The three hundred hectares dedicated to Doha’s Central Park stretch out along the Doha Corniche, from the Qatar SC Stadium to the north, to the Al Rayyan road farther south. A new neighborhood will take shape on this unique site positioned towards the bay. Our ambitions for the site involve the creation of an “inhabited park”, a typology representative of the Qatar cultural identity. We propose small, dense urban pockets positioned within a vast park that brings together a miniaturized version of each of the geographical and landscape components of the coast.
The park's composition takes its cue from the figure of the wadi. Naturally sculpted by torrential rains, the bed of a wadi, is lined with small agricultural plots outside of these periods of intense rainfall. Our design transplants these characteristic features of the Qatari landscape through the creation of long dry valleys, dug out directly from the existing relief of the land, and made to converge towards the bay. But in a play of reversal, the artificial, dune-like, and hilly ground that surrounds the constructed wadis is designed to welcome vast expanses of grass.
The wadis here act as the receptacles of urban intervention. Public gardens are structured by orderly plantings, reminiscent of agrarian patterns and comprised of plant species that evoke the Qatari rawdats. . These gardens make up a succession of shaded alcoves which welcome a number of various sporting and cultural facilities.
The dunes, with their large grass lawns, are gradually arranged around the wadis, with their full extent subject to the future availability of water resources. A number of arrangements have therefore been planned. In a first phase, the grass lawns will be set up following the topography of the artificial “valleys”. They will come to form a number of horizon lines for the new neighborhoods.
These urban wadis converge towards the bay, opening onto an artificial lagoon, before reaching the gulf and a beach that stretches along the coast. Along the embankment, paths are traced through a cool thicket. Located between land and lagoon, the promenade along the corniche provides an exceptional public space, ensuring thriving urban practices as well as maintaining the bay's rich ecological assets.
Qatati Petroleum
MDP Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
Atelier Jean Nouvel, architect (lead consultant)
375 ha (926,6 acres)