An eight-pointed urban framework connects Sohar's civic life, neighbourhoods, landscape and infrastructure.
The New City is positioned within Sohar's expanding urban fabric, between established residential districts and emerging civic and institutional destinations. Its regional setting links the proposal to the port, airport and wider movement corridors, while the Wadi Ahin catchment introduces a different organising logic. The design brings these conditions together: a connected urban extension whose streets, public spaces and landscape respond to both metropolitan relationships and the character of the site.
The Barcelona Eixample provides a precedent for an urban framework that can accommodate change without losing its legibility. Its relevance here lies in the relationship between clear spatial rules and varied everyday uses, rather than the repetition of a particular form. For Sohar, the grid becomes a durable starting point: a structure that can be adjusted by landscape, civic orientation and movement while allowing different neighbourhoods and building types to develop within it.
A 90-by-90-metre grid establishes the proposal's basic urban module. Its value is not uniformity, but the ability to coordinate plots, infrastructure and phased growth within a clear shared structure. Civic alignments, movement corridors and landscape then interrupt and adapt that order. The animation introduces this shift from a regular field to a city with distinct centres, routes and neighbourhoods, before the seven design moves are explored individually.
The 90-by-90-metre grid sets out a legible structure for plots, movement and services. It gives the proposal a consistent starting point that can support different uses and phased growth without determining every building or neighbourhood in advance.
The grid is opened along visual alignments toward the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. These sight corridors give the masterplan a shared point of reference and establish a hierarchy that connects the new urban structure to an existing civic and spiritual landmark.
Diagonal and orthogonal connections cut through the grid to relate the city to highways, regional gateways and potential rail infrastructure. These routes organise accessibility at the larger scale while establishing the corridors around which local activity and services can gather.
Rotating the central grid produces the eight-pointed structure and a compact civic core. The design concentrates activity, services and mixed uses at this centre, while its outward points connect the core to a wider network of neighbourhoods and urban anchors.
The wadi introduces a landscape corridor that breaks the regular grid. The proposal retains its spatial continuity and explores a secondary water route within the park system, bringing stormwater management, public space and ecological connections into the same urban conversation.
Transit-oriented nodes relate circulation, building heights and mixed-use activity. The proposal intensifies selected focal points rather than spreading the same density everywhere, retaining a transition toward quieter residential areas and giving neighbourhoods access to a broader network of services.
The final move brings parks, gardens and planted routes into the urban structure. Landscape connects the larger civic axes to neighbourhood life, so the masterplan can be understood through everyday journeys and shared outdoor places as well as its overall geometry.
Selected item 1 / 7
The 90-by-90-metre grid sets out a legible structure for plots, movement and services. It gives the proposal a consistent starting point that can support different uses and phased growth without determining every building or neighbourhood in advance.
The grid is opened along visual alignments toward the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. These sight corridors give the masterplan a shared point of reference and establish a hierarchy that connects the new urban structure to an existing civic and spiritual landmark.
Diagonal and orthogonal connections cut through the grid to relate the city to highways, regional gateways and potential rail infrastructure. These routes organise accessibility at the larger scale while establishing the corridors around which local activity and services can gather.
Rotating the central grid produces the eight-pointed structure and a compact civic core. The design concentrates activity, services and mixed uses at this centre, while its outward points connect the core to a wider network of neighbourhoods and urban anchors.
The wadi introduces a landscape corridor that breaks the regular grid. The proposal retains its spatial continuity and explores a secondary water route within the park system, bringing stormwater management, public space and ecological connections into the same urban conversation.
Transit-oriented nodes relate circulation, building heights and mixed-use activity. The proposal intensifies selected focal points rather than spreading the same density everywhere, retaining a transition toward quieter residential areas and giving neighbourhoods access to a broader network of services.
The final move brings parks, gardens and planted routes into the urban structure. Landscape connects the larger civic axes to neighbourhood life, so the masterplan can be understood through everyday journeys and shared outdoor places as well as its overall geometry.
Selected item 1 / 7
The eight-pointed star coordinates movement, landscape, public space and a distributed network of urban anchors. Its corridors converge on a central octagon, while the Holy Park and Linear Park establish larger civic and landscape relationships. A finer grid supports the neighbourhoods between them. The masterplan combines this recognisable overall structure with smaller gardens, streets and courtyards, allowing city-scale orientation and the intimacy of everyday places to coexist.
The complete coloured masterplan brings the street hierarchy, landscape corridors and neighbourhood fabric into a single drawing. The star establishes the larger civic order, while the finer grid accommodates differences in programme, density and public space. Reading the whole panel preserves those relationships: the parks, wadi, anchor points and residential areas are understood as parts of one proposed urban system rather than isolated illustrations.
The masterplan is considered in relation to the wider territory of Sohar, not only the edge of its own site. Its principal directions connect the new urban structure with existing districts, major movement corridors and the surrounding landscape. These relationships give the star a regional role while maintaining a clear civic centre, allowing the city framework to mediate between local neighbourhood life and a longer-term pattern of metropolitan growth.
The Holy Park and Linear Park follow key directions of the star framework. They organise public space, maintain views toward the mosque and connect civic destinations, creating a landscape structure that is legible across the larger masterplan.
Community and private gardens form a finer network within the grid. These spaces support neighbourhood life and outdoor use at a more intimate scale, complementing the larger parks with courtyards, planted edges and places for everyday encounters.
The wadi system provides a continuous landscape relationship across the city. The proposal brings the existing corridor and a secondary water route into the park framework, treating water management and ecological continuity as spatial questions rather than isolated infrastructure works.
Selected item 1 / 3
The Holy Park and Linear Park follow key directions of the star framework. They organise public space, maintain views toward the mosque and connect civic destinations, creating a landscape structure that is legible across the larger masterplan.
Community and private gardens form a finer network within the grid. These spaces support neighbourhood life and outdoor use at a more intimate scale, complementing the larger parks with courtyards, planted edges and places for everyday encounters.
The wadi system provides a continuous landscape relationship across the city. The proposal brings the existing corridor and a secondary water route into the park framework, treating water management and ecological continuity as spatial questions rather than isolated infrastructure works.
Selected item 1 / 3
The Holy Park gives one of the star's principal diagonals a civic and ceremonial role. Its alignment frames the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque as a point of orientation, while gardens, gathering places and pavilions create a sequence along the route. The park is conceived as more than a distant view corridor: it brings the larger cultural relationship into public spaces that can be occupied, crossed and encountered as part of daily life.
The Holy Park gives one of the star's principal diagonals a civic and ceremonial role. Its alignment frames the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque as a point of orientation, while gardens, gathering places and pavilions create a sequence along the route. The park is conceived as more than a distant view corridor: it brings the larger cultural relationship into public spaces that can be occupied, crossed and encountered as part of daily life.
The mosque remains a shared point of reference across a varied urban landscape. Parks, shaded routes and neighbourhood streets connect that larger identity to the scale of a walk, a meeting place or an outlook. The proposal uses these relationships to hold distinct districts together without making them identical. Public landscape becomes the common ground between the city's clear overall framework and the different ways its neighbourhoods can be inhabited.
The mosque remains a shared point of reference across a varied urban landscape. Parks, shaded routes and neighbourhood streets connect that larger identity to the scale of a walk, a meeting place or an outlook. The proposal uses these relationships to hold distinct districts together without making them identical. Public landscape becomes the common ground between the city's clear overall framework and the different ways its neighbourhoods can be inhabited.
The first phase connects the site to the highway and establishes the proposed Wadi Park station relationship. Initial Holy Park and Linear Park segments set out the mosque axes, while the energy and water district forms an early infrastructure anchor.
The second phase strengthens the star geometry, completes the Holy Park and expands major landscape corridors. Initial anchor nodes concentrate activity, helping the emerging city acquire a clear civic structure rather than growing as a collection of unrelated parcels.
The third phase completes the main Wadi Park and Linear Park relationships while extending primary streets. Its focus is the continuity of the urban and ecological framework: connecting earlier pieces so they begin to function as a more coherent system.
The final phase expands residential development and completes the eight-pointed framework. A proposed hippodrome adds a further cultural destination, reinforcing the relationship between the larger civic programme, the landscape network and the neighbourhoods that complete the city's eastern extent.
Selected item 1 / 4
The first phase connects the site to the highway and establishes the proposed Wadi Park station relationship. Initial Holy Park and Linear Park segments set out the mosque axes, while the energy and water district forms an early infrastructure anchor.
The second phase strengthens the star geometry, completes the Holy Park and expands major landscape corridors. Initial anchor nodes concentrate activity, helping the emerging city acquire a clear civic structure rather than growing as a collection of unrelated parcels.
The third phase completes the main Wadi Park and Linear Park relationships while extending primary streets. Its focus is the continuity of the urban and ecological framework: connecting earlier pieces so they begin to function as a more coherent system.
The final phase expands residential development and completes the eight-pointed framework. A proposed hippodrome adds a further cultural destination, reinforcing the relationship between the larger civic programme, the landscape network and the neighbourhoods that complete the city's eastern extent.
Selected item 1 / 4
The Holy Park combines a strong visual relationship to the mosque with shaded gardens and civic gathering spaces. It gives the city a larger point of orientation while creating a sequence of occupiable places along the diagonal route.
The Linear Park links neighbourhoods through a continuous landscape corridor. Paths, community spaces and planted areas connect local routes to the broader public network, giving the city a shared green structure that can be experienced through everyday movement.
Lower-density areas organise villas and townhouse clusters around gardens, courtyards and local streets. Their emphasis is privacy and a more intimate residential scale, while remaining connected to the parks, services and movement corridors of the larger city.
The Blue Spine brings water management into the landscape structure. Bioswales and shaded routes follow the logic of the wadi, joining ecological continuity with public space and movement instead of treating drainage as a separate engineering strip.
Primary streets define the hierarchy of movement while accommodating active ground floors and shaded pedestrian space. The proposal brings walking, cycling and public transport into these corridors, using their edges to connect mobility with commerce, services and everyday urban life.
Higher-density areas are located near primary corridors and smart hubs. Mixed uses and compact building forms concentrate activity where the city is most connected, establishing a graduated relationship with the quieter residential fabric rather than a uniform skyline.
Anchor buildings and public programmes occupy important points of the star. Their role is to establish orientation and gather civic, cultural and neighbourhood activity, linking recognisable destinations with plazas, landscape and the wider system of public routes.
The smart-city layer follows the star framework rather than replacing it. Hubs, mobility connections and service infrastructure are distributed through the urban structure, so future technical systems can be coordinated with the public places and routes they support.
Selected item 1 / 8
The Holy Park combines a strong visual relationship to the mosque with shaded gardens and civic gathering spaces. It gives the city a larger point of orientation while creating a sequence of occupiable places along the diagonal route.
The Linear Park links neighbourhoods through a continuous landscape corridor. Paths, community spaces and planted areas connect local routes to the broader public network, giving the city a shared green structure that can be experienced through everyday movement.
Lower-density areas organise villas and townhouse clusters around gardens, courtyards and local streets. Their emphasis is privacy and a more intimate residential scale, while remaining connected to the parks, services and movement corridors of the larger city.
The Blue Spine brings water management into the landscape structure. Bioswales and shaded routes follow the logic of the wadi, joining ecological continuity with public space and movement instead of treating drainage as a separate engineering strip.
Primary streets define the hierarchy of movement while accommodating active ground floors and shaded pedestrian space. The proposal brings walking, cycling and public transport into these corridors, using their edges to connect mobility with commerce, services and everyday urban life.
Higher-density areas are located near primary corridors and smart hubs. Mixed uses and compact building forms concentrate activity where the city is most connected, establishing a graduated relationship with the quieter residential fabric rather than a uniform skyline.
Anchor buildings and public programmes occupy important points of the star. Their role is to establish orientation and gather civic, cultural and neighbourhood activity, linking recognisable destinations with plazas, landscape and the wider system of public routes.
The smart-city layer follows the star framework rather than replacing it. Hubs, mobility connections and service infrastructure are distributed through the urban structure, so future technical systems can be coordinated with the public places and routes they support.
Selected item 1 / 8
The section relates taller civic and mixed-use locations to lower residential fabric. Parks, streets and public programmes mediate between these scales, showing how the proposed skyline is connected to the spaces people occupy at ground level.
The combined map locates proposed height bands within the star framework. Taller forms gather around selected connected locations, while a lower residential fabric maintains a finer neighbourhood scale between the principal corridors and civic points.
The community layer distributes social places across the grid. These smaller destinations bring neighbourhood activity close to homes while relating it to the larger public-space structure, giving the city a hierarchy of both local and metropolitan meeting places.
The transit-oriented layer identifies connected focal points within the city framework. Their relationship to routes and local services provides a basis for concentrating activity without applying the same intensity to every neighbourhood or residential edge.
Selected item 1 / 4
The section relates taller civic and mixed-use locations to lower residential fabric. Parks, streets and public programmes mediate between these scales, showing how the proposed skyline is connected to the spaces people occupy at ground level.
The combined map locates proposed height bands within the star framework. Taller forms gather around selected connected locations, while a lower residential fabric maintains a finer neighbourhood scale between the principal corridors and civic points.
The community layer distributes social places across the grid. These smaller destinations bring neighbourhood activity close to homes while relating it to the larger public-space structure, giving the city a hierarchy of both local and metropolitan meeting places.
The transit-oriented layer identifies connected focal points within the city framework. Their relationship to routes and local services provides a basis for concentrating activity without applying the same intensity to every neighbourhood or residential edge.
Selected item 1 / 4
Anchor buildings address primary axes and important junctions. Retail edges, forecourts, shaded plazas and cultural programmes connect their larger scale to the public realm, giving metropolitan destinations a place within the daily life of the street.
The shared grid provides a framework for electric mobility, cycling, shaded pedestrian routes and utility coordination. Its architectural value lies in linking plots to a consistent public network, allowing buildings and technical systems to evolve without disconnecting from the wider city.
Villa typologies reinterpret courtyard living within the urban module. Internal outdoor rooms, planted buffers and local pedestrian connections provide a quieter residential setting, while the shared block structure connects individual homes to neighbourhood gardens, streets and services.
Urban towers occupy selected plots near transit and anchor nodes. Their proposed podiums, shaded edges and active ground floors mediate between greater height and the pedestrian realm, concentrating mixed uses where movement and services can support more intensive urban life.
Community buildings use the courtyard as both a social and spatial device. Cultural, sport and neighbourhood programmes gather around shaded internal spaces, creating recognisable local destinations that complement the larger civic anchors of the star framework.
Wadi-related buildings adapt the regular module to a landscape condition. Their placement, terraces and planted edges are intended to connect built form with the ecological corridor, allowing the city to meet the wadi through a more responsive and permeable edge.
Apartment buildings organise medium-density living through perimeter forms and shared courtyards. The typology connects private dwellings to collective outdoor space, while its relationship to streets and mobility networks allows residential intensity to sit within a walkable neighbourhood structure.
Selected item 1 / 7
Anchor buildings address primary axes and important junctions. Retail edges, forecourts, shaded plazas and cultural programmes connect their larger scale to the public realm, giving metropolitan destinations a place within the daily life of the street.
The shared grid provides a framework for electric mobility, cycling, shaded pedestrian routes and utility coordination. Its architectural value lies in linking plots to a consistent public network, allowing buildings and technical systems to evolve without disconnecting from the wider city.
Villa typologies reinterpret courtyard living within the urban module. Internal outdoor rooms, planted buffers and local pedestrian connections provide a quieter residential setting, while the shared block structure connects individual homes to neighbourhood gardens, streets and services.
Urban towers occupy selected plots near transit and anchor nodes. Their proposed podiums, shaded edges and active ground floors mediate between greater height and the pedestrian realm, concentrating mixed uses where movement and services can support more intensive urban life.
Community buildings use the courtyard as both a social and spatial device. Cultural, sport and neighbourhood programmes gather around shaded internal spaces, creating recognisable local destinations that complement the larger civic anchors of the star framework.
Wadi-related buildings adapt the regular module to a landscape condition. Their placement, terraces and planted edges are intended to connect built form with the ecological corridor, allowing the city to meet the wadi through a more responsive and permeable edge.
Apartment buildings organise medium-density living through perimeter forms and shared courtyards. The typology connects private dwellings to collective outdoor space, while its relationship to streets and mobility networks allows residential intensity to sit within a walkable neighbourhood structure.
Selected item 1 / 7
The city framework is tested at street level, where buildings, planting, crossings and public uses meet. Mixed-use edges and shaded pedestrian routes connect the larger network to daily routines. The proposal seeks a balance between clear movement and places to pause, recognising that an adaptable grid only becomes a city through the quality of its inhabited edges. Architecture, landscape and public space work together to give that framework an immediate human scale.
The city framework is tested at street level, where buildings, planting, crossings and public uses meet. Mixed-use edges and shaded pedestrian routes connect the larger network to daily routines. The proposal seeks a balance between clear movement and places to pause, recognising that an adaptable grid only becomes a city through the quality of its inhabited edges. Architecture, landscape and public space work together to give that framework an immediate human scale.
The Holy Park section brings routes, planted areas and gathering spaces into the same public landscape. Its value lies in their relationship: a larger civic corridor is also composed of smaller places that can be crossed, occupied and shared.
The combined map places principal parks, local gardens and water management within a shared structure. It shows how the larger civic landscape can connect to neighbourhood spaces, rather than remaining a separate green zone beside the urban fabric.
Selected item 1 / 2
The Holy Park section brings routes, planted areas and gathering spaces into the same public landscape. Its value lies in their relationship: a larger civic corridor is also composed of smaller places that can be crossed, occupied and shared.
The combined map places principal parks, local gardens and water management within a shared structure. It shows how the larger civic landscape can connect to neighbourhood spaces, rather than remaining a separate green zone beside the urban fabric.
Selected item 1 / 2
The Blue Spine treats water as a visible part of the landscape and urban structure. Bioswales, channels and retention landscapes are proposed to collect and slow runoff, while linking streets and public spaces to the wadi system. Their spatial role extends beyond drainage: planted corridors and gathering areas can bring the water network into everyday experience. The design intention is an integrated relationship between seasonal flows, ecological continuity and public life.
The climatic strategy starts with spatial choices: compact blocks, courtyards, planted edges and shaded routes. These are coordinated with building orientation and the landscape network to address solar exposure and outdoor comfort. Native and climate-adapted planting, water-sensitive ground and durable local materials form part of the same approach. The proposal treats environmental ambition as a relationship between urban form and daily use, rather than a technological layer applied after the plan is complete.
Walking and cycling are organised as connected networks, not isolated leisure routes. Shaded paths link homes with parks, plazas and mobility hubs, while cycle connections follow the landscape and street structure. Public transport is proposed as part of this hierarchy, with waiting areas and shared-mobility services gathered at useful interchange points. The aim is to make the everyday journey part of the public realm and to offer alternatives to an entirely car-oriented pattern of growth.
The larger geometry is experienced through a sequence of smaller public settings: a shaded route, a garden, a frontage or a place to meet. Neighbourhood parks and active courtyards give different parts of the city a local character, while remaining connected to its broader landscape structure. These settings translate the masterplan's hierarchy into an inhabited environment, where public life can take place at several scales rather than only at the principal civic destinations.
The larger geometry is experienced through a sequence of smaller public settings: a shaded route, a garden, a frontage or a place to meet. Neighbourhood parks and active courtyards give different parts of the city a local character, while remaining connected to its broader landscape structure. These settings translate the masterplan's hierarchy into an inhabited environment, where public life can take place at several scales rather than only at the principal civic destinations.
The combined diagram coordinates smart nodes and mobility connections with the star structure. It gives the proposed infrastructure network recognisable locations within the city, linking services to civic destinations, neighbourhoods and the routes that connect them.
The mobility layer relates local electric routes and micromobility stations to neighbourhood movement. Their distribution complements the larger corridors, making the smart-city strategy relevant to shorter everyday journeys as well as connections across the whole masterplan.
The hub layer brings the central core and distributed interchange points into one system. These locations connect mobility and urban services with the larger spatial hierarchy of the city, allowing infrastructure to develop around clear destinations rather than isolated installations.
Selected item 1 / 3
The combined diagram coordinates smart nodes and mobility connections with the star structure. It gives the proposed infrastructure network recognisable locations within the city, linking services to civic destinations, neighbourhoods and the routes that connect them.
The mobility layer relates local electric routes and micromobility stations to neighbourhood movement. Their distribution complements the larger corridors, making the smart-city strategy relevant to shorter everyday journeys as well as connections across the whole masterplan.
The hub layer brings the central core and distributed interchange points into one system. These locations connect mobility and urban services with the larger spatial hierarchy of the city, allowing infrastructure to develop around clear destinations rather than isolated installations.
Selected item 1 / 3
The infrastructure section brings energy, mobility and public space into the same view. Shared electric mobility, public-transport corridors and service networks are proposed as coordinated parts of the city, rather than stand-alone technical projects. Their relationship to streets, buildings and landscape gives the smart-city ambition a physical setting. Public routes and planted space remain part of that picture, connecting the organisation of services with the experience of moving through the city.
Sohar's port and regional transport relationships inform the proposal's longer-term infrastructure ambition. Road, rail and logistics systems are considered in relation to a distributed urban network, linking economic activity with the city's movement structure. The approach looks beyond individual routes to the places where different systems meet. The masterplan establishes a spatial framework within which regional infrastructure and local neighbourhood life can be coordinated as the city develops.
Sohar's port and regional transport relationships inform the proposal's longer-term infrastructure ambition. Road, rail and logistics systems are considered in relation to a distributed urban network, linking economic activity with the city's movement structure. The approach looks beyond individual routes to the places where different systems meet. The masterplan establishes a spatial framework within which regional infrastructure and local neighbourhood life can be coordinated as the city develops.
A city framework must outlast individual technologies and development cycles. The proposal therefore links phased growth with adaptable infrastructure, allowing energy, digital and mobility systems to be extended or upgraded as needs change. Its lasting value lies in the relationship between a clear urban order and room for adjustment. Landscape corridors, neighbourhoods and civic anchors provide continuity, while the systems that support them can evolve without requiring the city to begin again.
A city framework must outlast individual technologies and development cycles. The proposal therefore links phased growth with adaptable infrastructure, allowing energy, digital and mobility systems to be extended or upgraded as needs change. Its lasting value lies in the relationship between a clear urban order and room for adjustment. Landscape corridors, neighbourhoods and civic anchors provide continuity, while the systems that support them can evolve without requiring the city to begin again.
The proposal brings together a clear urban structure and the smaller places through which a city acquires meaning. Civic routes, landscape corridors, neighbourhood courts and active streets connect an overall identity with everyday experience. Sohar is conceived not as a finished image, but as a framework that can be developed, inhabited and adapted over time. The closing view returns to public space as the shared ground between architectural form, cultural reference and the life of the city.
The proposal brings together a clear urban structure and the smaller places through which a city acquires meaning. Civic routes, landscape corridors, neighbourhood courts and active streets connect an overall identity with everyday experience. Sohar is conceived not as a finished image, but as a framework that can be developed, inhabited and adapted over time. The closing view returns to public space as the shared ground between architectural form, cultural reference and the life of the city.
