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CNN
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Oman’s capital Muscat is set to receive a massive $1.3 billion waterfront development designed by globally renowned Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA).
The 3.3 million square meter Al Khuwair Muscat city center and waterfront development will include a residential area, a marina, a cultural precinct, canal walks and a ministerial campus. The project will start at the end of this year and is expected to accommodate more than 60,000 people upon completion.
ZHA’s deputy director, architect Paolo Zilli, told CNN it took him about a year to finalize the model submitted to Oman’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning.
Central to ZIlli’s design is the convenience of public transportation. “Our vision is really to remove all the cars, remove all the fences and create a department campus with a variety of features that will appeal to families and new generations,” he said.
ZHA says it will encourage pedestrians by providing shading and passive cooling, and integrate infrastructure to improve riding safety. The use of on-site solar energy will be “maximized” and native plant species will be protected and restored.
Oman’s economy has long been dependent on oil, but it is now investing heavily in real estate projects to attract more foreign investment and ultimately increase non-oil revenue as part of the country’s National Vision 2040 strategy. Muscat’s population is expected to increase from 1.5 million to 2.7 million.
“A lot has changed,” Oman’s Minister of Housing and Urban Planning Dr. Khalfan bin Saeed bin Mubarak Al Shoeli told CNN. “us [are] The economy will be transformed based on talent and capabilities, skills and digital industries.
“In Muscat, we estimate that we will need another 300,000 homes. If we do well, then… this could expand to 600,000 homes.”
UK-based Zaha Hadid Architects is named after its legendary founder, who in 2004 became the first woman to win architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize. She, who died in 2016, designed striking buildings from the Guangzhou Opera House in China to the Ferno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany.ZHA’s designs have since included the BEEAH headquarters in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, which is powered in part by Tesla battery packs, and in 2022 it unveiled plans for a virtual city in a virtual universe intended to be a cyber-libertarian utopia.
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