The Royal Muscat Opera House

Built on the royal orders of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, the Royal Opera House Muscat is an exquisite example of contemporary Omani architecture. The opera house complex consists of a concert theatre, auditorium, formal landscaped gardens, cultural market with retail, luxury restaurants and an art centre for musical, theatrical and operatic productions. Together these facilities work to achieve the opera house’s vision: “to serve as a centre of excellence in global cultural engagement” (Royal Opera House Muscat website, March 2020).

The Government of the Sultanate of Oman directly appointed Verdaus to design the outdoor spaces of this new cultural precinct.

The landscape that emerged is a composition of rich stone detailing, exotic plant material, formal clipped hedges and fountains along formal axes that align with key architectural features of the main building. It presents a contemporary interpretation of classical garden styles associated with royal estates.

That interpretation is clear in the sequence of formal landscape spaces and elements along the central axis that aligns with the Royal Terrace. The terrace overlooks a maze garden and grand lawn beyond. At the end of this vista is a cascading fountain framed by two large trees.
Enclosing the rectangular plan of the maze garden and grand lawn is the site boundary on three sides, which follows the curved geometry of adjacent roads. These rectilinear and curvilinear geometries leave a space that tree gardens fill. Informal in their layout, the tree gardens buffer the more formal gardens from adjacent roads.

Formed by clipped hedges of Clerodendrum inerme, the maze itself is at the lowest of three levels. Its challenge to visitors is to follow the one path in and out that leads to a central fountain, allowing them to exit the maze.

Up at the next level are rose gardens in raised planters. A walkway around the edge also gives visitors the option of walking directly from the opera house to the grand lawn without entering the maze garden.

Finally, the upper level includes seating niches atop the perimeter wall, which overlooks the maze garden. These spaces are ideal for taking in the surrounding views of the opera house façade set amongst the exotic gardens.

To reach the seating niches, visitors follow paths that cross small lawns with Ashoka trees (Polyalthia longifolia), which are widely spaced to accentuate their elegant columnar form. As conspicuous landmarks, these groups of trees also help visitors with wayfinding wherever they are walking in the gardens.
Beyond the maze garden, stone paving frames the grand lawn, which also has masses of densely planted trees surrounding it. Spatially, the lawn is the floor of a well-defined spatial volume, a great outdoor hall.

Timber pavilions with trellises and flowering climbers mark the high points along this axis. Here visitors can rest in shaded garden seats and take in the views across the maze garden at its lower elevation.
The finish for landscape elements is almost exclusively Desert Beige Marble, the International Stone Institute’s Stone of the Year in 2018. Quarried in Oman, this stone is in high demand for projects worldwide. Treatment of landscape elements reflects the detailing of the stone façades and trim of the opera house. In this task, architects from the Royal Court, with extensive experience in stone detailing, supported the design team with invaluable advice.
Location
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
23.6147851, 58.4700231
Plot Size
0.3 ha (0.7 acre)
Lead Consultant
Direct Appointment
Studio Team
Tarek Al Sheeti, Reynaldo Casin, Thomas Hewitt, Miguelito Pegi, Andre Paul Saladaga, Ian Sandigan, Laith Wark
Project Owner
Government of the Sultanate of Oman
Role
 Concept Design
Preliminary Design
Final Design
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