2024-09-13
27 分钟As the capital of Oman begins an era of urban expansion, we speak with the firm tasked with forming a plan for the region’s future growth. Then: we tackle some of the existential challenges facing our urban environments through a new book which places design and architecture in the driver’s seat for saving our cities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to the Urbanist, Monaco's program all about the built environment.
I'm your host, Carlotta Rabello.
Coming up, the traditional way of living in Muscat has been a lot about lower densities that's been driven through a lot of things, really, you know, access to land and how people have been living their lives.
But the city is changing and that's the primary driver of the planning work we've been doing.
We head to the Omani capital to see how a new plan for the city's future is helping to prepare for the population boom that is right around the corner for this fast growing urban center by the sea.
Then, in all of our work, we try to work in the great complex, democratic, rich, messy environments that are our cities today.
We explore how design and architecture have been parts of the problem when it came to making cities which foster nature, culture and joy in the past, and how those same tools can be agents for change in the future.
That's all coming up over the next 30 minutes right here on the Urbanist with me, Carlotta Ribello.
Nestled into the Gulf of Oman, Muscat, the Omani capital, is a fast growing city whose greater urban population is set to double by 2040.
It has its own character, separate from its Arab counterparts, but it also shares some of the big questions facing its neighbours, namely how to fight climate change and counter car usage and urban sprawl.
Global urbanism experts, Broadway, Malian were tasked with creating a plan for the future of the city region and have been working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to transform the area into a more green and resilient center with a comprehensive and modern transport network.
Recently, the Urbanist host, Andrew Tuck, was joined by Ed Baker, a practice principal and global urbanism leader at Broadway Million.
Ed began by setting the scene in Oman, describing its urban pressures and what his firm's plan is trying to achieve in the years to come.
I think the key thing is Oman's quite a different place to its neighbors, like Dubai.
You know, it's got these wonderful natural assets, its coastline, and it's got a lot of heritage as well.
And in those sense, it's very, very different.
And I think the ambitions for Amarna, it's been very dependent on oil.
And so, like a lot of the countries in that region, it's about changing its economics, it's about diversifying, it's about how to protect the assets it's got, and it's how to build on things like tourism and how it moves into the future.
At the same time, it wants to be more livable and resilient and improve the quality of life for its citizens as well.
And so in Oman they have the 2040 VIS, which is really driving all the new planning in the country.