Located in Al-Seeb, a district of Muscat, the new city will comprise over 2.9 million square meters of public space, 20,000 new homes of different scales and types, and smart urban mobility spanning 14.8 million square meters.

SOM’s vision also transforms an existing 7.5-kilometre-long dry river – a wadi – that runs through the site. Harnessing natural water from flooding, the wadi is reinvented into a spectacular public green park that provides an interconnected network of open spaces and shaded plazas to encourage outdoor activity and social exchange.

Sultan Haitham City will comprise 19 neighbourhoods over 1,480 hectares of undeveloped land in Al Seeb, a suburb of greater Muscat.

It will introduce public spaces and more than 20,000 new homes while tying in with a new mass transit system that is set to improve connectivity along the country’s coastline.

Work on the project is set to begin next year and will be completed in four stages. The first phase, which runs until 2030, will develop the 5-square-kilometre (1.9-square-mile) city centre and six of the development’s 19 planned neighbourhoods. The final phase is not scheduled to be completed until 2045.

In a press release, SOM said that the project will offer “vibrant public space, high-quality and affordable housing and smart urban mobility.”