What if you could design an entire city center from scratch? How could you make it respond to the needs of today and challenges of tomorrow? How could the design enrich the health and happiness of residents and reflect the history and culture of the community?
Those were questions HOK grappled with in creating Msheireb Downtown Doha, an urban renewal that creates the world’s first fully built smart and sustainable city center. HOK’s design of Phase 4 was the final phase of the 77-acre district and adds a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood known as the Business Gateway District.
Few cities in the past century have grown faster or more remarkably than Doha. Gone are the low, adobe buildings and in their place, steel and glass towers stretch into the sky. Yet for all of Doha’s modern success, it can be easy to lose sight of the city’s past and culture. Msheireb Downtown Doha is a response to that. The Business Gateway District is the densest section of Msheireb Downtown Doha. Its 15 buildings include office towers, residential buildings, a hotel and retail shopping. HOK planned the district to support human connection. The site layout incorporates elements of the historic city grid. Building orientation and massing thoughtfully shades pedestrian walkways and allows prevailing breezes from the nearby bay to pass through the site. Traditional building materials provide proven, time-tested sustainability solutions. Narrow streets prioritize pedestrians, not autos.
The district boasts one of the world’s largest underground car parks extending the entire footprint and accommodating 10,000 parked vehicles. In addition, a metro station beneath the district serves as the main hub of Doha’s subway system. Msheireb Downtown Doha boasts the densest concentration of LEED buildings in the world. All 15 buildings within the HOK-designed Business Gateway Quarter are now LEED Gold certified.
COLLABORATING FIRMS: Consulting Architect: Diwan Al-Emara; Landscape Design Consultant: Burton Studio; Lighting Designer: MBLD; Z-Block Design Consultant: Mossessian and Partners; Aquatic Design Consultant: Water Technology, Inc.; Food and Beverage Service Designer: Tricon Foodservice Consultants; Building Engineer (Civil, Transportation, Structural, MEP/FP, Telecommunications, Façade Engineering, Code Consulting): Ramboll UK; General Contractor: TCC-CCC JV (Teyseer Contracting Company and Consolidated Contractors Company); Environmental Analysis: RWDI
HOK TEAM: Bill Hellmuth, Susan Williams, Daniel Hajjar, Aaron Johansen, Andrew Kelmers, Anica Landreneau, Sanjeev Coelho, Bokki Son, Esther Wang, Xingye Pan, Erin Ezell, Ming Hu, Nishu Sinha, Jose Chieng, Joe Winters, Wayne Nickles, Yoshi Koyama
PHOTOGRAPHER: © Gerry O’Leary Photography
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