MQ | Kamvari Architects

MQ Muscat
Muscat, Oman

Within the centre of Muscat sits the neighbourhood of Madinat As Sultan Qaboos, a unique part of the city with a distinctly residential feel and home to many members of the expat community

Our starting point for this project was an investigation into the development of Oman as a country, more specifically relating to pre-oil and post-oil urban changes. With an ever changing demand on housing and the way Omanis choose to live, the understudying of their culture and specifics need was crucial to the development of our concept. Further to this we returned to he route of Muscat and its development, in specific and area called Muttrah the commercial heart of city

We looked at how the souk, in this part of Muscat, had grown over a number of years to become the predominate location for trade for Omanis. The way in which the souk had been organised and the embedded intelligence in terms of dealing with climatic issues were of great influence in our approach to the site

Our intention with our proposal was to use our understanding of growth in
an organic manner such as the example of Muttrah and combine this with advanced digital technologies to propose and innovative solution which was related to the history, culture and context of the site.

The proposal seeks to create a mixed use scheme on site whilst incorporating the mosque into a dynamic environment which allows a range of cultural, social and commercial activities to take place