By Editor Design.nl / 11-03-2008

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has completed the masterplan of Waterfront City, a completely new city to be built in Dubai.

Waterfront City will form the centre of the larger 140,000,000 m2 Waterfront development. Waterfront is Dubai’s largest development to date providing homes for a prospective 1.5 million new inhabitants, effectively doubling Dubai’s population and creating one million jobs. OMA’s plan entails a total gross floor area of 11,800,00 m2 comprising of a central island surrounded by four neighbouring districts - the Boulevard, Madinat Al Soor, the Resort and the Marina.

Central park and mosque
Dubai-based developer Nakheel commissioned OMA in early 2007 to design a high density development that was free from dependency on the car. As a solution to this, Waterfront City is designed with the density of Manhattan in mind and offers a compact solution for a modern day metropolis. Commerce, retail, culture and private accommodation are programmatically overlapped to create a lively city centre within the Waterfront development. The inclusion of a central park, large mosque area and iconic landmark attractions will enable visitors and inhabitants to enjoy a vibrant city from street level.

Water and trees
The central Island district is the defining element of the design of Waterfront City, surrounded by water on all sides it stands alone as a landmark itself. With a gross floor area of 7,000,000 m2 the Island is based on a grid of five streets by five streets. This creates a city on a human scale ensuring not only the ease of traffic passing through the city but also creating walkable distances between blocks. To ensure maximum shading and climate control in the city the higher building masses are concentrated on the south side also making efficient use of wind flows for cooling. To guarantee further protection from the sun each city block is lined with arcades and planted with trees.

The project is led by Reinier de Graaf and Rem Koolhaas.

OMA
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. The office is led by six partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Floris Alkemade and Managing Partner, Victor van der Chijs – and employs a staff of over 230 of more than 30 nationalities. Architects, researchers, designers, model makers, industrial designers and graphic designers of multinational origin work in close collaboration.(Image: © Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA))

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