Marjan
RAK Central Square

Feasibility Road Map

A civic landmark for Ras Al Khaimah, and the practical path that makes it real: the phases, decisions and proof points, one page each.

collab
02 | contents

The document, at a glance.

orientation
The Path03 The Two Concepts04 Road Map & Programme05 Critical Path06
phase 1 | discovery
Discovery07 Survey08 Feasibility Study09 The Decision Gate10
phase 2 | design / pre-production
Design / Pre-Production11 Big Idea12 Concept Development13 Visualisations14 System Narrative15 Digital Twin16 Preliminary Budget17
phase 3 | detailed design
Detailed Design18 Integration & Prototypes19 Drawings · Budget · Timeline20
phases 4–5 | production & procurement
Production21 Content Production22 Procurement23 Five Moves24
phase 6 | installation
Installation25 Commission & Prove26
phase 7 | handover
Handover27 Open It. Hand It Over Alive.28 To Begin29 Closing30
contentsoverview02
03 | the path

Seven phases. One early decision.
Nothing unproven.

Where we are

Two concepts, The Confluence and The Living Brain, have been presented and warmly received. This document sets out how a concept becomes a built, operating landmark on the Town Square: what happens, in what order, and what each step requires and delivers. Both concepts answer the same question: what does the district's new urban heart look like when it is working?

The road

Seven phases, each following the construction and creative logic it requires. No steps skipped, none invented. Every page answers four questions: what happens, what it requires, what it delivers, and what it unlocks. Durations are honest working ranges; the committed calendar is an output of Discovery. One decision matters most and comes early: concept selection, at the end of Discovery.

Where it ends

With an institution, not a ribbon: a square that runs, staffed, documented and programmed, and a landmark the emirate is known by. The road is built backwards from that.

contentsoverview03
04 | the two concepts

Two ways to give the district a heart.

The Confluence

A water-led civic heart: water rooms and portals to walk through, play woven into the square, and at its centre the suspended cube. By night it becomes the Beacon, a landmark legible from across the district.

The Living Brain

A living, responsive structure over the square. Planted, shaded and breathing: architecture that behaves like an organism and makes the district's centre visibly alive.

Both concepts follow the same delivery road and differ only in engineering emphasis: water systems in one, living structure and responsive systems in the other. The road map carries both until Discovery closes with a decision: one concept, or both, at two locations. Until that gate the road holds both equally, and no design, engineering or procurement spend is authorised. The signed concept mandate is the control document. Nothing in phases two to seven begins without it.

contentsoverview04
05 | road map & programme

Seven phases, one goal:
a square this emirate will be known by.

Discovery3–4 weeks
Design /
Pre-Production6–8 weeks
Detailed
Design8–10 weeks
Production4–6 months
Procurement3–5 months
Installation3–5 months
Handover4–6 weeks
+decision gate
Survey
Feasibility study
Alignment workshop
Concept decision
Big idea
Concept development
Visualisations
System narrative
Digital twin
Preliminary budget
System integration
Prototypes
Technical drawings
Budget, timeline
Long-lead orders
Creative production
Technical production
Vendor selection
Price comparison
Equipment ordering
QC, logistics
Engineering
Mounting
As-built records
Commissioning
Performance testing
Launch show
Programming strategy
Manuals, training
PR, photo, video

Production and Procurement run in parallel. Both begin the moment their inputs freeze in Detailed Design, and long-lead orders are placed during Detailed Design itself, because long-lead items set the calendar, not the site. Approximately 12 to 16 months end to end.

contentsoverview05
06 | critical path

The chain that sets
the earliest opening.

Road map vs critical path

The road map is the strategic sequence of phases. The critical path is the longest chain of dependent tasks, the one that dictates the earliest possible opening. Managing the second is what makes the first come true.

The chain that governs this project

Site data → feasibility → concept decision → detailed design → long-lead orders → installation → commissioning. Everything else can flex. These seven links can only be shortened, never reordered.

How they get shortened

Existing site data shortens Discovery immediately: the district is under construction and its structural, MEP and geotechnical records already exist. Prototyping prevents late slips. Long-lead orders placed during Detailed Design protect the installation window. The full chain runs approximately 12 to 16 months from concept mandate to opening, within the district's opening window, with Discovery designed to begin within thirty days of mandate. Every week earlier adds resilience downstream.

Five risks govern the path: data access, feasibility surprises, prototype failure, long-lead slippage, operator readiness. Each is named, owned and mitigated in the Phase 1 plan.

contentsoverview06
1
phase 1 | 3–4 weeks

Discovery

Know everything the site already knows. The district is not a blank sheet. It is designed, engineered and under construction. Discovery collects what exists, commissions only what is missing, and tests both concepts against reality before either is committed to.

contentsphase 1 | discovery07
08 | survey
the most leveraged week of the project

Survey

What happens

We assemble the complete site evidence base: architectural CAD, BIM and the 3D model; MEP capacity for power, water and cooling; podium structural data; geotechnical records; wind, solar and climate profiles; projected people flow across the day and the year; and the public-realm packages as contracted, including the planned water features, together with the construction programme and its access windows.

What it requires

Access to the existing design and construction packages through the project's information-sharing protocols. Most of this data exists, because the towers are already rising. Gaps are commissioned immediately.

What it delivers

A single verified site data pack, the foundation of every downstream decision. It converts the feasibility study from assumption to evidence. Where a figure cannot yet be final, such as MEP headroom on a building not yet commissioned, it enters the programme as a tracked parameter, not a guess.

contentsphase 1 | discovery08
09 | feasibility study
evidence before optimism

Feasibility Study

What happens

Both concepts are tested against the evidence. Structure: what the podium can carry and what stands on grade. Climate: coastal humidity, seasonal winds, the summer comfort strategy. Utilities: power, water treatment, plant space and acoustics. Operation: maintenance access, cleaning cycles, running-cost class.

How we work

Sober by design. Water systems in this climate are engineered as closed, filtered, actively managed installations, never left to evaporation and hope. Moving elements follow the proven Gulf rule: few, large, slow and serviceable. Materials are specified for salt air, sand and 55-degree summers from the first line.

What it delivers

A technical feasibility assessment per concept, per candidate location. Each option is graded: ready to build, requiring specialist engineering validation, or flagged. Compatibility with the district's LEED Gold target is assessed for water and energy from the start. This is the document that lets leadership decide with confidence rather than optimism.

contentsphase 1 | discovery09
10 | feasibility alignment
decision gate

The Decision Gate

What happens

A working session with leadership. Not a presentation: a decision workshop. The feasibility findings are walked through openly: what the site allows, what each concept asks of it, and what each path costs in time and complexity.

The decision

One concept, or both at two locations, and where. This is the single most consequential decision on the road map. It fixes the project's identity before significant spend begins; reversing it later would mean restarting phases, not adjusting them.

What it delivers

A signed concept mandate, signed at the level that holds capital authority: the agreed brief every later phase builds on and is measured against. From this point the project has one definition of success, in writing, and every downstream phase has a fixed spine to build from.

contentsphase 1 | discovery10
2
phase 2 | 6–8 weeks

Design /
Pre-Production

The selected concept is developed into a complete spatial, experiential and technical definition. This is the phase where the idea becomes specific enough to be engineered, priced and scheduled, without losing what made it worth choosing.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production11
12 | big idea
the quality contract

Big Idea

What happens

Before development begins, the core of the chosen concept is locked in writing: the promise in one sentence, the signature moments, and the elements no cost review may remove.

Why it matters

Projects of this scale lose their concept between approval and delivery: a hundred reasonable decisions, each costing two percent of the idea. The Big Idea page is the standing defence. Every later trade-off is tested against it.

What it delivers

A one-page concept charter, signed at the start of design: the quality contract between the creative team, the delivery team and the client. Changing a protected element requires sign-off from both the creative lead and the client authority. It is a change of scope, not a site decision, and the charter stands as the reference for any value-engineering review.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production12
13 | concept development

Concept Development

What happens

The concept is developed to full definition: geometry and zoning on the real plaza, visitor journeys by daypart and season, day and night states, summer and winter operation, capacity and safety logic, and the family of experiences from first coffee to late evening.

What it requires

The site data pack, the concept mandate, and structured working sessions with the client's teams, so the square's everyday life shapes the design rather than auditing it afterwards.

What it delivers

A definitive concept design: drawings, journeys and operating logic complete enough for engineering, budgeting and visualisation to proceed in parallel. The square, not only the towers, becomes the reason talent chooses RAK Central.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production13
14 | visualisations
in-house, proven on this project

Visualisations

What happens

The definitive design is rendered cinematically: stills and film, day and night, season by season, built on the same geometry the engineers use. What leadership sees is what gets built.

Why it matters

These are decision instruments first and marketing assets second. They let every stakeholder, including those who join late, see the same square. They become the reference standard the built work is judged against.

What it delivers

A visual package for leadership review, stakeholder alignment and early communication, produced fast because this capability sits inside the core team.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production14
15 | system narrative

Mechanics / System Narrative

What happens

Every system behind the experience, from water and air to movement, light, media, sound and sensing, is described as one coordinated organism: what runs when, how modes shift hour by hour through the seasons, and what happens in wind, in heat, in a storm, at maintenance hour.

Why it matters

This is where spectacle meets discipline. Here the operations team, the engineers and the creative team agree on the same machine, in plain language, so a technical director on day one can read the whole system and act.

What it delivers

The system narrative: the master reference that drives detailed engineering, controls design and, in time, the operating manuals.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production15
16 | digital twin

Digital Twin

What happens

A performance model built on the district's own BIM geometry: sun and shade by hour and season, people flow, sightlines from the towers, the E11 and the arrival points, wind behaviour, night legibility.

Why it matters

The twin settles design questions with evidence: where shade actually falls in August, what a lunchtime crowd actually does, how the centrepiece reads from a tower lobby. Every later trade uses the same model, which removes coordination errors at the source.

What it delivers

The shared spatial truth for the whole delivery chain, and later the base for the operations dashboard of the built square.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production16
17 | preliminary budget
whole-life, not ribbon-cutting

Preliminary Budget

What happens

The definitive design is priced in ranges, package by package: structure, water or living systems, media and lighting, controls, landscape, plant. Each range is stated as lower, base and upper, with its assumptions listed. The running-cost line is presented alongside the build cost from the first draft.

Why it matters

A landmark that looks immaculate at opening and shabby by 2030 is worse than no landmark. This team presents the operating bill unprompted. The budget is designed for the asset's whole life, not for the ribbon-cutting.

What it delivers

A preliminary budget leadership can steer while every option is still open. The ranges tighten into commitments in Detailed Design, through real quotes, and nothing is committed without client approval.

contentsphase 2 | design / pre-production17
3
phase 3 | 8–10 weeks

Detailed Design

The definitive design becomes construction-ready. Every system is engineered together, every risky element is prototyped before mass production, and every drawing is submitted for coordination with the district's own architecture and site works. The long-lead orders that set the calendar are placed before the phase closes.

contentsphase 3 | detailed design18
19 | integration & prototypes
fail early, in private

System Integration &
Prototype Design

What happens

All systems are engineered as one: structure with services, water or living systems with controls, media with power and heat management. The genuinely novel elements, such as a water room or a responsive module, are prototyped at full scale in this climate before anything is ordered in quantity.

Why it matters

Prototypes make failure cheap and early instead of expensive and public. Testing is timed against the climate itself: peak-season heat, humidity and sun are the test bench. Whatever surprises exist in a first-of-its-kind element are met in a workshop, months before opening day depends on them.

What it delivers

Proven, integrated engineering, and with it the confidence to order, fabricate and commit the installation calendar.

contentsphase 3 | detailed design19
20 | drawings · budget · timeline

Technical Drawings ·
Budget · Timeline

01

Technical drawings

Full construction documentation, submitted to the project's design and construction teams for coordination review at the agreed interfaces: the drawings a contractor builds from, not illustrations.

02

Budget

Ranges become commitments. Real quotes from the selected vendors replace estimates, package by package, and the committed budget goes to the client for approval before production and procurement spend begins. This is the financial gate of the phase.

03

Timeline

The committed schedule, built backwards from installation logic and long-lead deliveries, with client sign-off gates marked: the calendar the whole delivery chain is then held to.

contentsphase 3 | detailed design20
4
phase 4 | 4–6 months, overlapping

Production

Production begins before Detailed Design fully closes, by design. Fabrication and content creation start the moment their inputs are frozen: structural geometry and system specifications first, finish details after. They set the calendar, not the site.

contentsphase 4 | production21
22 | content production

Content Production

Creative production

The living content of the square: media surfaces and generative scenes, lighting states and soundscapes. Daily and seasonal cycles keep the place different at 8 am and 11 pm, in January and in August. Built once and designed to change, with the annual refresh carried in the operating budget as a defined line, so the square never runs last year's show.

Technical production

The custom-fabricated elements: structural components, water or kinetic modules, housings and finishes, manufactured under factory conditions to the prototyped specifications and inspected before they ship.

What it delivers

Everything installation requires, sequenced to match site readiness: tested, documented, ready to integrate.

contentsphase 4 | production22
5
phase 5 | 3–5 months, overlapping production

Procurement

Buy well, once. Fewer suppliers, more accountability: senior specialists and proven fabricators rather than layers of subcontracting. Each is selected on evidence at comparable scale and accountable for a defined package, with delivery milestones contracted. Where fabrication is single-source, a second qualified supplier is held on the shortlist.

contentsphase 5 | procurement23
24 | procurement, five moves

Five moves.

01

Vendor selection

Shortlists built on delivered work at comparable scale and climate. References are checked against built projects, not brochures.

02

Price comparison

Like-for-like tenders on defined packages, so prices compare honestly and the lowest bid cannot hide a specification cut.

03

Equipment ordering

Long-lead items first: custom structure, specialist plant, media hardware, sequenced so nothing waits on site and nothing arrives to wait.

04

Quality control

Factory inspection before shipping on the elements that matter. Problems are caught at the source, where they are fixable, not at the plaza.

05

Logistics & delivery

Consolidated shipping, regional customs handled early, deliveries sequenced to site readiness: the logistical rigour that protects every other phase.

contentsphase 5 | procurement24
6
phase 6 | 3–5 months

Installation

The site phase: method statements approved by the district's main contractor, assembly, system bring-up, and the tests that prove the square is ready for its public before the public arrives.

contentsphase 6 | installation25
26 | commission & prove
opening day: the second-hardest day

Build, integrate,
commission, prove.

01

Engineering

Site engineering and method statements prepared to the main contractor's requirements and submitted for formal approval before work begins. Interfaces, access, temporary works and safety are agreed in advance.

02

Equipment mounting

Assembly of structure and systems in the planned sequence, by the crews of the fabricators who built them. Accountability travels with the work.

03

Site records & as-built

Every deviation from the construction drawings is logged as it happens and compiled at completion into the formal as-built package: the honest documentation the operator relies on for the life of the asset.

04

Commissioning

System-by-system bring-up: water, air, light, media, controls. Each is proven alone, then proven together, mode by mode through the full daily cycle, alongside the authority clearances that precede public admission.

05

Performance testing

Full-load rehearsals against agreed pass-and-fail criteria: a peak summer day, a full crowd, a wind event, a power interruption, a storm shutdown and restart, signed off before opening. Opening day is designed to be the second-hardest day the square has ever had.

contentsphase 6 | installation26
7
phase 7 | 4–6 weeks

Handover

Delivery ends with a living institution: an opening the region talks about, an operating team that owns the asset with confidence, and the documentation, warranties and strategy that keep the square alive for years.

contentsphase 7 | handover27
28 | open it. hand it over alive.

Open it.
Hand it over alive.

01

Launch show

The opening scripted as a broadcast moment: a show scenario for the square itself, with press choreography built in. Made to be covered, not just attended.

02

Programming strategy

How the square lives after opening night: curation and scheduling, seasonal programming and event formats. The rhythm that keeps an ordinary Tuesday worth the trip, delivering the programme of festivals and curated experience the district has promised.

03

Manuals & training

Plain-language operating and maintenance manuals and a trained local team. Capability handed over, not dependency retained, with warranties assigned and a defined defects-liability period standing behind the work.

04

PR strategy

The story of the square, told deliberately: staged reveals, the architecture and design press, and the regional moment around the opening.

05

Photo & video

The permanent professional record: the asset's marketing library and its historical document, captured before and at opening.

contentsphase 7 | handover28
29 | to begin

Three things
start the clock.

01

Site data

The existing packages: CAD, BIM and the 3D model, MEP capacity, structural and geotechnical records, wind and climate data, the construction programme with its access windows, the public-realm scope as contracted, and the LEED commissioning plan. Most of it exists today. Sharing it accelerates Discovery immediately.

02

A working session

One feasibility alignment workshop with the decision-makers in the room: the session this road map is built to serve.

03

A decision date

Set the concept gate date before the working session, not after. When the deadline exists, the preparation happens. Name that date and everything in this road map has something to run towards. Set it, and the calendar becomes real.

contentsoverview29
Marjan
RAK Central Square

Set the date,
and the calendar becomes real.

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