FOREST OF SEIH SDEIRAH MASTERPLAN

Seih Sdeirah is conceived as a new kind of place in the United Arab Emirates: a place that synthesizes ancient Arab concepts of dwelling with contemporary concerns of efficiency, sustainability and innovation.  The traditional Arab city is marked by its compactness, layering of public and private space and appropriate response to the desert climate.   It is based on the scale of the human being both intimate and very walkable.  Modern innovations such as transit, incorporating new technology, sustainable design, and new ideas of form and material are overlaid on these traditional concepts of urban design to form a new city model that draws its lessons from the best of old and new.

The site currently has a dense forest planted 25 years ago.  The oldest parts of the planted forest are preserved and forms the backdrop for this new compact city.  The project then weaves together the forest and the city, the new and the old, people, cars, and transit to form a new unified whole.  This will become a setting that supports living, working, shopping, and playing  in a dynamic but highly comfortable environment.

Project completed as Project Designer at RNL.