By Law, Buildings in Muscat Cannot be More than 10 Floors? and Must always be White?

I couldn’t believe it when I first read it. it’s illegal to build tall buildings in muscat, oman! really? and no other colors are allowed other than white? but seeing the landscape of muscat itself prove that statement to be true.

white. short. and square.

this was my 2nd visit to muscat, oman – and newly discovered this interesting fact. we were here during mr. khairul’s birthday, where he took us all along with his mom, aunt and sis for a weekend getaway to oman.

 

 

oman’s capital; muscat is not as metropolitan as the shiny spanking dubai – the buildings are similar, almost uniformed – their WHITE and SHORT. hardly any skyscraper, nor other color than white. what muscat DO have are these black rocky mountainous range that dominate the landscape of oman beautifully.

it turns out that, it’s a fact that most muscat’s buildings never rise more than ten stories – max 12 floors. it’s actually a decree by sultan qaboos ruler of oman to ensure that the city’s magnificent mountain backdrop is never overshadowed my man-made structures.

wow respect! now THAT’s preserving the beauty of nature, and not drowning yourself in the race to build more and more taller skyscrapers hoping to reach the sky!

 

hardly any skyline filled with shiny skyscraper here in muscat. here, nature dominates.

 

“..we do not want bland urbanism which can be very alienating. we are also strict about colors, the dominant color in muscat is WHITE and the remaining colors have to be modest and earthy so that they respond well with nature’s colors here. we also have a limit for the height of the buildings and they should not go over 40m. we do not want skyscrapers to compete with our mountains.”  ~sultan bin hamdoon al-harthy, chairman of muscat municipality

click here to read full article.

 

amazing view of muscat from up top. thanks to our tour guide abg yuzly and kak anis for taking the time to drive us up here. siap bulan mengambang lagi!

 

hmm. quite, quite interesting!

while dubai encourages people to get as creative and wild as they can in designing new, architecturally breakthrough buildings – coin-shaped building lah, buildings shape like a gigantic red alien ship with the ferrari symbol and many more – until you can hardly remember you’re in a desert; and here in muscat they aim to retain their identity and unified character, while continue to preserve the magnanimity of the surrounding nature. what a stark contrast!

both cities are charming in their own unique way!