The comprehensive masterplan for the Qasr al Hosn site in Abu Dhabi has been awarded this year’s WAN Gold Award in the category ‘Mixed Use’.
The Qasr al Hosn Fort is Abu Dhabi’s oldest building and the city’s cultural heart. The fort is located on a 400 x 400 metre site, which also comprises the city’s Cultural Foundation. Today the site is transformed into a vivid public park, which enhances the site’s historic buildings as important landmarks in the city.
Simultaneously, the project adds several new functions to the Al Hosn site making it an asset to the entire city of Abu Dhabi – restaurants, facilities for cultural activities, a breathtaking Musallah prayer hall, and an impressive open landscape with water elements and shady pocket spaces for breaks in the Middle Eastern sun.
The terrain is a sand flat with minimalist indigenous planting to reflect the topography in which the Qasr al Hosn was initiated c.1760. The landscape unifies Abu Dhabi’s Modern and Traditional heritage while providing a sense of place and time.
SLA delivered extensive indigenous planting design and expertise to the project. The masterplan, buildings and landscape is designed by CEBRA.