Presented to projects that anticipate and address future challenges, the WAFX Award celebrates the “most forward-looking architectural concepts”. X-Space, an urban fabric regeneration project in Dubai, winner of the Smart Cities Category was selected to take on the overall WAFX 2019 prize.
Designed by Architects Mouaz Abouzaid and Dima Faraj, X-space or the urban regeneration project and greenway for Dubai, brings the city and the people together, by reshaping the main highway, the Sheikh Zayed Road, once a barrier for the fabric of the city. In fact, the project generates public and green spaces with a concept inspired by the movement of the desert dunes.
The philosophy behind X-Space is to develop an urban fabric focused on sharing, integration, and tolerance for human-scale urbanism, a place where people can live, work and play. Such urban design should connect spaces with people and cultural practices at the heart of Sheikh Zayed Road with rich visual variety, density, connected network systems, and human activities. -- Mouaz Abouzaid, architect
Giving back the urban space to the community, the project aims to create a new urban living room, based along a 1km section of the emirate’s main highway. The human-scale intervention “is geared towards pedestrians rather than vehicles and is designed for all cultures to congregate”. Encouraging diversity, integration, and tolerance, X-space will reduce the reliance on cars and promote a more sustainable way of life.
Ten innovative approaches have already been chosen as winners in their categories, ranging from health to cultural identity and carbon reduction. The winning projects will be on display at the World Architectural Festival in Amsterdam, from the 4th till the 6th of December 2019.
