The Masterplan assumes a 30-year implementation period, but a significant part of it should be implemented by 2022, when the World Cup will be held in Qatar. The plan does not affect the Hamad International Airport (HIA) itself: it will be commissioned only in mid-2013, and its capacity should last for a long time (its future capacity is estimated at 50-100 million passengers per year). Therefore, the OMA project is only about placing all the necessary infrastructure near this transport hub, including housing for employees, which should increase the business attractiveness of Qatar, as well as connect Doha with its airport.
In Airport City, 200,000 people will work and live on an area of 10 km2. The city will be composed of 4 districts, in the plan having the shape of a circle or its fragments; they are located parallel to the airport runways. They will be tied together by the Green Spine, which will be adjoined by parks and squares. Michel Devigne will be responsible for the landscape design.
The following districts are envisaged: Business with a large transfer hub connecting the airport and Doha, Aviation with offices and educational institutions of the aviation department, Logistic with warehouses and other facilities necessary for the turnover of goods, and Residential - for future employees of the airport.
Merging a business center with an airport seems to be the trend of a time when mobility and transport accessibility became key values. Offices have appeared at Frankfurt Airport, as the task is to reduce the distance from the workplace to the check-in counter, and the American theorist John Kasarda is promoting the idea of Aerotropolis - a city with an airport (city-forming object!) In the center as an ideal business in the face of a rapidly growing number of air travel.
N. F.
