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 sustainable development in the region," echoing some of the language that has come from planners of NEOM and other desert-bound smart cities.

Oman's Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning says: "It is an urban expansion of the capital city of Muscat with a substantial size, a clear aim and a feasible implementation strategy. But, of course, the new city is not all about quantity but also about quality. [...] we conceive Sultan Haitham City not only as an artefact to be built or a number of homes to be delivered, but even more so, as a way of living in the urban millennium, in which the city becomes a stage for life."

"Culturally-sensitive" energy-efficient buildings of varying typology and density are to be constructed within walking distance of a public transit network and connected by several shaded "pedestrianized spines." 

As expected, the city will be powered by renewables and solar power. The development is also sited around a wadi (or dried river bed) that will be rewilded and greened into a new park with shaded areas and public squares. The state also says it will allow for an expected influx of new non-citizens with the inclusion of different housing types and cultural accommodations for different age groups and religions in the building clusters.

Bernhard Rettig, Senior Associate Principal at SOM, said finally: "The future of this city is very much connected to its past, where we are balancing passive strategies typically found in local planning and architecture with cutting-edge technologies. For instance, self-shaded streets with natural airflow are amplified with smart infrastructure to monitor environmental factors such as air quality and water management. In this way, the combination of low-tech and high-tech strategies ensures that growth is sustainable and rooted in cultural heritage."

Meinhardt Group (engineering) and MT Planners (landscaping) also serve as partners on the project team. SOM says to expect the first phase to be completed by the end of 2030.