The Blue City, Oman

The Sultanate of Oman, like the UAE, is experiencing phenomenal growth. And like the UAE, Oman has some truly amazing Mega Projects of its own. The greatest of these is The Blue City (Al Madina Al Zarqa). The Blue City is a gigantic mixed use development that will contain residential, business, commercial, leisure/hotel/resort, educational and medical properties and projects. The Blue City will cover 14 square miles and is located 60 miles from Muscat, capital of Oman.

The Blue City is an entirely new development and when finished in 2020 will house over 250,000 residents making it one of the largest Mega Project developments in the Middle East. The project, being developed by Al Suwaidi Investment and Tourism Company, is expected to cost $20Billion.

The Blue City will have over 9.3 miles of beachfront area which will be home to many spectacular resorts and hotels. This feature of the project will also make Oman a primary tourist destination. Oman is already known as one of the most beautiful vacation destinations in the Middle East. The Blue City can only enhance the vacation appeal of Oman throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world.

The Blue City will be formed of clustered communities with schools, a university, stadiums, two PGA golf courses, a marina, hotels, a concert hall, shops of all kinds and souks. The waterfront will be developed as luxury resorts. The architecture of The Blue City is a traditional Omani style designed to appeal to tourists as well. Foster + Partners of London have been hired as the official architects of the project.

Here is a quote from Foster + Partners relating to the many residential offerings of The Blue City:

"Each residential community will have its own identity. The apartment buildings will offer residents their own private courtyard and discreet car-parking. The material palette will comprise locally sourced stone and timber. Borrowing from the indigenous architectural heritage, the design is small scale, compact and organic. It is inherently sustainable through passive means, such as natural ventilation, careful orientation – to minimise direct sunlight and maximise ventilation - and the manipulation of the thermal mass of the buildings."

The Blue City is a truly grand Mega Project that will be the shining star of Oman and a spectacular addition to the Middle East!

Here is the link to The Blue City area of the Foster + Partners website. It contains many excellent pictures of the project:

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/News/321/Default.aspx

...and here is the link to The Blue City website:

http://www.bluecityoman.com/