A’Thuraya City: Urban Growth Shaped by the Landscape

Earlier this year, ENTROPIC presented the A’Thuraya City Phase 3 Extension at Oman Design & Build Week, as an invited architect to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Planning.

The proposal asks a fundamental question: how can urban growth emerge from the landscape? A’Thuraya City is conceived as a constellation of eight distinct settlements, each shaped by the land. Shared ecological corridors, mobility routes and public spaces connect them into one unified urban experience.

Across Oman, settlements have historically developed around access to water, cultivable land, shade, movement routes and defensible terrain. Rather than imposing a new order on the masterplan, we began by analysing the systems that already organise the site, allowing urban growth to emerge from pre-existing conditions.

The site brings together wadis, high peaks, flatland, deltas and plateaus. Its natural contours create shade and seasonal water routes, forming connected systems for drainage, habitat, movement and public space. The masterplan retains and links these systems, organising roads, plots and density around them. Design responds to how the land works, rather than imposing a foreign, uniform urban order.

Within this framework, each settlement develops its own character through its relationship with the surrounding landscape. The wadi becomes an organising corridor for movement and density. Elsewhere, contours continue through the residential fabric to maintain existing views and embed buildings within the terrain.

The eight settlements are not conceived as isolated developments. Together, their ecological networks, mobility routes and public spaces form a connected city. Density, movement and public life are distributed according to the different conditions of the site, creating a more integrated relationship between urban life and its surrounding environment.

The result is a city rooted in its landscape while looking towards Oman’s future, where urbanity, ecology and identity develop together.

The proposal is the result of outstanding teamwork by Geoffrey James Eberle, Magdalena Mróz, Adrien Lotz, Tommaso Pannunzio, Ata Raoufi Fard and Olha Martsynovska, in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing & Urban Planning, alongside our partners Ahmed Salem, Susan Isawi, Jose Amorim and NJP Oman.

Olha Martsynovska will attend Urban October to continue the dialogue on regional development and the realisation of Oman’s Vision 2040. With a growing portfolio across MENA, ENTROPIC is focused on working with developers, institutions and stakeholders. If you are attending, we look forward to connecting.

Explore the A’Thuraya City masterplan through the slideshow and the project link below.

Explore A'Thuraya City ↗