The document summarizes three landscape architecture projects being worked on by Khatib & Alami: 1) Green Community at Dubai Motor City, a residential and commercial development with villas, townhouses, and apartment blocks planned around landscaped greenbelts and open spaces. 2) Gate District Towers in Abu Dhabi, with a landscaped podium courtyard including pools and lawns, and roof gardens including more pools, courts, and landscaped areas. 3) Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, a luxury golf community where they are designing parks integrated with villages and providing streetscapes with trees, gardens, and views.

1. middle east JUNE 2015

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landscape architecture
Newhorizons
By Walter Bone
ASLA CLARB
Landscape Design Manager
Khatib & Alami
E
xciting things are happening in the Landscape Architecture Studio at Khatib &
Alami, CEC. The Studio is comprised of staff from numerous nationalities that
forms a strong cohesive group of varying backgrounds and experiences. Head of
Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, Peter Scott, is committed in creating
a group and studio setting that is harmonious in nature and produces sound designs
that result in beauty, sustainability and socially acceptable solutions.
Three projects previously produced and currently on the drawing boards consists of
Green Community at Dubai Motor City, Gate District Towers, Shams, Abu Dhabi and
Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai.

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Green Community - Motor City,
Dubai
The Green Community at Motor City is a
residential and commercial development
by Union Properties. Khatib & Alami’s
design approach to the project was
designed as a “resident friendly”
project to provide a comfortable living
environment supported by recreational
activities and a commercial centre for the
residents.
The residential accommodations
consist of luxury villas, family villas,
bungalows, townhouses and terraced
apartment blocks, all master-planned
around extensively landscaped
greenbelts and open spaces. The
vision for Green Community at Motor
City is conveyed in the creation of
an integrated, livable, active and
attractive neighbourhood oriented
residential environment. The master
planned GCMC features upscale
crafted and spacious housing
clusters, extensive landscaped open
space and lakes woven throughout the
community, several neighbourhood
recreation facilities commercial hubs,
replete with outdoor dining facilities
that overlook one of the lakes.
Green communities are renowned for
their natural beauty and landscapes,
hence the name ‘Green Community.’
Five terraced lakes provide a beautiful
visual amenity and present cascades
and waterfalls with spectacular night
lighting effects of the many geysers of
water peppered throughout the water
bodies. The landscapes are lavish with
plantings of trees for visual spender,
separation, shade and wildlife.
The green belt open space is directly
accessible to all residential areas
and designed for active and passive
use. The open spaces provide amenity
areas for children’s play, sports and
picnics and barbeques. Clubhouses
with swimming pools and recreational
facilities are distributed to serve all the
residents.
The large areas of green open space
incorporate pedestrian and bicycle
paths to allow residents to move
around the community without using
cars. Full car access is allowed to all
residential and commercial units but
residents are be encouraged, by the
style of development, to move around
on foot or by bicycle.
The central lake was designed as an
iconic water feature in the project
while serving as a storm water
detention basin. The lake uses natural
groundwater as the primary water
source with pumping facilities provided
to maintain a constant water level.
Modeling was done to minimise algae
growth and maintain water quality.

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landscape architecture
Gate District Towers, Shams, Abu
Dhabi
The Landscape Master Plan for Shams was
designed to create a unique world class
community. There are two parts to the Master
Plan - the ground plane and podium landscapes,
with each having unique design criteria and
experiences.
On the ground plane, care is given to set the
tone of the project so that it can be perceived
from a distance. The first perceptions of the
project will come from the approach where the
streetscape design for Shams is a formal row
of date palms that course along the perimeter
of the project. The row of palms continues
through the central median of the loop road and
across the street for towers T1 and T2.
The podium is a large landscaped courtyard.
Within the oval created by buildings T7 and T8
there is a hotel portion of the podium and the
rest is used by a general residential population.
The hotel portion has three swimming pools,
two pools for adults and one for children. The
hotel also has an outdoor café as well as an area
for tables and chairs shaded by a trellis between
the pool and café.
There is a great lawn that has a formal setting.
The lawn is a large oval of turf surrounded by
a band of decorative pavement also in an oval,
given a three dimensional form by a row of

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 800 GRASS (800 47277)
 +971 4 803 8111 Ext. 300
 +971 4 359 6243
Email: info@btmedxb.ae
Specialist in Sports Surfaces and Landscaping
Supplier and Installer of;
Sport Surfaces, Multi- purpose pitches
Football pitches, Tennis courts, Squash courts
Landscaping grass
date palms ringing the pavement. The great
lawn has a capacity for an event of up to 500
people.
On the roof deck over the convention centre
there are three tennis courts for use by hotel
guests. These would have lighting to allow
them to be used at night. Around the tennis
courts is a walkway and there are two small
plazas with seating for those people that wish
to be outdoors in a quiet location.
The roof deck over the commercial area
is more active. There is a pool for adults,
basketball courts, and a volleyball court.
Across the roof deck are numerous lawn
areas, and there is also a fountain. The two
fountains, with decorative pavement in
between, will help to connect the two main
roof deck areas.

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landscape architecture
Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai
Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, is an
upscale luxury golf community, where
it welcomes one stop of the European
Golf Tour every year. Khatib & Alami
was selected to design two parks and
the streetscape design for one village.
It consists of numerous residential
villages, golf courses with clubhouses.
Themed landscapes exude luxury living
and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Working closely with the Jumeirah
Golf Estates Landscape Team, is Dr.
Khaleel Abu Swai, Landscape Manager
and Shambhulingesh Malakannavar,
Landscape Engineer. The first park
sits between Whispering Pines and
Olive Point villages and is immediately
accessible to the local residents. The
park consists of one large playground
that is contemporary in nature and
complements the Jumeriah Golf Estates
theming.
Terraced gardens line one side of the
walkway set out in curvilinear forms
integrating seating nodes with topiary
olive trees as accents. Tall shade trees
line both sides of the park to provide
not only cool environment to relax in,
but also to provide filtered views in
to and out from the villas. Flowering
trees accent distant views for park
users and the lure of hummingbirds
fill the air. Colourful plantings fill
the planters in contrast to the accent
topiary olive trees creating a beautiful,
but yet recreational park.
The second park and streetscape
design was prepared for Flame Tree
Village. Flame Tree Village consists
of upscale single family homes. Park
space was integrated in to street islands
and roundabouts to create a visual and
physical link throughout the streetscape.
The streetscape design provides shaded
pedestrian circulation and glorious
displays of colour enhancing the
resident’s experience. The first park is
a passive park integrating a geometric
patterned walks, shaded seating and
shade trees to filter the views and create
vertical features to break up the distant
views along the street corridor.