Town Square Dubai
Location Dubai, UAE | Client Nshama | Architect Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners | Size 375 hectares | Status Under construction | Tags Masterplans, Public Realm + Infrastructure
Our ambitious vision for the landscape of Town Square dates back almost 3,000 years to the moment when artisans of the Middle East first began weaving sensuous and colourful patterns into their rugs and created the tapestries of legend. Our vision for Town Square is just such a tapestry – made of landscape.
The tapestry begins at the perimeter where the Square meets the hot, arid desert, using native desert plants to integrate the urban with the desert environment. It proceeds inward toward the inner core, with a series of rings that grow more green, using a range of native and exotic tropical plants to create a tremendous variety of form and colour. This global garden includes plants from the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Italy and Greece.
Finally, in an explosion of colour, a central spine leads to the Town Square, the vibrant heart of the community. Among the entertainment and shopping complexes, we have created a series of outdoor rooms: a cinema lawn for movie nights, playgrounds for children and quiet garden plazas, which offer places of rest, tranquillity and reflection. Water flows, sprays, and gushes in pools, fountains, jets and channels, to cool the air and bring its soothing sounds.
The gridded lines of this tapestry are the sidewalks and streets, woven through with foliage and flowers, shade and shadow and water.
Dubai is a city growing in the desert. MSP’s design allows the town to become an oasis tapestry which unites the natural realm with the built environment. It humanises and inspires the community of the huge Town Square enclave of 10,000 people.
