Landscape Middle East Magazine - January 2021

In this issue

Welcome to the first issue of the year! We have kick started 2020 by featuring some of the world’s most exciting new urban landscape projects and of course, not forgetting, some very special local projects too! On page 30 read about Hong Kong’s new Rooftop Biodiversity Museum and Sustainability Learning Center. It encourages locals to get involved in growing and planting their own food, as well as providing a habitat for the cities’ famous butterflies. We turn to Istanbul where the city’s children are playing in the clouds thanks to a new rooftop park at Marmara Forum, a shopping centre in the Bakirköy district. Children of all ages are catered for and can experience the sensation of touching the clouds with the 8-metre-tall structures, which change colour throughout the day to mimic the subtle changes in natural light. We question whether food trucks are part of our modernised urban landscape as they continue to pop up in public spaces, after a rise in popularity during the Covid 19 pandemic, as people opted more and more to dine in outdoor spaces and traditional restaurants shut their doors. We also feature urban residential projects in Dubai and Qatar by local architects who are pushing the boundaries of landscape design for city dwellers.