Madinat Al Irfan is a large-scale urban development between east and west Muscat, minutes from the airport. Planned as a mixed-use destination of neighbourhoods, communities, parks, and public spaces, it brings together residential, cultural, commercial, and civic uses within a single connected framework. The ambition: a place that supports daily life, encourages exploration, and earns long-term attachment. We were appointed to develop the wayfinding, public realm, and user experience strategies across the full masterplan, with a brief to make a city of this scale feel welcoming, and worth exploring.
STRATEGIC DRIVERS
Create an environment that rewards exploration at every scale
Encourage walkability through spatial and visual cues
Establish distinct district identities within a unified navigational framework
Integrate wayfinding, public art, and public realm design into a cohesive experience
Develop a scalable system that evolves alongside the growing masterplan
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY AND DESIGN
HOW A CITY IS UNDERSTOOD
We began by studying how people arrive, move through, and occupy the development at multiple scales, from city-wide access routes down to neighbourhood streets, parks, and individual destinations. Vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems were mapped in detail to establish a cognitive framework that breaks the development into understandable and memorable layers.
Rather than treating wayfinding as an isolated signage exercise, the strategy was embedded into the wider urban experience. Architecture, landscape, public art, welcome moments, and signage work together to guide users naturally through the city. Signage steps forward at key decision points and recedes when the environment itself provides sufficient clarity.
This approach reduces visual clutter while allowing users to build confidence progressively as they become more familiar with the development.
IDENTITY AND ORIENTATION
Within each district, naming, orientation, and visual identity were treated as primary wayfinding tools, reducing the need for excessive signage by making the environment itself legible. A colour system inspired by the Omani landscape differentiates primary neighbourhoods, giving each a recognisable register before a visitor reads a single sign. Patterns drawn from Omani cultural history, traditional craft, and environmental heritage, biophilia, textiles, pottery, fishing traditions, rock carvings, and archaeology, were woven into the visual language throughout. This embedded the system with local meaning and character.
PUBLIC ART INTEGRATION
Public art was used as both a navigational and placemaking tool. Three types of intervention structure the strategy, each operating at a different scale of the experience. Iconic pieces mark major arrivals and establish the identity of the development at its most visible scale. Secondary artworks define key entrances and district thresholds. Integrated art pieces interact directly with landscape and movement, becoming part of the texture of daily life.
Throughout the site, areas are characterised by a distinct thematic register, whether formal, environmental, cultural, or playful. From there, public art is placed in response to that character. These works function as landmarks, meeting points, and memory anchors.
FEATURE MOMENT
OMANI INSPIRED CONCEPTS
After exploring directions inspired by the architecture and archaeology of Oman, including mashrabiya patterns and the interplay of light and shadow, the final concept draws from the natural water features across the site. Translucent forms, expressed through three-dimensional sandblasted surfaces, bring together materiality, light, and texture into a signage language that feels native to its landscape.
WADI PARK
The Wadi Park within the Uptown neighbourhood required its own distinct response. To preserve the natural character and ambience of the wadi environment, we developed a family of signage elements tailored specifically to this area, integrating wood and Corten steel into the material palette to visually match the district, while meeting the durability demands of the outdoor environment.
No items found.
EXPERIENCES AT
Madinat Al Irfan
The wayfinding and public realm strategy for Madinat Al Irfan delivers a clear, human-centred framework for a large and evolving urban development. A single integrated system supports confident movement while encouraging the kind of unhurried exploration that makes a city feel worth living in.
The framework is designed to grow. As Madinat Al Irfan continues to develop, the navigational logic, cultural language, and identity system we established provide a foundation that can absorb that growth without losing coherence or character.
A city for the future earns that title not through its scale, but through the quality of the experience it offers the people inside it.
Madinat Al Irfan is a large-scale urban development between east and west Muscat, minutes from the airport. Planned as a mixed-use destination of neighbourhoods, communities, parks, and public spaces, it brings together residential, cultural, commercial, and civic uses within a single connected framework. The ambition: a place that supports daily life, encourages exploration, and earns long-term attachment. We were appointed to develop the wayfinding, public realm, and user experience strategies across the full masterplan, with a brief to make a city of this scale feel welcoming, and worth exploring.
STRATEGIC DRIVERS
Create an environment that rewards exploration at every scale
Encourage walkability through spatial and visual cues
Establish distinct district identities within a unified navigational framework
Integrate wayfinding, public art, and public realm design into a cohesive experience
Develop a scalable system that evolves alongside the growing masterplan
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY AND DESIGN
HOW A CITY IS UNDERSTOOD
We began by studying how people arrive, move through, and occupy the development at multiple scales, from city-wide access routes down to neighbourhood streets, parks, and individual destinations. Vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems were mapped in detail to establish a cognitive framework that breaks the development into understandable and memorable layers.
Rather than treating wayfinding as an isolated signage exercise, the strategy was embedded into the wider urban experience. Architecture, landscape, public art, welcome moments, and signage work together to guide users naturally through the city. Signage steps forward at key decision points and recedes when the environment itself provides sufficient clarity.
This approach reduces visual clutter while allowing users to build confidence progressively as they become more familiar with the development.
IDENTITY AND ORIENTATION
Within each district, naming, orientation, and visual identity were treated as primary wayfinding tools, reducing the need for excessive signage by making the environment itself legible. A colour system inspired by the Omani landscape differentiates primary neighbourhoods, giving each a recognisable register before a visitor reads a single sign. Patterns drawn from Omani cultural history, traditional craft, and environmental heritage, biophilia, textiles, pottery, fishing traditions, rock carvings, and archaeology, were woven into the visual language throughout. This embedded the system with local meaning and character.
PUBLIC ART INTEGRATION
Public art was used as both a navigational and placemaking tool. Three types of intervention structure the strategy, each operating at a different scale of the experience. Iconic pieces mark major arrivals and establish the identity of the development at its most visible scale. Secondary artworks define key entrances and district thresholds. Integrated art pieces interact directly with landscape and movement, becoming part of the texture of daily life.
Throughout the site, areas are characterised by a distinct thematic register, whether formal, environmental, cultural, or playful. From there, public art is placed in response to that character. These works function as landmarks, meeting points, and memory anchors.
No items found.
FEATURE MOMENT
OMANI INSPIRED CONCEPTS
After exploring directions inspired by the architecture and archaeology of Oman, including mashrabiya patterns and the interplay of light and shadow, the final concept draws from the natural water features across the site. Translucent forms, expressed through three-dimensional sandblasted surfaces, bring together materiality, light, and texture into a signage language that feels native to its landscape.
WADI PARK
The Wadi Park within the Uptown neighbourhood required its own distinct response. To preserve the natural character and ambience of the wadi environment, we developed a family of signage elements tailored specifically to this area, integrating wood and Corten steel into the material palette to visually match the district, while meeting the durability demands of the outdoor environment.
No items found.
EXPERIENCES AT
Madinat Al Irfan
No items found.
The wayfinding and public realm strategy for Madinat Al Irfan delivers a clear, human-centred framework for a large and evolving urban development. A single integrated system supports confident movement while encouraging the kind of unhurried exploration that makes a city feel worth living in.
The framework is designed to grow. As Madinat Al Irfan continues to develop, the navigational logic, cultural language, and identity system we established provide a foundation that can absorb that growth without losing coherence or character.
A city for the future earns that title not through its scale, but through the quality of the experience it offers the people inside it.
Madinat Al Irfan is a large-scale urban development between east and west Muscat, minutes from the airport. Planned as a mixed-use destination of neighbourhoods, communities, parks, and public spaces, it brings together residential, cultural, commercial, and civic uses within a single connected framework. The ambition: a place that supports daily life, encourages exploration, and earns long-term attachment. We were appointed to develop the wayfinding, public realm, and user experience strategies across the full masterplan, with a brief to make a city of this scale feel welcoming, and worth exploring.
STRATEGIC DRIVERS
Create an environment that rewards exploration at every scale
Encourage walkability through spatial and visual cues
Establish distinct district identities within a unified navigational framework
Integrate wayfinding, public art, and public realm design into a cohesive experience
Develop a scalable system that evolves alongside the growing masterplan
No items found.
HOW A CITY IS UNDERSTOOD
We began by studying how people arrive, move through, and occupy the development at multiple scales, from city-wide access routes down to neighbourhood streets, parks, and individual destinations. Vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems were mapped in detail to establish a cognitive framework that breaks the development into understandable and memorable layers.
Rather than treating wayfinding as an isolated signage exercise, the strategy was embedded into the wider urban experience. Architecture, landscape, public art, welcome moments, and signage work together to guide users naturally through the city. Signage steps forward at key decision points and recedes when the environment itself provides sufficient clarity.
This approach reduces visual clutter while allowing users to build confidence progressively as they become more familiar with the development.
IDENTITY AND ORIENTATION
Within each district, naming, orientation, and visual identity were treated as primary wayfinding tools, reducing the need for excessive signage by making the environment itself legible. A colour system inspired by the Omani landscape differentiates primary neighbourhoods, giving each a recognisable register before a visitor reads a single sign. Patterns drawn from Omani cultural history, traditional craft, and environmental heritage, biophilia, textiles, pottery, fishing traditions, rock carvings, and archaeology, were woven into the visual language throughout. This embedded the system with local meaning and character.
PUBLIC ART INTEGRATION
Public art was used as both a navigational and placemaking tool. Three types of intervention structure the strategy, each operating at a different scale of the experience. Iconic pieces mark major arrivals and establish the identity of the development at its most visible scale. Secondary artworks define key entrances and district thresholds. Integrated art pieces interact directly with landscape and movement, becoming part of the texture of daily life.
Throughout the site, areas are characterised by a distinct thematic register, whether formal, environmental, cultural, or playful. From there, public art is placed in response to that character. These works function as landmarks, meeting points, and memory anchors.
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