Saturday, April 13, 2019

Comment planifier une ville?

Jumeirah Central - Vision of a City

Dubai’s Mall

Dubai’s Mall of the World master plan revamped for transport system

An integrated transport hub linking the metro, three tram lines – including a branch to Arabian Ranches – and a major new bus interchange will also be a feature of the site.



Mall of the World, the world’s first temperature-controlled city, will occupy a total area of 48 million square feet and will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world. Courtesy Dubai Holding
The master plan for Dubai Holding’s Mall of the World has been reworked to make it a more transport-friendly location, said the development’s new chief operating officer Morgan Parker. The layout of the site has been changed to make it more “permeable”, with roads running through to create a series of retail boulevards.
An integrated transport hub linking the metro, three tram lines – including a branch to Arabian Ranches – and a major new bus interchange will also be a feature of the site, Mr Parker added.
“We hope to partner with the RTA and other government municipalities,” Mr Parker said. “Who pays for that, we haven’t worked out yet. The idea, though, is by creating this transport hub we can create the highest value real estate in the city. Where there’s people, there’s vibrancy. And where there’s vibrancy and energy, there’s value.”
The Dh25bn Mall of the World project was first unveiled last year.
Dubai Holding had said last year that tenders for the first phase of the project were likely to be awarded in the first quarter of this year, with probable completion by the first quarter of 2018. That timetable now appears to have been ambitious.
For instance, Mr Parker said that 60 per cent of the Mall of the World site is still occupied by Dubai’s Police Academy. And although a new facility is being built to replace this, it is not likely to be ready for at least two years.
“The responsibility of moving Dubai’s Police academy, where all of the new recruits come in and get trained, is significant. It’s an important part of Dubai’s security apparatus.”
Designs are being worked up for the remaining 40 per cent of the site, but Mr Parker could not say when the project is likely to break ground. He said that the first phase would contain all five elements of the site’s wider offer – retail, office, residential, hospitality and entertainment.
“I’m not going to build 3,000 hotel rooms if there’s no demand for it. That would just be silly. It depends on market demand, the availability of land and the infrastructure required to service those buildings,” Mr Parker said.
mfahy@thenational.ae

Headquater Sylvia Bongo


Centre ville Libreville

Gabon Presidential Palace Masterplan The masterplan for the Presidential Palace in Libreville, one of a string of prestigious waterfront regeneration projects designed by architect David Adjaye for the President of Gabon, is a highly ambitious mixed-use redevelopment that creates a new administrative campus and cultural centre at the heart of the city, and improves pedestrian access to the impressive Atlantic seafront. SHARE The project offered our sustainable infrastructure and urban planning team the chance to investigate traffic management and public realm strategies to reconnect the city with what is arguably its greatest asset: its scenic coastline. Traffic calming, to redistribute heavy vehicular traffic away from the coast road and onto the city’s peripheral ring road, is being considered as one of a number of urban design strategies targeted at removing the barrier between the city and the waterfront. This will serve to improve the pedestrian experience and footfall for cafés and shops located along a 1.5 km stretch of the coastal boulevard. Our civil engineering team provided strategic advice on urban drainage management across the site together with a strategy for secure vehicle access, servicing and car parking. This was designed to respond to the phased decant, demolition and redevelopment of the site and current levels of public parking provision. We carried out a preliminary assessment of existing and proposed land-use intensity on a phase by phase basis in an effort to understand the likely scale, timing and magnitude of traffic impact on both the local and the wider transport network. This also allowed us to describe the improvements to sustainable transport, junction capacity and pedestrian routes related to each phase that will need further consideration as the scheme progresses. A new civic square and terraced garden have been carefully planned and integrated with a sustainable drainage system to control overland flow and help channel water into the underground drainage network. The gardens have been designed to incorporate water features and shade structures to improve the local micro-climate for pedestrians and channel seasonal onshore winds.

Friday, April 12, 2019

Un autre projet





« Singapour inspire le Gabon en matière d’urbanisme » ! C’est en résumé la conclusion de la visite à Singapour du vice premier ministre gabonais en charge de l’urbanisme, de l’habitat social et du logement.
Le Gabon veut relancer son projet d’urbanisme dénommé « Grand Libreville » en référence au modèle singapourien avec un budget global de 514 milliards de FCFA.
Ce projet comprend entre autres un port môle et des zones de loisirs, une marina avec un port de plaisance, de même qu’un projet immobilier de 5000 logements au nord de la capitale gabonaise.


The Akanda new city




Sustainable developments provide economic, social, and environmental benefits over the long-term, in contrast to conventional developments which often reap short-term financial profits at the expense of long-term value, and a healthy environment and social context.
The Akanda Master Plan, to the north of the capital Libreville, Gabon, integrates sustainability as a new green town that enables development of the capital and showcases Gabonese nature, culture and commerce.  In support, L’Agence Nationale des Grands Travaux (ANGT) invited the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community (PFBC) with Steve Coyle/Town Green as Country Project Manager to lead a collaborative Masterplanning and neighbourhood development exercise for Akanda. The Masterplan sits alongside the Akanda SmartCode – an adaptation of the adopted Gabon SmartCode led by Opticos with PFBC, and Steve Coyle, calibrated to demonstrate the principals set out in the Masterplan vision.
While there is general awareness and support for more sustainable planning and development methods, in practice, achieving sustainability goals and objectives are difficult. A significant challenge in creating sustainable communities: successful implementation is dependent on achieving community support of both the development process and the proposed outcomes, such as the types of businesses attracted. Sustainable development requires comprehensiveness, patience, public/private partnerships, flexibility, adaptability, and leadership.
Akanda Master Plan area forms the northern edge of the Libreville urban area and bounded by a buffer zone that provides a transition between the city and Parc National d’Akanda. The National Park covers 54,000 hectares and includes most of the bay of Mondah. Akanda is a Ramsar site, and one of the most important sites in Central Africa for migratory birds from Europe.  It contains mangroves, mudflats, coastal water and patches of moist coastal forest. The areas outside the Parks are unprotected, including wetlands and the coastal edge.
The Akanda Sector Plan was created to establish a regional scale map for determining where to build and where and what to preserve and protect.