WATG to design world’s biggest resort in Egypt

American design firm WATG has won the contract to design the master plan for a 10,000 acre resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

The Sahl Hasheesh International Resort Community — which will comprise civic centres, a university, schools, a business park, villas and a hotel resort — is set to be the biggest resort development in the world.

WATG, the firm behind a number of high profile hospitality projects in Dubai and elsewhere in the Middle East, was chosen by the Egyptian Resorts Company (ERC) to design phase III of the development, having also won an international competition to design phase two of the scheme.

“It was important for the client to have a development that was viable,” said Perry Brown, senior vice president of WATG. “This master plan was originally only a resort community, but the client envisions a development that includes appropriate civic infrastructure to support the resort development.”

The vision for the master plan is to tell the story of Egypt’s heritage through the landscape design. The plan includes a landscape structure of open-space corridors that depict the history of Egypt, from its fertile valleys and desert oases to its rich history of civilisation throughout the centuries.

Source: Construction Week Online (http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-8391-watg-to-design-worlds-biggest-resort-in-egypt/)