Zaha Hadid Architects has been publicising its masterplan for Khalid Bin Sultan City, a mixed-use development adjacent to BEEAH’s headquarters in Sharjah. There’s no word yet on how big it will be, how many people and workplaces it will house, and when it will be built, or even started, but at least we have some renders.
We also have a reference point – BEEAH’s HQ building, a genuinely stunning design which Zaha Hadid Architects completed in 2022. Active and passive design features, future technologies, solar, and onsite water recycling has earned the BEEAH Headquarters a LEED Platinum certification and recognition as one of the smartest buildings in the Middle East. ZHA’s plans for Khalid Bin Sultan City apparently continue the philosophies of the HQ’s architecture, in particular taking inspiration from the fluid forms of wind-swept desert dunes.
Not that the seven distinct residential neighbourhoods of KBS City – which are interconnected by sheltered walkways and “vibrant streetscapes” – are especially dune-like. That idea works well for one large, relatively flat complex, but UAE developers obviously want a bit more vertical space containing saleable apartments.
Instead we have curving shapes for the buildings and a dune-adjacent sinuosity for the central spine of the development, a 2km-long shaded linear park that weaves through the city, intended to maintain interest by offering glimpses of what lies ahead. It will have sheltered running and cycling tracks, sculpture gardens and courtyards with wildlife ponds, cafés and restaurants, and “wellness spaces”. The seven residential districts are each roughly semicircular, with the straight edge on the plot’s boundary and the curved part abutting the wandering central spine.
The masterplan also riffs on the BEEAH HQ’s sustainability credentials, talking about a “climate-smart”, “net-zero ready”, zero-waste city “where sustainability meets smart technology”.
The blurb also references a coherent attempt to build for communities, with each of the neighbourhoods organised around a central public space with facilities and local amenities that provide “social and wellbeing anchors” which aim “to foster a strong sense of community”. There’s certainly an emphasis on walkability; those neighbourhood central plazas are only five minutes’ stroll from each other, and a range of amenities – children’s hubs, sports facilities, clinics – will be within walking distance from everyone’s home. Pedestrian pathways are shaded by native trees and plants, recessed façades, and colonnades; the landscaping has been planned specifically to reduce ground temperatures, too, for Khalid Bin Sultan City is envisioned as a year-round living environment. The renders suggest a low-rise environment, too – the highest buildings we could see are just seven stories.
It is planned as an everything-you-could-need live/work space, with workplaces as well as apartments, townhouses and villas, plus a sports complex and a cultural centre. At one end is a mall; at the other is the BEEAH Headquarters, which is intended to be the business district. The plot itself is a long rectangle that runs more or less north to south between the E88 Al Dhaid Road and the S142 Khorkfakkan Road. These are locations are on the far eastern edge of Sharjah city, well beyond the university area and the airport – but still not too far from either, and handy for the Emirates Road.
BEEAH may be an environmental management company, essentially Sharjah’s refuse processor, but it has much wider ambitions – initially to leverage its sustainability credentials and experience to contribute to Sharjah’s urban development. As well as promoting KBS City – and funding ZHA’s designs for it – BEEAH is the strategic lead for the Sharjah Creative Quarter. Announced in January and designed by the award-winning Mexican architectural firm Taller Mauricio Rocha, Sharjah Creative Quarter is being pitched as “a distinguished destination for artists, creatives and intellectuals”; in fact it appears to be the destination for a new museum to house the Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi Collection, a new Sharjah Fashion Lab and the Qasimi Archives of fashion heritage, a crafts museum for the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, a new campus for L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, and a putative Sharjah Design Centre. It sounds like d3 with some added cultural extras, but the project is currently in very early development stages and no construction timeline has been publicly announced.
The same applies to Khalid Bin Sultan City, though at least we have ZHA’s renders for that. There’s no sign of activity on the ground, of course.
Be the first to comment