heart of the new city. Several bridges will be crossing the ?wadi? to link the different districts of Madinat Al Irfan together. The masterplan, which will be executed over the following thirty years, includes a business district, a marketplace ?souq?, a mosque, and a grid of streets.
Courtesy of Allies and Morrison
Cultural centers and luxurious hotels will be constructed at the highlands surrounding the valley, whereas the valley beneath will be housing a university and another marketplace.
Allies and Morrison?s masterplan respected the Omani culture and paid homage to the ancient...