Hudud Quarter — basalt-shadow arcade community at the southern boundary of the corridor, with civic plaza, market arcade and BRT shelters at the agricultural belt edge

33°25'29"N · 36°03'26"E · 931 m

Community 13 · The Boundary PHASE I · 2056★ Best-in-Class · Carbon

Hudud
Quarter.

الحُدُود · Al-Hudud — The Boundary, where city meets belt.

A 105-hectare basalt-shadow arcade community on the corridor's southern edge at 931 metres, branded "The Boundary" — where the urban corridor meets the agricultural belt. An iwan-arched civic gateway, the Bayt Al-Kalima book-and-souk spine, a healing garden, and a parking-reduced public realm. 20 percent below baseline carbon — the corridor's Best-in-Class sustainability profile.

Reserve Interest → See the Carbon Story

105HA

Quarter area

728KM²

Total GFA

12,400

Residents

−20%

Carbon vs baseline T0

Designed views

Begin

01The Place

A quarter on the boundary.

At 931 metres, on the corridor's southern edge ~22 km south-west of Damascus, Hudud Quarter sits where the urban corridor meets the agricultural belt. The site looks out over the southern plain to the south, back to Durra (the Pearl) on the high ridge to the north, and across to its sister village Anar a few hundred metres to the east. The wayfinding marker at the entry literally reads "THE BOUNDARY — Basalt Shadow Arcade Community" in cut brass on a low limestone wall.

الحُدُود, al-Hudud, means the boundaries — the edges, the limits, the threshold. In Damascene urbanism the boundary has always been a charged place: the wall between the city and the orchard, between the souk and the residential quarter, between the iwan and the courtyard. Hudud Quarter is built around that idea — every street section reads the boundary, every threshold is named.

The site is reached from the corridor expressway through an iwan-arched civic gateway — the masterplan's hero gesture, lit at night by hanging brass lanterns, mashrabiya screens in cut basalt and pale limestone. From the iwan, the civic plaza descends in three terraces to the boulevard; the basalt-shadow arcade runs north-south to the Bayt Al-Kalima souk spine; the healing garden sits at the southern threshold of the agricultural belt.

02The Vision

An iwan, a souk,
and the lowest
carbon profile.

Hudud answers the question the corridor has been carrying since Qabou: how low can the carbon profile go on a heritage-language masterplan? Qabou hit −19% with basalt arcades and a 1.28 MW solar canopy; Hudud goes one point further at −20% — the corridor's Best-in-Class result. The improvement comes not from energy strategy (electrification is shared across both) but from transportation: Hudud's parking footprint is reduced by 32% versus a no-strategy baseline, redirecting that area into the public realm, the healing garden, and the souk arcade.

The civic centrepiece is the iwan-arched gateway — basalt voussoirs over a deep limestone reveal, hanging brass lanterns, mashrabiya screens cut from a single Damascene pattern. The iwan opens to the civic plaza in three descending terraces; the lowest terrace reads back across the boulevard to the agricultural belt. Programmatically, the iwan carries the prayer hall and the civic offices; the plaza carries the Friday gathering and the market overflow.

The brand does not say "sustainable village". It says "الحُدُود" — the Boundary. The discipline is to make 105 hectares of programme read as one continuous threshold — the iwan as the urban gate, the arcade as the conversation, the healing garden as the soft exit toward the belt.

PRINCIPLE I

The iwan as urban threshold — basalt + limestone + brass.

PRINCIPLE II

Twenty percent below baseline — Best-in-Class.

PRINCIPLE III

Parking reduced 32% — public realm enlarged.

PRINCIPLE IV

Bayt Al-Kalima — the book at the centre of the souk.

03Programme · Area Details

728,000 m² of programme.

A 59-41 residential-community mix. Programme bands disclosed at gross floor area (GFA) and net interior area (NIA); the community share carries civic, retail, education, wellness, and the Bayt Al-Kalima book-souk spine.

Gross Floor Area

728KM²

Total programmable building envelope

Net Interior Area

573KM²

Usable floor inside the envelope

Hudud sits between Qabou (also basalt arcade) and Anar (sloped roof village) in scale and tenure. Residential at 59 percent of envelope GFA — 429,000 m² across courtyard blocks, walk-ups, and townhouses. Community at 41 percent — 299,000 m² across iwan + civic plaza, Bayt Al-Kalima souk, education, wellness, healing garden, mosque, and the reduced-footprint parking. The NIA-to-GFA efficiency runs at 78.7 percent.

Use type	% of GFA	GFA	NIA
Residential	59%	429,000 m²	334,000 m²
Community	41%	299,000 m²	239,000 m²
Site total	100%	728,000 m²	573,000 m²

Community share carries: 2,800 m² iwan + civic offices · 22,500 m² Bayt Al-Kalima souk arcade · 13,800 m² education · 8,400 m² wellness colonnade + healing garden building · 2,600 m² mosque + courtyard · 248,900 m² parking (reduced) and mechanical. T0

04Sustainability · 10-Year Carbon

A 20 percent reduction —
the corridor's Best-in-Class.

Ten-year tonnes of CO₂ equivalent for the as-designed quarter, compared against a baseline that applies no sustainability strategies. The reduction is driven by three strategies in combination — electrification, parking-footprint reduction, and sustainable material selection — the first masterplan in the corridor to combine all three on a single site.

★ Best-in-Class

−20%

vs no-strategy baseline

526K tCO₂e over 10 years

Emissions driver	Applied strategy	tCO₂e reduction	10Y tCO₂e
Energy usage	Electrification	−1%	346K
Transportation	Reduced parking	0%	72.9K
Materials used	Sustainable materials	−18%	107K
Total emissions	—	−20%	526K

Electrified heating saves ~11,400 MWh annually. The parking-footprint reduction (32% below baseline) is taken as ground-area returned to the public realm; the residual 248,900 m² of structured parking sits below grade or behind the souk arcade. The sustainable-materials programme matches Qabou's basalt/limestone/lime mortar/FSC-cedar palette for −18% embodied carbon. Combined: −20%. T0

05A Day in the Quarter

Coffee at 07:30.
Souk at noon.
Healing garden at dusk.

A day in Hudud runs by iwan shadow, market arcades, and the long descent toward the agricultural belt at sunset. The bakery opens at six; the bookshop at eight; the healing garden holds the last light.

08:30 · Morning

The civic steps.

The civic steps take the first descent. School children from the K-12 campus on the western edge cross the iwan plaza; office workers from Bayt Al-Kalima cross the other way. The view to the agricultural belt is long; the date-palms along the boulevard are catching the morning light.

Midday at the Bayt Al-Kalima book-and-souk arcade

13:30 · Midday

The book souk.

Bayt Al-Kalima — the House of the Word — takes the noon shadow. Bookshops, paper-and-ink ateliers, a small archive, café terraces under the basalt arcade. The midday crowd takes the shaded side; the bookshop windows fill with poetry; the Friday gathering is being set up across the iwan plaza.

19:00 · Dusk

The healing garden.

The healing garden holds the last light. The wellness colonnade closes; the rest pavilion takes the older visitors; the herb terraces release their scent into the cooling air. Beyond the boundary wall, the orchards drop into the southern plain. The iwan lights come on; the night arcades open.

06Residences · Two Typologies

Courtyard block.
Souk townhouse.

T4 · Courtyard Block

The Block.

Mid-rise courtyard apartment blocks above a two-storey podium of retail and daycare. Inner courts feed every apartment with cross-ventilation; podium roofs carry private terraces and solar canopies. Sized for working families.

2,440DU

Units

5–7F

Storeys

96DU/HA

Density

Inner courtyard · daylight on three sides
Basalt plinth · limestone elevation · timber screens
Active podium frontage on the souk arcade
Sizes · 66 / 92 / 124 / 156 m²
Mix · studio → 3-bed family

T3 · Souk Townhouse

The Souk House.

Three-storey townhouses on inner-cell lanes branching off the Bayt Al-Kalima spine. Each carries a private rear court, a roof terrace, and an arcade-frontage day room that can be opened as a small bookshop, workshop or studio. Sized for multigenerational households.

740DU

Units

Storeys

68DU/HA

Density

Rear private court · roof terrace · arcade day room
Mashrabiya-screened upper balconies
Basalt plinth · limestone façade · bronze hardware
Sizes · 124 / 162 / 198 / 236 m²
Mix · 3-bed → 5-bed multigenerational

07Connectivity · The Site, Today

A boundary on the southern edge.
Anar 480 m east. Durra 5.6 km north.

Hudud sits at the corridor's southern boundary, with Anar village immediately east and Durra on the higher ridge to the north. Two BRT stations bookend the spine; a tree-lined approach road links to the corridor expressway.

SATELLITE Open in Google Maps ↗

DAMASCUS OLD CITY

22.6KM

By corridor expressway · ~28 min

BRT · STATION 13N (IWAN)

160M

Northern iwan plaza · 6-min headway

BRT · STATION 13S (HEALING GARDEN)

220M

Southern boundary · 6-min headway

ANAR QUARTER · COMMUNITY 12

0.48KM

East · 6 min on foot · pomegranate village

DURRA QUARTER · COMMUNITY 06

5.6KM

North · 11 min by shuttle · pearl ridge

PARKING REDUCTION

−32%

Below baseline · returned to public realm

09Specifications

The numbers,
in one place.

Project Name

KETURAH Hudud Quarter · "The Boundary"

Arabic Name

حي الحُدُود · مجمع ظل البازلت

Community Number

13 · The Boundary · Basalt Shadow Arcade

Sustainability

★ Best-in-Class (corridor) · −20% vs no-strategy baseline

Coordinates

33°25'29.15"N · 36°03'26.85"E

Elevation

931 m above sea level · southern band edge

Location

Corridor's southern boundary · ~22.6 km SW of Damascus old city

Site Area

105 hectares

Total GFA

728,000 m² (59-41 residential-community mix)

Total NIA

573,000 m² (78.7% NIA / GFA efficiency)

Residential GFA

429,000 m² (59% · 334K m² NIA · ~3,180 dwellings)

Community GFA

299,000 m² (41% · 239K m² NIA · civic, souk, education, wellness, mosque, parking)

Iwan + Civic

2,800 m² civic offices + prayer hall · three-terrace plaza · basalt voussoirs

Bayt Al-Kalima Souk

22,500 m² over 540 m of arcade spine · bookshops + paper-and-ink ateliers

Healing Garden

3 ha wellness garden at southern boundary · rest pavilion + olive grove

10-Year tCO₂e

526,000 tCO₂e (−20% vs no-strategy baseline · Best-in-Class)

Energy Strategy

Full electrification · 11,400 MWh saved annually

Transportation Strategy

Reduced parking · 32% below baseline · area returned to public realm

Materials Strategy

Sustainable materials · −18% embodied carbon · 107K 10Y tCO₂e

Material Palette

Basalt voussoirs · limestone reveals · brass lanterns · mashrabiya · Lebanese cedar · lime mortar

BRT Connection

Stations 13N (Iwan) and 13S (Healing Garden) · 6-min headway

Phase Mapping

Phase I · 2056 — 2061 (southern boundary)

Status

Master Plan v1.0 · pre-construction · evidence stage

Hudud Quarter — orthographic site plan at dawn

Reserve Interest · Phase I · 2056

The boundary
opens in 2056.

Hudud Quarter is the corridor's heritage-sustainable anchor at the southern boundary — 105 hectares of basalt-shadow arcade, 728,000 m² of programme, 20% carbon below baseline (the corridor's Best-in-Class), the iwan-arched civic gateway, and Bayt Al-Kalima — the book at the centre of the souk. First registrations are open to verified counterparties — sovereign anchors, foundation patrons, qualified institutional and individual purchasers.

Request Diligence Pack → Anar Quarter Qabou Quarter All Masterplans

Hudud
Quarter.

A quarter on the boundary.

Iwan north. Belt south. Arcade through.
Where the city ends and the orchard begins.

An iwan, a souk,
and the lowest
carbon profile.

Basalt voussoirs over a limestone reveal.
The masterplan's most photographed room.

728,000 m² of programme.

A 20 percent reduction —
the corridor's Best-in-Class.