Projects

Within our mission statement of enhancing and developing existing neighborhood through vibrant and sustainable public spaces, we began in 2017 with the project of Hayi Al Maarifa in Muscat. Since then, we have branch out to to other forms of engagement with communities such as research, discussion platforms, and toolkits.

Academic collaboration with University of Stuttgart "Re-Imagining suburbia and Re-qualifying the fish market district"

October 2021 - March 2022

MCTspaceLab has successfully collaborated with students from Sultan Qaboos University in Oman (SQU) and University of Stuttgart in Germany in a joint studio working with two specific sites in Muscat, Oman. Students from Bachelor studies worked on an urban design studio on the site of Harat Al Shamal in Muttrah, where as students from Master studio worked on strategic planning of the neighborhood of Al-Khoud 6. MCTspaceLab contributed by being the key connection to the context with the means of providing data from on-ground, interviews, guidance, reality checks and consultations. 

The collaboration started with a concise digital workshop between SQU, Uni Stuttgart and MCTspaceLab which aimed at understanding the context, collecting local knowledge and experience and exchange ideas. Followed by the workshop, the students from Uni Stuttgart split into  two separate studios. The bachelor students focused on Harat Al Shamal with the umbrella topic: re-qualifying this fish market district. The task of this studio was to and understand develop a prototype of how the traditional urban fabric and social life can be respected despite the structural change in the surrounding area. The master students worked in Al-Khoud 6 with the topic of ‘Re-imagining suburbia’, which was devoted a strategic development plan for the neighborhood of Al- Khoud 6 while focusing on topics such as public space management, bottom-up governance and participatory development. 

Data Collection for the "Capacity Development on Land Governance" Research

July 2021 - August 2021

MCTspaceLab is supporting a research conducted by Arab Land Initiative, Global Land Tool Network and Urban Training Institute through the collection of data on land governance within Oman. Further information will be posted soon.

MCTspaceTalks

July 2020 - on-going

MCTspaceTalks is a self-initiated project undertaken by members of MCTspaceLab. The drive behind creating this is to establish a platform to engage into an active discussion outlining and assessing the ongoing matters concerning the urban development of Muscat. Furthermore, it is an attempt to bring together public, private and civil-society actors as well as stakeholders on the same platform in order to engage and participate in an active, wholesome discussion and share ideas.
The first series in this platform is titled “The Urban Saga”, with the main focus on existing public spaces in the city. This series will consist of 5 episodes. In each episode we hope to bring to light and discuss different aspects that influence the user's perception and usage of the public spaces in Muscat.
In the future, we envision hosting different series that will enable us to explore, discuss and evaluate sustainable urban development of Muscat. MCTspaceTalk will feature speakers from various professional and academic backgrounds who would bring valuable insights to our discussions and provide our viewers with varying perspectives.
MCTspaceLab invites you to be a part of this dynamic initiative, not only by viewing our discussions but actively being a part of our series. If you are interested to join us as an expert, send us a short email with your professional expertise at info@mctspacelab.com. 

Tree per House Initative (TpHI)

March 2020 - on-going

Following the lines of MCTspaceLab’s long term vision ‘to provide high quality public spaces that promote socio-economic interaction along with the empowerment of the community’, and the aim ‘to enhance and develop existing neighbourhood through vibrant and sustainable public spaces’, MCTspaceLab is about to bring to you the Tree per House Initative (TpHI) as a first step to initiate a long term change. After careful participatory research, the TpHI aims to combat the two needs of residents of Al-Khoud 6: The need for shaded walkways and the need for vibrant public spaces. 

This toolkit is divided into four segments: 

Part A – tells you all about the initiative; 

Part B – gives you a step by step procedure of how to get started. It includes all materials and tools that is needed for the process. In addition it includes various options of plants that can be planted. Furthermore, presenting a catalogue of various possible ways to make your own planting pot. 

Part C – gives a short look into possible ways of upscaling the initiative and 

Part D – gives you a sneak peek at various workshops that MCTspaceLab has carried out in order to bring the Tree per House Initiative to life!

Current information on toolkit are available on Instagram in English and Arabic.

Full toolkit will be published soon!

Al Mashriq Basic Education School Collaboration

March 2019 - August 2019

In a recent collaboration with the school, we joined a project that was initiated at the Al Mashriq Basic Education School for embracing economically sustainable within the educational environment. Our role as MCTspaceLab is to provide workshops within the economic sustainability realm through the optimization of material (whether waste or required) used within the school premises. 
Further information on the collaboration will be added as posts  labelled 'Al Mashriq B.E. School Collaboration'.

Hayi Al Maarifa Public Space Development Project

October 2017 - March 2022

The project of Hayi Al Maarifa Public Space Development began on October of 2017 by outlining and structuring of an action plan aiming to improve the public space qualities within Al Khoud 6. These steps were based on the outputs of the analysis phase that took place between the months of April and July 2017. Since February 2018, we initiated the interaction with the community by introducing them to the proposal of the project and overall objective. Having received a positive feedback, we conducted focus group discussion along with design and construction workshops which were considered as a testing phase to determine the projects of implementation and the evaluation of extent of willingness of the community. Current activities planned include workshops specifically aimed at the development of a selected area by the community. Consequently the workshops would build on the youth skills in construction and understanding of sustainability within a neighborhood scale. 

Further information on the project will be added as posts  labelled ‘Hayi Al Maarifa Project’. You can also have a look at the Community communication website in Arabic.