Nieuws

OMA designs masterplan Waterfront City (Dubai)

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has completed the Masterplan of Waterfront City. OMA’s masterplan entails a total gross floor area of 11,800,00 m2 comprising of a central island surrounded by four neighbouring districts.

Waterfront City will form the centre for the larger 140,000,000 m2 Waterfront development,  a development to date providing homes for a prospective 1.5 million new inhabitants and creating one million jobs. Waterfront  is located against Dubai’s western border, and will occupy the prime position between Dubai as the emerging metropolitan centre of the Gulf and neighbouring Abu Dhabi.

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. With a predicted residential population of 92,000 and a working population of 310,000 people Waterfront City is set to become a lively city centre 24 hours a day.

The central Island district with a gross floor area of 7,000,000 m2 the Island is based on a grid of five streets by five streets, 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.

All of the surrounding areas as well as the Island are connected by a comprehensive public transport system, including Dubai’s new metro train system.  Waterfront City will have a direct link to the Al Maktoum International Airport, currently under construction and set to become Dubai’s main airport hub. Work on the infrastructure started already.