Ajman's jewel

Speaking about Dubai Marina, he says: "The public space is very well used and mostly successful. I think possibly we feel that it could have afforded to be a little more generous and we also felt that it was an advantage to have a variation in scale."

"Dubai Marina is essentially a series of high rise towers around an artificial waterbody whereas in the Ajman case the port already exists...so that was important to retain. We've also worked very hard to make sure the buildings framing and enclosing the marina are relatively low rise," he adds.

Place making was an important part of the concept for the Ajman marina, Gale continues.

"We believe very strongly in place making and we already started with this very strong place where the land meets the sea and so we've developed that concept. [The marina] has a promenade all round it, a public promenade which is very well connected back into the existing city and on the west side through the new development to the coast."

"We have designed it to encourage having a very buzzy and very busy place," he continues, adding that the plan is that the area will have a lot of restaurants and bars.

A huge interactive water feature will also be one of the key features of the development and was something that was specifically requested by the client, he added.

One of the major challenges on the Ajman marina project was dealing with density, Gale said.

"There has been a significant increase in the amount of floor space to accommodate on the site but we very much wanted to retain the public realm we had put into the design so there has been a challenge there in terms of density," he notes.

"On the whole as masterplanners and designers, we favour dense projects because we think that's a sensible use of resources and it is sustainable...but to make it humane and a nice place to live you do need to have the public space," he adds.

With the masterplan complete, the Ajman marina is currently on hold while Tanmiyat decides which firm will carry out the detailed design phase.

The Saudi-based company has been in negotiations with HOK as well as other firms on this and a decision is expected in the near future.

Work on site is due to start early this year and to be completed in two phases over a five-year period.

So while all the signs point to the development being a success, whether Ajman will truly find its jewel in its marina development, only time will tell.

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