Mind Garden Quarter — aerial of the corridor's knowledge and innovation core, mid-rise stone fabric with library and civic spine

33°29'41.63"N · 36°08'20.77"E · 1,036 m

Community 10 · Knowledge & Innovation Core PHASE F · 2047

Mind Garden
Quarter.

حديقة العقل · The Garden of the Mind — the corridor's knowledge core.

An 88-hectare T6 mixed-use density quarter at 1,036 metres on the As-Salboura plateau, holding the corridor's largest concentration of office and research floor area. 788,000 m² total gross floor area — 406K office, 190K residential, 9.56K retail, 309K parking — delivered with a 29 percent carbon reduction over the no-strategy baseline.

Reserve Interest → See the Programme

88HA

Site area

788KM²

Total GFA

406KM²

Office GFA

−29%

Carbon vs baseline T0

100

Designed views

Begin

01The Place

A plateau
that thinks.

On the As-Salboura plateau at 1,036 metres, the corridor's second-highest site after Durra, the Mind Garden Quarter sits along the western flank of the plateau between Sabboura and Bustan. The view is generous; the sightlines are long; the wind moves predictably through the rows of Lebanese cedar and mountain pine planted to mark the corridor's first knowledge district.

This is the Mind Garden — حديقة العقل, Hadiqat al-'Aql. The corridor's first explicitly knowledge-and-innovation core: 406,000 square metres of office floor area, a major civic library, a heritage-pavilion teaching cluster referencing Aleppo, Damascus, Palmyra, Bosra, Hama, and Maaloula, and the densest residential offering on the plateau. The fabric is mid-rise Damascene stone over a four-storey podium that carries the parking below grade and the retail above it.

The site relates to the corridor's earlier office programme — Bawaba (95,000 m² office GFA) and Olive Grove (72,000 m²) — by adding 406,000 m² in a single contiguous T6 footprint. By Phase F, the corridor's office capacity reaches 573,000 m². Mind Garden is where the corridor finally has its working address at scale.

02The Vision

The corridor's working
address, at last.

Mind Garden answers a structural question the corridor has been carrying since Phase A: where does the working day go when the population reaches a million? Bawaba seeded the office programme; Olive Grove deepened it; Mind Garden delivers it at T6 density. Six office anchors arranged around the central library, with the residential fabric on the perimeter and a four-storey podium carrying retail, daycare, gym, and 309,000 m² of below-grade parking.

The civic centrepiece is the library — a 4,000 m² reading room with a reflective court and three colonnaded reading terraces. The library is the only building in the quarter visible from every street section; the master geometry is centripetal. The heritage-pavilion teaching cluster references the six Syrian cities (Aleppo, Damascus, Palmyra, Bosra, Hama, Maaloula) — each pavilion is a small studio plus an outdoor court, sized for university seminars, advanced craft, or studio practice.

The brand does not say "office campus". It says "حديقة العقل" — the Garden of the Mind. The discipline is to make 788,000 m² of programme read as a single deeply-planted garden, with the buildings sitting in the planting rather than dominating it.

PRINCIPLE I

A working address at T6 density.

PRINCIPLE II

Library at the centre, garden through.

PRINCIPLE III

Twenty-nine percent below baseline carbon.

PRINCIPLE IV

Heritage pavilions teach by reference.

03Programme · Area Details

788,000 m² of programme.

A T6 mixed-use density mix dominated by office. Programme bands disclosed at gross floor area (GFA) and net interior area (NIA); GFA percentages reflect each use's share of the building envelope.

Gross Floor Area

788KM²

Total programmable building envelope

Net Interior Area

620KM²

Usable floor inside the envelope

Mind Garden is the corridor's first T6-density single masterplan. Office leads at 51 percent of envelope GFA; residential follows at 24 percent. Parking sits below grade at 39 percent — large because the FAR is high and the surface is held for the garden. Retail and mechanical rounds round out the mix.

Use type	% of GFA	GFA	NIA
Office	51%	406,000 m²	324,000 m²
Parking	39%	309,000 m²	134,000 m²
Residential	24%	190,000 m²	154,000 m²
Mechanical	4%	30,200 m²	0 m²
Retail	1%	9,560 m²	7,650 m²
Site total	100%	788,000 m²	620,000 m²

Use percentages reflect the share of envelope GFA. Use bands overlap vertically — parking sits below grade beneath office and residential above. T0

04Sustainability · 10-Year Carbon

A 29 percent reduction
over the no-strategy baseline.

Ten-year tonnes of CO₂ equivalent for the as-designed quarter, compared against a baseline that applies no sustainability strategies. Reductions come from two drivers: full electrification (energy) and sustainable material selection (embodied carbon).

−29%

vs no-strategy baseline

509K tCO₂e over 10 years

Emissions driver	Applied strategy	tCO₂e reduction	10Y tCO₂e
Energy usage	Electrification	−1%	320K
Transportation	None	0%	32.4K
Materials used	Sustainable materials	−28%	157K
Total emissions	—	−29%	509K

Electrified heating reduces site energy by ~5,350 MWh annually. Sustainable materials reduce overall emissions by 28%. Impact numbers compare this design to a no-strategy baseline. Transportation reduction is deferred to the corridor-wide BRT spine, which is not yet operational at the quarter level when this comparison is run. T0

05A Day in the Quarter

Coffee at 08:10.
Library at noon.
Garden at sunset.

A working day in Mind Garden runs by office hours, library cycles, and the long sunset over the plateau. Three offices on the ridge open before fajr; the library opens at eight; the souk boulevard fills at six.

08:10 · Morning

The library.

The library opens at eight. The reading garden takes the first coffee crowd; the upper reading terraces fill by ten. Students from the heritage pavilions cross the plaza on their way to seminar rooms. The civic plaza carries the day's first deliveries through.

13:30 · Midday

The boulevard.

The souk boulevard takes the office lunch break. Olive-oil press, fresh market, restaurant terraces, pharmacy. Office workers cross diagonally between coworking floors above retail. Children walk back from school on the shaded side.

18:30 · Sunset

The olive grove.

The central olive grove takes the last light. Workers leaving the office drift through the planted alleys; families gather on the stone benches. The library's reading lamps come on; the heritage pavilions' second sessions begin. Maghrib carries from the quarter mosque.

06Residences · Two Typologies

Apartment.
Townhouse cluster.

T4 · Apartment Block

The Block.

Mid-rise apartment blocks above a four-storey podium. Active podium ground floor (retail / café / daycare); residential lobbies on the upper podium level; living floors above with deep south-facing balconies and mashrabiya screens. Sized for working professionals and small families.

1,580DU

Units

6–8F

Storeys

110DU/HA

Density

Active podium frontage · public realm at street
Roof terrace per stack · podium-level garden
Stone + bronze fluting · mashrabiya panels
Sizes · 62 / 86 / 118 / 154 m²
Mix · studio → 3-bed

T3 · Townhouse Cluster

The Cluster.

Three-storey townhouses on inner-cell lanes, each with a private rear court, a separable ground-floor granny flat, and a roof terrace. Sized for multigenerational households. Lanes are pedestrian-priority and tree-lined; the cluster sits between the apartment blocks and the central olive grove.

620DU

Units

Storeys

72DU/HA

Density

Private rear court · roof terrace · granny flat
Mashrabiya-screened balconies
Stone façade · timber doors · bronze hardware
Sizes · 124 / 158 / 196 / 232 m²
Mix · 3-bed → 5-bed multigenerational

07Connectivity · The Site, Today

A working address on the plateau.
All five plateau communities within 2 km.

Mind Garden sits between Bustan (south-west) and Maqam (north-east) on the As-Salboura plateau, with a dedicated BRT shuttle linking all five plateau communities. The corridor's second-highest elevation, after Durra.

SATELLITE Open in Google Maps ↗

DAMASCUS OLD CITY

16.4KM

By corridor expressway · ~22 min

BRT · STATION 10 · IN-QUARTER

280M

Civic plaza-side · 6-min headway

BUSTAN QUARTER · COMMUNITY 03

1.3KM

South-west · 18 min on foot · belt edge

MAQAM QUARTER · COMMUNITY 02

2.0KM

North-east · 22 min by shuttle

QASR QUARTER · COMMUNITY 09

2.7KM

North-west · 28 min by shuttle

ELEVATION

1,036M

Second-highest in corridor · plateau view

09Specifications

The numbers,
in one place.

Project Name

KETURAH Mind Garden Quarter

Arabic Name

حي حديقة العقل · غابة الزيتون

Community Number

10 · Knowledge & Innovation Core

Coordinates

33°29'41.63"N · 36°08'20.77"E

Elevation

1,036 m above sea level · second highest in corridor

Location

As-Salboura plateau, western flank · ~16 km W of Damascus

Site Area

88 hectares

Total GFA

788,000 m² (largest single-masterplan envelope in corridor)

Total NIA

620,000 m² (78.7% NIA / GFA efficiency)

Office GFA

406,000 m² (51% of envelope · corridor's largest)

Residential GFA

190,000 m² (24% · ~2,200 dwellings at ~70 m² NIA avg)

Parking GFA

309,000 m² (39% · below-grade for the central garden)

Retail GFA

9,560 m² (1% · daily-needs + café terraces)

Civic Anchors

4,000 m² library · six heritage-craft pavilions · K-12 + craft school · quarter mosque

10-Year tCO₂e

509,000 tCO₂e (−29% vs no-strategy baseline)

Energy Strategy

Full electrification · saves ~5,350 MWh annually

Materials Strategy

Sustainable materials · −28% embodied carbon

Material Palette

Limestone · basalt · timber mashrabiya · bronze · ablaq banding

BRT Connection

Station S10 · 280 m · plateau shuttle to S01–S09

Phase Mapping

Phase F · 2047 — 2053 (corridor's knowledge anchor)

Status

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

Mind Garden Quarter — hero masterplan at blue hour

Reserve Interest · Phase F · 2047

The working address
opens in 2047.

Mind Garden Quarter is the corridor's knowledge and innovation core — 406,000 m² of office GFA, a 4,000 m² central library, six heritage-craft pavilions, T6 mixed-use density, 29% carbon reduction. First registrations are open to verified counterparties — sovereign anchors, foundation patrons, qualified institutional and individual purchasers.

Request Diligence Pack → Qasr Quarter Bawaba Quarter All Masterplans

Mind Garden
Quarter.

A plateau
that thinks.

Three civic axes, one knowledge spine.
Library at the centre. Office anchors at the corners.

The corridor's working
address, at last.

A reading room that opens to the plateau.
Four thousand square metres of public mind.

788,000 m² of programme.

A 29 percent reduction
over the no-strategy baseline.