A’Thuraya City: Urban Growth Shaped by the Landscape
Presented at Oman Design & Build Week, ENTROPIC’s Phase 3 Extension links eight landscape-led settlements through ecological corridors, mobility routes and public spaces. How can a city grow from the landscape rather than be imposed on it? ENTROPIC’s A’Thuraya City Phase 3 Extension begins by reading the land: its contours, water routes, habitats and patterns of movement. In 2026, ENTROPIC presented the proposal at Oman Design & Build Week, as an invited architect to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Planning. The masterplan is conceived as a constellation of eight distinct settlements, connected through ecological corridors, mobility routes and public spaces. Across Oman, settlements have historically responded to water, cultivable land, shade, movement routes and defensible terrain. These relationships informed our starting point. Wadis, high peaks, flatland, deltas and plateaus become the framework for development, rather than obstacles to a uniform urban order. Natural contours create shade and seasonal water routes. The proposal retains and connects these systems, organising roads, plots and density around the way the site works. Each settlement develops its own character through its relationship with the surrounding landscape, while shared networks bring the wider city together. The wadi becomes an organising corridor for movement and density. Elsewhere, contours continue through the residential fabric to retain views and embed buildings within the terrain. Landscape is not an amenity added after planning; it is the system that guides urban growth. The result is a prop…
