Tall & Urban News

Oman recently announced its plans to construct Sultan Haitham City, a new "smart" city located outside of its capital, Muscat. The new city will be situated on a 14.8 square kilometer site, accommodating 100,000 residents in 20,000 homes, along with several amenities such as a university, schools, health facilities, and mosques. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), a US architecture firm, exclusively shared the project's plan with CNN. Sultan Haitham City is part of Oman Vision 2040, a state-led initiative aimed at increasing renewable energy use and reducing the country's dependence on oil.

The new development will be accessible via a mass transit system connected to Muscat and feature smart infrastructure designed to monitor environmental factors such as air quality and water management. The project will also include a traffic management system that utilizes real-time data from cameras and speed sensors to reroute vehicles and control traffic flow. The city's design aims to minimize its ecological impact with the use of solar energy facilities, wastewater recycling, electric vehicle infrastructure, and waste-to-energy plants. Additionally, the architects of the project claim that the city's roads and buildings will be positioned to maximize shade and encourage natural ventilation.

Read more about this story at SOM