Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils major waterfront master plan in Oman

2024-03-15T11:52:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a waterfront master plan for downtown Muscat in Oman.

Under the plans, named the Al Khuwair development, the existing administrative and industrial areas will become an urban district with an expected population of 64,500.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

The district will comprise five areas: a marina, a recreational waterfront with beaches and sports facilities, a canal walkway, a cultural quarter, and a Ministry campus. Residential areas will be incorporated throughout the master plan alongside arts, culture, and leisure facilities within mixed-use developments.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

Building on Muscat’s history as a port city, the development will be anchored by the marina, which will include public green spaces along the waterfront and dining, retail, hotel, and residential developments. Elsewhere, buildings within the existing Ministry campus are expected to be retrofitted and reused through a program of re...

SOM reveals plans for 100,000-person Sultan Haitham smart city in Oman

2023-08-23T14:53:00-04:00

A new plan for a proposed smart city in Oman has been released by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in advance of the project’s anticipated construction start next year.

The 14.8 million-square-meter Sultan Haitham City is located west of the country’s capital, Muscat, and will accommodate 100,000 people with a total of 20,000 units of housing and climate-resilient naturalistic elements developed around twelve core aims of creating an experience that is "affordable, safe, compact, accessible, comfortable, robust, efficient, circular, healthy, smart, and lovable."

The project is part of the larger Vision 2040 initiative, which has, to date, seen the construction of the world’s largest 3D printed building made with real concrete. The development will begin with the construction of six neighborhoods around a 1.9-square-mile central core and later spread out along a 4.6-mile stretch until completion in 2045. SOM’s Managing Director Thomas Behr says it "provides a new model for sustainabl...

The world's largest 3D printed building made with real concrete is completed in Oman

2022-01-14T14:05:00-05:00

The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) along with Danish 3D printer producer COBOD and Mexican cement company Cemex has completed the largest 3D printed building in the world made with real concrete.

Located in the Omani capital of Muscat, the 2,100-square-foot structure was designed as a typical social housing unit in Oman. It includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and a guest reception area. The house was printed in two stages. The first stage included the training of the Omani building crew while the materials recipe was being adjusted, which was followed by the five-day construction process.

Rather than using traditional dry mix mortars used in most other 3D printed structures, GUtech employed a D.fab solution developed by COBOC and CEMEX that consists of locally sourced cement, sand, and gravel — a mix that is, according to the development team, easier to deposit. The team tested the solution in Angola, resulting in the country’s first ...

Snøhetta gives its new Muttrah Fish Market in Oman a playful canopy roof

2018-01-03T15:00:00-05:00

Doors recently opened at the new Snøhetta-designed Muttrah Fish Market in Oman. The 4,000-square-meter facility is an upgrade from the city's older 1960s fish market and offers refrigeration, packaging, storage spaces for fish, vegetable, and fruit vendors, as well as offices, coffee shops, and a restaurant gathered below the dynamically swooping curves of the canopy roof.

From the architects: "Situated at the heart of Muttrah, on Oman’s largest harbor, the new fish market is a tribute to both the past and the future of Oman. The city of Muttrah is known for its long history of commercial trade, its characteristic port, and long-standing fishery traditions."

"Located close to the city’s original fish market, built in 1960, the new market marks a continuity of the region’s trade and fishing traditions, while also fulfilling Oman’s need to accommodate for the country’s growing tourism industry."