Dubai is a cosmopolitan city with a rich tapestry of residents from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Its principles of inclusion, open-mindedness and tolerance have made it a hub and cultural destination, attracting people from all corners of the globe, culminating in the UAE declaring 2019 the Year of Tolerance.

EXPO 2020 Dubai is testimony to the success and promotion of the city as a centre and destination to learn, experiment and innovate, recognising the importance of collaboration across cultures and regions to drive progress.

It is against this background that the Bridge of Cultural Connectivity evolved, to celebrate Dubai as a centre for tolerance, collaboration and innovation, to recognize the power of man’s creative potential and aspirations and to connect with and care for future generations, the tenets of Dubai, as envisioned through its leadership.

The Bridge of Cultural Connectivity is a striking 175m long, 35m high pedestrian-friendly elevated linear Park across the Dubai Canal. It is a recreation, entertainment and educational destination, featuring a collection of gardens that occupy 5,000 m2, with plant families from East and West, a theatre for concerts and performances, two museums that are experience centres to showcase innovation and talent, past achievements and also looking to future generations and advances in science and technology. The Park also features cycling and running tracks, waterfalls and light shows, information centres, food trucks and shops to enhance the experience of its users and engage the city on a cultural and commercial level. Its 900 m2 of Solar Panels will harvest solar energy to power its water features, light shows etc.

The location and elevation of the Bridge provide spectacular views of the city and two of its most famous landmarks, Burj Khalifa to the West and Dubai Creek Tower to the East. The Bridge provides relief from the high-density, high-rise cityscape and creates a lively extension to its neighbour, the Dubai Design District (d3), where talented designers, artists and creative thinkers collaborate and innovate.

Darabeen Abu Nuwas is a cultural, retail and entertainment development, designed on a prime location along the Tigris River in Baghdad. It is a personal project conceived by Diar Consult’s Chairman, Samir Daoud, to give back to his homeland and the city he loves but had to leave some forty years earlier; a city that has experienced complete destruction in its recent history.

His vision was to create a nucleus for urban renewal, to replace redundant parks along the Tigris and help resurrect the Abu Nuwas Promenade that had once been Baghdad’s favourite destination. It would be a first step and start-up parcel, aiming to trigger a much needed revival of the city and inspire others to participate too.

Darabeen Abu Nuwas consists of two distinct parts, a traditional Eastern Zone and a contemporary Western Zone. Each Zone stretches for 350m along an embankment of the River Tigris on a combined site length of 1km. The Zones comprise waterfront cafés and restaurants, cinemas and theatres, shops, museums, galleries and libraries on two floors and are linked through a main public square and theatre, the aim being to provide a vibrant environment with a sense of identity and unity.

The size and scale of the built-form, its internal streets, alleyways and plazas create an urban fabric that is reminiscent of the traditional urban fabric of old Baghdad. The squares, streets and alleyways are named after prominent and talented Iraqi architects, artists and poets, paying homage to their remarkable contribution to the enrichment of Baghdadi society while providing a nod to Baghdad’s historical richness.

Dream City is the largest project ever undertaken by Diar Consult. It is a pioneering township for 60,000 inhabitants, planned over 1 million m² in the city of Pune, India. It is a unique destination, that will provide an integrated community for all age groups to live, work, learn and play in a safe, dynamic, sustainable and landscape-rich environment.

Diar Consult was appointed in February 2013 by a well-established developer, namely D.S. Kulkarni Developers Ltd., to undertake concept and detailed master planning, urban design and landscape design, as well as the full architectural design and interior design of the buildings.

Dream City comprises four distinct elements: education/knowledge village, sports village, residential neighbourhoods and a cultural village all interconnected by an efficient transportation system that includes trams, cycle paths, water taxis and battery-powered shuttle buses.

Publicly accessible parks, theme parks, linear gardens and botanical gardens provide breathing spaces within the communities. These open spaces are complemented by a series of canals and lagoons, which provide opportunities for boating and water sports, ultimately leading to the dancing fountain lagoon in the cultural and social heart of Dream City. Here the fountains will provide entertainment for the public who will frequent the shopping centre, hotels, museum, sports centre, offices, artists’ park and the bay view bridge overlooking the lagoon.

The mandatory green spaces of the township will be offered as sports fields for cricket, hockey and football. Aimed ultimately at preparing future Olympians, the sports village will foster 38 sporting activities for the residents of Pune and beyond.

Construction work related to roads, landscape and sports grounds started in May 2014 and on the first residential parcel, the Waterfall Residences in Feb. 2015. As a precursor of future communities in Dream City this parcel is setting trends. For the Indian subcontinent it is set to establish a new benchmark standard in terms of the quality of both the architectural product and the cultural and socio-economic sense of balance and harmony in the community.

Project team

• Diar Consult: Lead consultants, Master planning, urban design, landscape design, architectural design
• Halcrow/ Ch2m Hill: Road and bridge engineers and infrastructure peer review engineers
• JW Consultants LLP: Structural engineers
• MEP Consulting Engineers: MEP and infrastructure engineers
• Crystal Lagoons: Canals and waterbody engineers
• Arup: Tramway engineering

Al Salam City is a new township created in the inland desert environment of the emirate of Umm Al Quwain.

Diar Consult was retained by Tameer in association with Surbana, acting as global master planners, to prepare the detailed physical master planning, provide urban design concepts and architectural studies for the various districts and residential precincts. The master plan’s residential component comprises detached and semi-detached villas, townhouses and clusters of apartment buildings which were intended to be the start-up parcels undertaken by the developer to ignite and initiate the first sales campaigns of Al Salam City. They provide economic sustainability and viability for the project in a market and location that was distinctly deprived of good quality residential offerings.

Hence the designs evolved with total cost awareness, focusing on economies of scale and variations on the same theme approach, to generate variety and interest from investors. The clusters were planned with a fair degree of standardization throughout the pedestrian spine, interrupted by community parks and community hubs repeated in a variety of configurations between the clusters. The variety of the six, seven and 16 storey building clusters establishes the scale and dynamics of the neighbourhoods, such that they can become self-contained communities at the initial stages of the city development, but capable of expanding to embrace further components of the city as it develops over a planned 15-year development programme.

Qetaifan Islands form an exclusive district in the Lusail City development in Qatar. They comprise four offshore islands, with a combined land area of 2.5 million m², all connected by pedestrian and vehicular bridges. Within the islands there is a designated development area of 1.7 million m².

In April 2014, Diar Consult was invited to participate in a competition for the design of four prototypical villas (two waterfront villas and two garden villas) suitable for the development. The scope of services included master planning the two islands and undertaking the architectural design of the buildings as well as the full interior design and furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) for all four villas, to be constructed as precursors to the main development.

Given Qatar’s successful bid for the FIFA 2022 World Cup and Doha’s aim to embrace this tournament, and having considered the project’s location within the wider context of the city, country and region, Diar Consult elected to submit contemporary and technologically advanced design solutions (as opposed to traditional models). Offering new modern lifestyles and vibrant living environments within the community was felt to be compatible with the spirit of the future development of Doha.