Education City, Qatar
Led by Erik Behrens and James Haig Streeter and their design team at AECOM, Oxygen Park is a unique public space designed for health and wellbeing in a desert environment. ‘
Oxygen Park was recently awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award from The European Centre for Architecture Arts Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Planned and built in Education City, Qatar, the park has been created with the local community in mind, providing an open space in which to exercise, rest, and play.
Oxygen Park is inspired by the wind-eroded rocks and fluid land formations of the desert.
The path and running tracks are embedded in the topography to create an exciting training ground with looping tracks, cooled tunnel segments, and steep hills.
The night-time lighting scheme and refreshing water features provide an attractive setting for evening sports activities and individual work-outs during cooler hours of the day.
Oxygen Park features shaded running tracks, subterranean pitches for team sports, equestrian facilities, as well as more gentle recreation areas with a series of soundscape-filled, refreshing folly spheres.
The “balloon lights” floating above the subterranean grounds make the park visible from afar and add a touch of magic to the setting.
Oxygen Park is a man-made “green lung” with a design inspired by nature.
It is an antidote to the generic indoor gym environment and helps people to get back to nature, while fostering social engagement and promoting active healthy lifestyles
Project: Oxygen Park
Architects: AECOM
Design Team: Erik Behrens, Mark Blackwell, James Haig Streeter, Warren Osborne, Kevin Underwood, Philip Dugdale, Alfredo Galindo, Eric Hallquist, Shafee Jones-Wilson, Wing Lai, James Manuel, John Neilson, Jonathon Reeves, Adam Rothwell, Jason Shinoda, Stephen Suen, and Jack Wu
General Contractor: MAN Enterprise
Water Feature: Fountains Direct
Project Management: ASTAD
Photographers: Markus Elblaus
