Oman has revealed its ambitious plans for a new 100,000-person “smart” city outside its capital, Muscat.
The city, dubbed Sultan Haitham City will be set across 14.8 square kilometers (5.7 square miles), roughly equal in size to Beverly Hills, California.
The plan was shared exclusively with CNN by US architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The city includes 20,000 homes, a university, schools, health facilities, and mosques. It is due to be built on a largely undeveloped site in Al-Seeb, several kilometers west of Muscat.
Work on the project will begin in 2024, and will be completed in four stages.
The first phase will run until 2030 and will develop the 5-square-kilometer (1.9-square-mile) city center and six of the city’s 19 planned neighborhoods. However, the final phase is not scheduled to be completed until 2045.
According to SOM, the project will offer “vibrant public space, high-quality and affordable housing and smart urban mobility.” Bernhard Rettig, one of SOM’s senior associate principals, also said that the city’s “smart infrastructure” would be used to “monitor environmental factors such as air quality and water management.” Its traffic management system will use “real-time … data from cameras and speed sensors” to reroute vehicles and control traffic flow.
The development is part of Oman Vision 2040 to increase the use of renewables and reduce the country’s dependence on oil, which currently accounts for more than half of government revenues.
To tackle Muscat’s high temperatures and humidity, structures will be made from brick and timber. While, roads and buildings will be orientated to maximize shade and encourage natural ventilation.
A park and “an interconnected network of open spaces will sit at the city’s center. The park will be along a 7.5-km-long dry river that will be used to contain floodwater.
