Nature-based Community Parks in Khalifa City are honoured with international design awards.

Six nature-based community parks in Khalifa City have received international recognition just a few months after their opening. Designed by world-renowned Danish landscape architects SLA, the parks have turned barren city blocks of sand into sustainable, active, and biodiverse community parks.

By SLA Landscape Architect

Earlier this year, Abu Dhabi witnessed the emergence of six new nature-based parks in Khalifa City as part of the ongoing revitalisation efforts. The city-block-sized parks, created solely using native trees and plants, have turned empty sand sites into new sustainable, active, and social places for all. Despite being inaugurated in January 2023, the parks have already gained international attention. Their innovative nature-based design has earned them the prestigious Monocle Design Award 2023 in the category of Best Urban Park. The parks are designed by renowned Danish landscape architects SLA for the client Abu Dhabi

Department of Municipalities and Transport and show that no magic tricks are needed to conjure sustainable greenery in a desert. Instead, SLA has used native flora to design new places for active, social, and sustainable life – for children, adults, and wildlife alike.

“The parks represent a new way of creating livable and social neighbourhoods in Abu Dhabi. By focusing on the local nature and getting a deep understanding of the specific context, we have created six distinctive and highly inclusive parks that celebrate the public life, social culture, and history of Abu Dhabi. Khalifa City has a classic grid plan with walled villas, rowhouses, and the unique sikka pedestrian passageways in-between. These sikkas cleverly contribute to the public realm’s climate adaptation by providing shade and cooling for the residents. We are fascinated by these traditions and have integrated and renovated the sikkapassageways as part of the projects, enhancing the neighbourhoods’ identity and climate resilience,” explains Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal and Partner in SLA. “The city’s steadfast commitment to creating sustainable and vibrant environments has been pivotal in realising our shared vision, and we truly applaud their dedication to bringing these innovative parks to life.”

Enhancing biodiversity and life quality

Building upon years of ecological research in Abu Dhabi’s plants and biodiversity, SLA has designed the six parks to contain more than 6.700 trees and bushes, comprised of 40 different native plant species. All are specifically chosen to minimise irrigation, strengthen biodiversity, and maximise natural cooling, ensuring the well-being of the parks’ many visitors. SLA’s biodiversity study identifies 40 plant species, 55 bird species, 56 insect species, three mammal species, and four reptile species likely to inhabit or utilise the new parks.

Slotted within the neighbourhood’s existing network of sikkas, the parks are squarely meant to serve the community: where children previously had to pile into a car to go to a playground, the residents are now surrounded by green spaces with football pitches, badminton, basketball, and padel courts.

“Khalifa City’s colour palette, shapes, and scales have a monotonous quality, inspiring our aim to introduce new colours and design expressions that evoke a sense of local identity and place. As a first step, we replaced the generic plot numbers with names inspired by our site visits. For example, ‘Ranim Garden’ is named after the lush gardens filled with bird songs surrounding the plot. Now, after introducing the native plantings, there are even more birds. This is truly a park that changed the soundscape,” says Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal and Partner in SLA.

Overall, the design shows how to combine native nature, innovative urban design, and local communities to create good, social, and sustainable places brimming with life – all life.

The Khalifa City Community Parks mark the latest collaboration between SLA and the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport, following previous nature-based park projects, including Al Fay Park – the Middle East’s first urban biodiversity park and recipient of the prestigious 2021 WAF World Landscape of the Year Award.