Landscape Middle East Magazine - July 2020

In this issue

The Summer issue of Landscape ME includes highlights from urban planning and landscape projects in Russia, Germany, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We start with Rotterdam-based firm DROM in collaboration with Strelka KB who undertook a recent renovation project of the main Azatlyk Square in the Russian city of Naberezhnye Chelny (Republic of Tatarstan, Russia), transforming the square into a dynamic and vibrant multi-use public space. Then we skip over to the German city of Wedemark to get an inside look at the futuristic design of Kirsch Pharma HealthCare’s new factory and headquarters designed by South African‐based architectural firm SAOTA, who constructed a building that stood as a sculptural object in the landscape, making a strong architectural statement that imparted a sense of presence and identity in its own right, according to the designers. An equally forward-thinking project is the New Alamein City project on Egypt’s North Coast. It’s been designed as a fourth-generation city with a new public waterfront at its core a rarity in Egypt. Staying in the region, we visit a new project in Riyadh, called LANDFORM House, its namesake can be attributed to its landscape strategy, which is to employ a formal vocabulary culled from the study of the region’s past indigenous civilization, the Nabateans. The residence recreates a complete ecosystem in order to protect, improve and help the proliferation of local wildlife by enhancing biodiversity in a dense desert city.