Landscape Middle East Magazine - October 2020

In this issue

I’ve been hearing a lot about resilient design and building for the future lately. Since most of you are in the landscape or urban planning industry you’ve probably been familiar with the term long before the global pandemic took hold, but for me it was a fairly new concept so I started to have conversations with architects and landscape designers to learn more about what buildings will look like in the future. One of the most interesting chats I had was with Gosia Baron, Senior Associate Director, Planning & Urban Design at CallisonRTKL (CRTKL). One of the positives for most people during the pandemic and subsequent lockdown was the gift of time, everything and everyone slowed down, we had time to think and reevaluate. As a result, the landscape industry is teaming with new ideas to transform urban spaces. It is that spirit that fueled WATG, the multidisciplinary global design firm, to roll out a new vision for New York City’s streets. The concept, titled Green Block, focuses on the intersection of Manhattan’s Flatiron Building, the idea is to claw back space from the roads and reclaim it for the people and environment. See pg30 for how the team plan to take back the city. While it’s tempting to get caught up in future designs and projects, we also focus on what’s trending here in the region and beyond in this issue. We feature a simplistic but well-conceived project known as the Vietnamese garden house on pg 12 it was designed by three young architects who collaborated to create the perfect hideaway residence for its owner, despite working for different design studios. We also feature a mixed-use landmark project in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, called the Skyline compound.