Qantab Village Public Realm

Qantab is a small traditional fishing and boat-building village of about 3 hectares across a peaceful bay facing the Gulf of Oman. Its skills became the centre of attention after an unexpected series of events beginning some 6,000km away.

In 1998, salvagers recovered the wreck of a ninth-century Arabian dhow (merchant vessel) off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia. Inside the wreck was the largest single collection of Tang dynasty artefacts, giving new insights into the trade routes between China and the Middle East during that period (Wikipedia, 2019).

Qantab came into the picture 10 years later when the governments of Oman and Singapore commissioned the construction of a replica of the Belitung shipwreck. A small traditional ship yard in Qantab became the venue for that project.

Named the Jewel of Muscat, the replica ship is remarkable in that its builders sewed it together, following the techniques used to construct the original ship (Wikipedia, 2019).
Before: A vehicle-priority street through the heart of the old village.
After: A shared surface and tree planting create a home-zone or "sikka".
At the time of this commission, the old Qantab village was a collection of Arabian courtyard housing set among asphalt vehicle pavement or bare earth. The Muscat Municipality invited Verdaus to develop a strategy to upgrade the public spaces of the old village.
Our solution was to introduce:
– improved pedestrian paving, replacing vehicle-priority space with shared space
– a timber coffee house next to the village shipyard
– street trees for shade
– flood control elements at the mouth of the wadi (dry river bed).
Important elements of making the village more pedestrian-friendly are to use low-cost, pre-cast concrete unit pavements for its main pedestrian routes and for vehicular surfaces and to remove road curbs. This approach creates the foundation for shared surfaces (pedestrian priority) in place of existing vehicle-priority roads. It helps that this shared surface concept is already familiar in Oman, as many examples throughout Muscat demonstrate. It is a space known in Arabic as a “sikka”.

The finishing touches to the pedestrian-priority character of the new shared spaces are additional planting beds, seating and tree planting.
The new coffee house next to the ship yard will overlook the beach. The solid timber to be used for the building reflects the ship-building heritage of the village. Reinforcing this connection, the ship builders from the village will construct the coffee house.
Location
Qantab, Oman
23.5616771, 58.6309256
Plot Size
3.5 ha (8.8 acre)
Lead Consultant
Direct Appointment

Studio Team
Miguelito Pegi, Andre Paul Saladaga, Pierre Smit, Laith Wark
Project Owner
Muscat Municipality

Role
Concept Design

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