Landscape ME Magazine

middle east JUNe 2015

2 i www.landscape-me.com i June 2015

landscape architecture

New horizons

By Walter BoneASLA CLARBLandscape Design ManagerKhatib & Alami

Exciting things are happening in the Landscape Architecture Studio at Khatib & Alami, CEC. The Studio is comprised of staff from numerous nationalities that forms a strong cohesive group of varying backgrounds and experiences. Head of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, Peter Scott, is committed in creating

a group and studio setting that is harmonious in nature and produces sound designs that result in beauty, sustainability and socially acceptable solutions.

Three projects previously produced and currently on the drawing boards consists of Green Community at Dubai Motor City, Gate District Towers, Shams, Abu Dhabi and Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai.


Green Community - Motor City, Dubai The Green Community at Motor City is a residential and commercial development by Union Properties. Khatib & Alami’s design approach to the project was designed as a “resident friendly” project to provide a comfortable living environment supported by recreational activities and a commercial centre for the residents.

The residential accommodations consist of luxury villas, family villas, bungalows, townhouses and terraced apartment blocks, all master-planned around extensively landscaped greenbelts and open spaces. The vision for Green Community at Motor City is conveyed in the creation of an integrated, livable, active and attractive neighbourhood oriented residential environment. The master planned GCMC features upscale crafted and spacious housing clusters, extensive landscaped open space and lakes woven throughout the community, several neighbourhood recreation facilities commercial hubs, replete with outdoor dining facilities that overlook one of the lakes.

Green communities are renowned for their natural beauty and landscapes, hence the name ‘Green Community.’ Five terraced lakes provide a beautiful visual amenity and present cascades and waterfalls with spectacular night lighting effects of the many geysers of water peppered throughout the water bodies. The landscapes are lavish with plantings of trees for visual spender, separation, shade and wildlife.

The green belt open space is directly accessible to all residential areas and designed for active and passive use. The open spaces provide amenity areas for children’s play, sports and picnics and barbeques. Clubhouses with swimming pools and recreational facilities are distributed to serve all the residents.

The large areas of green open space incorporate pedestrian and bicycle paths to allow residents to move around the community without using cars. Full car access is allowed to all residential and commercial units but residents are be encouraged, by the style of development, to move around on foot or by bicycle.

The central lake was designed as an iconic water feature in the project while serving as a storm water detention basin. The lake uses natural groundwater as the primary water source with pumping facilities provided to maintain a constant water level. Modeling was done to minimise algae growth and maintain water quality.



Gate District Towers, Shams, Abu DhabiThe Landscape Master Plan for Shams was designed to create a unique world class community. There are two parts to the Master Plan - the ground plane and podium landscapes, with each having unique design criteria and experiences.

On the ground plane, care is given to set the tone of the project so that it can be perceived from a distance. The first perceptions of the

project will come from the approach where the streetscape design for Shams is a formal row of date palms that course along the perimeter of the project. The row of palms continues through the central median of the loop road and across the street for towers T1 and T2.

The podium is a large landscaped courtyard. Within the oval created by buildings T7 and T8 there is a hotel portion of the podium and the rest is used by a general residential population. The hotel portion has three swimming pools, two pools for adults and one for children. The hotel also has an outdoor café as well as an area for tables and chairs shaded by a trellis between the pool and café.

There is a great lawn that has a formal setting. The lawn is a large oval of turf surrounded by a band of decorative pavement also in an oval, given a three dimensional form by a row of


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date palms ringing the pavement. The great lawn has a capacity for an event of up to 500 people.

On the roof deck over the convention centre there are three tennis courts for use by hotel guests. These would have lighting to allow them to be used at night. Around the tennis courts is a walkway and there are two small plazas with seating for those people that wish to be outdoors in a quiet location.

The roof deck over the commercial area is more active. There is a pool for adults, basketball courts, and a volleyball court. Across the roof deck are numerous lawn areas, and there is also a fountain. The two fountains, with decorative pavement in between, will help to connect the two main roof deck areas.



Jumeirah Golf Estates, DubaiJumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, is an upscale luxury golf community, where it welcomes one stop of the European Golf Tour every year. Khatib & Alami was selected to design two parks and the streetscape design for one village. It consists of numerous residential villages, golf courses with clubhouses. Themed landscapes exude luxury living and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

Working closely with the Jumeirah Golf Estates Landscape Team, is Dr. Khaleel Abu Swai, Landscape Manager and Shambhulingesh Malakannavar, Landscape Engineer. The first park sits between Whispering Pines and Olive Point villages and is immediately accessible to the local residents. The park consists of one large playground that is contemporary in nature and complements the Jumeriah Golf Estates theming.

Terraced gardens line one side of the walkway set out in curvilinear forms integrating seating nodes with topiary olive trees as accents. Tall shade trees line both sides of the park to provide not only cool environment to relax in, but also to provide filtered views in to and out from the villas. Flowering trees accent distant views for park users and the lure of hummingbirds fill the air. Colourful plantings fill the planters in contrast to the accent

topiary olive trees creating a beautiful, but yet recreational park.

The second park and streetscape design was prepared for Flame Tree Village. Flame Tree Village consists of upscale single family homes. Park space was integrated in to street islands and roundabouts to create a visual and physical link throughout the streetscape. The streetscape design provides shaded pedestrian circulation and glorious displays of colour enhancing the resident’s experience. The first park is a passive park integrating a geometric patterned walks, shaded seating and shade trees to filter the views and create vertical features to break up the distant views along the street corridor.